KAL Naismith has been told to take as much time off as he needs by Accrington Stanley after the death of his girlfriend last week.

Ashley Dickson, 22, died in Glasgow on Thursday after a battle with a long-term illness.

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Naismith, also 22, was sent home by Stanley boss John Coleman. He has been told to only return to the club when he feels ready.

The former Rangers man missed Stanley’s 2-1 defeat at Stevenage on Saturday and will also be absent when they take on Hartlepool United at the Store First Stadium tonight.

The Glasgow-born attacker, who represented Scotland at U16s and U17s level, has made 54 appearances for Stanley since signing for the club in August last year.

On the pitch, Coleman is keen to see his side respond when they welcome Pools tonight.

He branded Saturday’s display “unacceptable”.

“It was all over the pitch, we sat too deep, we didn’t ever once really engage in a physical battle,” said Coleman.

“Plenty of our players limped today through late challenges.

“I am not advocating late challenges, but I didn’t see any of their players limping.

“I can’t remember us giving too many fouls away for bad challenges yet seen four or five of us getting absolutely wiped out and that was because they wanted it more than us.

“When any one of our teams get beat like that, I take it personally because we set up a team to always try and play football.

“But the first mantra is you have got to earn the right to play football we have got to compete.

“They out-battled us.”

Hartlepool have won just once in their last eight games and are only one place above the League Two relegation zone.

Stanley won three games in a row following Coleman’s return to the club for a second spell in charge.

But that momentum has been halted with successive defeats to Dagenham and Redbridge and Stevenage.

Those losses have seen the Reds slide to 18th in the league, and they are back to looking over their shoulders, having spoken of targeting the play-offs a couple of weeks ago.

“A lot of home truths have had to be told in the dressing room,” said Coleman.

“Since I left I have watched a team – one which was on a massive climb in the last two years when I was there – steadily decline and battle relegation year after year and I haven’t come back to fight relegation.

“I thought we had we had enough about us to change the mentality overnight but we haven’t because that performance showed everything I abhor in football and everything I find unacceptable.”