can't access dashboard on localhost site

Hello

I have recently installed a wordpress site after about a week of failed installs. Last night I got to the stage where I could access the site dashboard and the theme was in place etc. Today I have tried to get back into the site but when I type:

http://localhost:8888/wp-login.php or http://localhost:8888/wp-admin.php or any variants of http://localhost:8888/accelerate all I get is the wp login without any styling which when I type my username and password in just returns an error message ( failed to open page ).

I don’t understand this at all as it was working fine last night and I haven’t changed anything at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Nick