JOHN Coleman wasn't afraid to tell his players in pre-season that promotion was the target, but the first time Reds boss mentioned the title to his charges was just eight games ago.

A point from their final three games will seal top spot in League Two for Stanley, with the first shot at glory coming at Newport County on Tuesday night.

But the target looked a long way off when Coleman's men sat 10th on New Year's Day. However, by early March the Wham Stadium boss was telling his players that the title was in sight, insisting a win at then table-topping Luton Town would put them in with a chance of crowning the campaign with promotion and silverware.

The Reds responded, winning 2-1 at the Hatters. Six wins from seven have followed as part of a wider run of 17 wins and just one defeat from 20 games and now a group Coleman describes as the best he's ever worked with stand on the brink of the title.

"When we were going to Luton we said ‘if we can win this today, we’ve got a great chance of winning the league’. That was the first thought of winning the league," he said.

"They’ve been outstanding since, I can’t fault them. They’re the best group of lads I’ve ever worked with and I’ve worked with some smashing players.

"These are a great group, there’s no bad eggs, they’re all smashing lads and a pleasure to work with."

Stanley have taken 53 points from a possible 60 since defeat to Carlisle on Boxing Day, which was their fifth straight reverse, and Coleman has urged his side to ride out the 'once in a lifetime' streak until the end of the season.

"I’m probably never going to have this run again in my lifetime, the players are probably never going to have this run again in their lifetime, so you’ve got to enjoy it, embrace it and hopefully prolong it," he said.

"We’ve got three games to go and we’d like to stay unbeaten until the end of the season. That won’t be easy, we've got three difficult games.

"We slipped to 10th on New Year's Day when our game against Morecambe got abandoned. To get ourselves top of the league from there is testament to how hard the players have worked.

"We’ve had a couple of smashing runs here. Two seasons ago we had an electric run where we went the last 17 games unbeaten.

"We know we generally finish the season strong, but we’ve never finished as strong as this."

The run of form has added an extra spring to the step of Stanley's players and Coleman has wanted to see that swagger in his side since observing early promotion favourites Mansfield at the Wham Stadium back in August.

"The players are going into games 10 feet tall. That’s what we set out at the start, we had to act like promotion contenders," Coleman said.

"I saw Mansfield when they came here early in the season, I know we won the game, but they had this swagger about them, this belief that they were a top side.

"When you act like that it doesn’t half go a long way. You need to win games to back it up, there’s no point in sticking your chest out and getting beat."