Coley demands no distractions
ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman admits the landscape of League Two can change in an instant due to how close all of the teams challenging for promotion are.
Following Stanley’s 2-0 win at Cheltenham on Saturday, just two points currently separates the Reds in third place with Swindon Town in ninth position.
Coleman is well aware of how tight things are at the moment, but ahead of the weekend’s home game against Port Vale, he insisted his side have to focus solely on themselves and can’t afford to be distracted by what others are doing.
“I think that all of the play-off places being separated by goal difference last week tells you everything that you need to know about this league,” he told the club’s official website.
“It means that every time you play there’s a good chance that the teams around you are playing each other, on Saturday I think there were six out of the top nine playing one other.
“We won’t put pressure on ourselves but we will try to build on our performances of the last couple of weeks and try to put ourselves in the strongest possible position.
“Every game we play is going to be difficult, we know that and accept that and you we have just got to kick on. We have got to take every opportunity because the league is so tight.
“Every game you play, if you can keep your nose clean and do your own business, you are going to get boosts because not everyone can win.
“We knew if we won at Cheltenham at least three teams would be worse off than us out of thee top nine because six of them were playing each other.
“I think we made ground on five of the six teams around us so we’ve just got to keep doing that.”
New Stanley signings Offrande Zanzala and Akeel Francis were part of the squad that beat Cheltenham on Saturday, and Coleman is excited to see what the two new forwards can do.
“They are both keen to come here and score goals and that’s what we need at our club,” he said. “They’re both strong runners, they work very hard and they both want to get themselves into goalscoring positions.”
Stanley also signed Watford defender Charlie Rowan on loan while winger Danny Williams, a free agent, also signed terms.
Rowan, 20, was previously captain of Watford’s under-18 team and will stay with Stanley until the end of the season.
Williams left Dundee, for whom he made 31 appearances, in November. The 29-year-old, who also played 108 games for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, has signed a shortterm contract.
‘We won’t put pressure on ourselves but we will try to build on our performances’