“BRING it on!” That’s the message from John Coleman as his Accrington Stanley side prepare to kick-off life in League One.

The Reds made the step up as League Two champions, with Gillingham the visitors on the opening day of the season tomorrow (kick-off 3pm).

Stanley, who like last season will be operating with the division’s lowest budget, have already been earmarked as the bookmakers’ favourites to go down.

But Coleman insists both he and his players are ready to once again defy the odds.

“I expect us to be favourites to be relegated, that’s no shock.

“But I don’t see how you can finish (18) points above a team (Coventry) and be classed as worse than them the following season. I don’t understand how that happens.

“But the bookmakers are continually wrong with Accrington Stanley aren’t they?

“We were 6/1 to beat Huddersfield at home in the first pre-season friendly, 9/2 to beat Middlesbrough in the next and 6/4 to beat Blackburn in the next one so we’ve already proved them wrong three times and it’s only been pre-season!

“It’s always good to win games but I certainly won’t be getting carried away with them. We have to get ourselves hitting the ground running. We’ve got a great bunch of lads who continually have a go for us and that’s all you can ask for. But the results help, of course.

“They believe they are good players, they’re playing against good players and they know they’re doing well.”

There is another point to prove for Coleman, on a personal front.

“My last venture into League One didn’t quite end the way I would have wanted it,” said the Stanley boss, who suffered relegation with Rochdale after he and assistant Jimmy Bell left the Reds in 2012.

“But hopefully we can replicate mine and Jimmy’s first game in League One, which was a resounding 3-0 home win (against Bury).”

Asked if he felt it was a big step up in standard, having experienced it, previously, Coleman added: “I don’t think so.

“If you name some of the teams in League One, Gillingham we’ve been there and won, Bristol Rovers we’ve been there and won, Bradford we’ve been there and won, Shrewsbury we’ve been there and won, Wimbledon been there and won, Wycombe been there and won, Luton been there and won. That’s just off the top of my head. So there’s nothing to fear.

“We’ve just got to respect the teams because we’re at a different level now, they’ve all strengthened, and we’ve strengthened. It’s a case of bring it on really.

“We’ve had a decent pre-season and we’ve got players who are in form so hopefully we can carry it on into the main show as opposed to the dress rehearsals.”