JOHN Coleman admits he will have to regulate his targets for next season, but they will be bigger than just survival.

The Accrington Stanley manager told his players they were playing for promotion before a ball had been kicked or warm-up run carried out on the first day of pre-season last year.

The Reds boss, voted League Two manager of the year - and on the League Managers’ Association’s shortlist alongside Pep Guardiola and Sean Dyche, admitted he would not be so bullish as to aim for a repeat in League One next year.

But he insists he will take a positive approach as they prepare for life at a higher level.

“We won’t be saying ‘we want to try to stay up’ that’s for sure because if you set your ambitions as finishing fifth from bottom I don’t think you’re giving yourself much leeway.

“I think you’ve got to aim high and we’ve got to look at the model that Burton and Shrewsbury have set and try to emulate them.”

Shrewsbury are one game away from a place in the Championship, going head to head with Rotherham on Sunday, while Burton will be back in League One after a season in the Championship last term.

But their stories resonate with Coleman and Stanley as both were Conference opponents before Stanley returned to the Football League in 2006.

After winning the Conference, Coleman said he always felt there was another promotion in the club, and he was proud to achieve it in his second spell as manager, after leaving to join Rochdale in January 2012.

The Stanley boss, who has now guided the club to four promotions - all as champions - added: “I always said if we got promoted I fancied us to win the league because that’s the way we did it.

“I set out to get promoted. I didn’t think we’d be capable of winning the league as handsomely as what we have.

“To win the league with a game to spare by three points is a remarkable achievement.”

More so considering Accrington Stanley were in the third tier of non-league football when Coleman first arrived at the club in 1999.

He refutes the suggestion he is a one club man, only able to achieve success with the Reds. But he admits he has a special relationship with the club.

“People will say ‘this is his level, this is what he can do’,” said Coleman. “I don’t think that’s the case but what I do know is that I understand this club inside out. I know the mechanics of it, I know what makes it tick, I know what makes the fans tick.

“And so if you want to call me a best fit for this club – myself and Jimmy (Bell) – so be it, but I know that we’re capable of doing our job and thankfully we’ve got the opportunity again at Accrington and thankfully we’ve done it.”

He added: “We’re enjoying the fruits of their labour.

“If you work hard for something and you get it, it’s so much more satisfying than getting handed it, and our lads have worked their socks off.”