John Coleman praised two ‘special’ goals as his Accrington side boosted their play-off hopes with a 2-0 win over fellow promotion challengers AFC Wimbledon in Sky Bet League Two.

Jack Nolan curled the ball in from the edge of the area on 50 minutes and Ben Woods blasted home from 25 yards with nine minutes remaining to make the win safe and move 12th-placed Stanley to within two points of the top seven – two places below their opponents.

In between, Manchester United loan keeper Radek Vitek pulled off a double save to keep out unmarked Kofi Balmer’s header and then cleared Lee Brown’s follow-up with his feet. He also denied Harry Pell near the end.

Coleman said: “It’s an important three points. It was a typical League Two game played on a lively pitch.

“It wasn’t conducive to a lot of football being played but we stuck to our task well and scored two great goals to win it.

“We got ourselves into areas where we can have shots and when you do that, eventually they are going to go in.

“We have had games this season where we have had 25-plus shots and not scored. There were not too many on target tonight but the ones that were, were special.

“That’s clean sheets in three out of our last four games and Radek has made a wonderful save. It’s moments of brilliance which win you games at both ends of the pitch.

“The word at half-time was belief, we have to believe we are going to win this game and we showed that.”

AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson said: “We are disappointed. There wasn’t a lot in the game but we lost to two worldie strikes.

“The table shows we are evenly matched and this is a difficult place to come to. To take something out of the game we needed something out of the ordinary and they did that with their two moments of quality.

“We arguably had the two best chances but we couldn’t take them. We didn’t create enough and, in games like this, you want to come away with something and 0-0 is never a bad result but their two worldies were the difference.

“We are in a good place, we have been on a good run. Last time we took a punch like this we responded well and we have two home games coming up.

“We have been strong at home this season with six wins out of seven and we have to take this on the chin and move on. It is frustrating but we have full belief we can respond.”