Coley’s quick plan of action for Reds
‘Everything is in place for is to go forward – instead of looking over our shoulder we can reach for the stars’
ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman is not expecting much of a rest after guiding the club to its best finish since 1958.
The Reds beat Portsmouth 1-0 at Fratton Park on Sunday as the League One campaign drew to a close. In doing so they secured their best finish to a season in more than half a century – but boss Coley won’t be dwelling long on that.
The gaffer is already eyeing next season’s League One campaign and wants his ducks lined up as soon as possible.
“I’d like a rest but I don’t think I can have that because I’ve got quite a bit of transfer business to do and I want to get that done as early as possible. I want to start pre-season with a squad that I know is settled,” he said, adding that the club can attract a better quality of player than ever before given the infrastructure in place..
“It couldn’t be a better time to come to Accrington,” he said.
“We are starting to attract top players from top clubs, we’ve got a new training ground for the first time in twenty years with a hundred-year lease, so that’s not going to get taken off us, the ground has been totally renovated, new office, the pitch is getting done and we’ve been told by the chairman that we don’t have to sell!
“So everything is in place for us to go forward – instead of looking over our shoulder we can look and reach for the stars.”
Stanley have worked the loan system to good effect this season and while bringing the likes of Nathan Baxter, Jon Russell and Tariq Uwakwe to the club permanently might be beyond Coley’s powers of persuasion, he is looking to pull more rabbits out of the hat for next season.
“You have to do a lot of wheeling and dealing on that score (making loan moves permanent),” he said.
“I like to have control of everything footballrelated at the club and I think that’s the best way forward for our club so ultimately I am in charge of recruitment and that’s why I won’t get too many easy days in the summer.”
Stanley’s 1-0 win at the weekend denied Pompey a place in the play-offs and while Coleman expressed sympathy for the Cowley brothers, he said it was imperative Stanley did their best to close the season with a positive result.
“We showed battling qualities and we were determined not to have a label suggesting we’d come here and rolled over,” he said.
“I feel for Danny and Nicky (Cowley), they are really enthusiastic lads who love football. They remind me a lot of myself and Jimmy (Bell) when we first started.
“It’s no fun raining on people’s parades but we had to try and win for our own sanity and try to finish in the top half. It’s the highest we’ve finished since 1958.
“I was really pleased with the first half performance and disappointed with the second half if I’m being truthful – we gave the ball away too cheaply, we panicked and we just wanted to get rid of the ball and we thought the best way of doing it was to kick it back to them, which just invited more pressure.
“We have got to learn from those situations. We know we’ve had quite a decent season – it could have been better and should have been better – but I can’t praise the lads enough.
“They have run through brick walls for me all season and there’s never been a doubt about their effort, even the game we lost 7-0 to Peterborough, our running stats were still very high.
“We never threw the towel in and the fact we have beaten so many of the top teams is testament to how good a squad we’ve got. We possibly missed a chance this year, but we’ve another chance next season.
“The way we’re playing – unbeaten in five against top teams – if the season had been going on for another two months you’d have been fancying us.”