Stanley boss John Coleman says there is still belief in the dressing room that they can beat the drop despite losing 5-0 at Exeter.

The deadlock was broken in fine fashion after 36 minutes when Demetri Mitchell cut in from the left and curled a wonderful shot beyond goalkeeper Lukas Jensen and into the far corner with his right foot from 20 yards.

It took Exeter four minutes after the restart to double their lead as Josh Key superbly took down Will Aimson’s long pass, beat his man and smashed his shot past Jensen.

Two quickly became three as Alex Hartridge’s effort was tipped on to the bar by Jensen, but Sam Nombe was on hand to tap in on the line with 55 minutes on the clock.

Substitute James Scott made it 4-0 after 76 minutes with his first goal for the club. He played a nice one-two with Jay Stansfield before placing the ball beautifully into the corner from 20 yards.

Stansfield wrapped up the result eight minutes from time, cutting in from the left and drilling past Jensen.

“We didn’t play well and they played well. That is the harsh assessment of the game and that is the fact,” said Coleman.

“We were very much in the game 37 minutes, but we hadn’t really laid a glove on them.

“They put one over the bar, but we were coping with them. But you don’t come in football matches just to cope, we have got to start hurting teams and we are not doing that at the moment.

“After the first goal went in, we regrouped and got to half time. We made three positive subs in my opinion trying to get a foothold in the game, and after three minutes it all goes out of the window.

“We have had a good chat in there with the players. The skipper gave a rallying cry saying that we are not going down and the will of this club will keep us up, but we need to start showing that with the performances.”