ACCRINGTON Stanley’s management team have called for an increased playing budget next season if the club are to challenge for promotion.

John Coleman had his budget cut by 25 per cent this term because of financial problems at Stanley, who travel to Darlington in League Two this afternoon.

But Coleman still led the team into play-off contention before recent disastrous form has seen them slip into the bottom half.

Next year’s budget is yet to be finalised but assistant manager Jimmy Bell has urged the purse strings to be loosened - even if he does not realistically expect new backer Ilyas Khan to provide money for transfer fees.

“I don’t think we’ll have money to spend but hopefully the budget will be more,” said Bell.

“It has to be. We said months ago that we needed to strengthen because we had a young squad, but even we didn’t think they would fade in this fashion.”