JOHN Coleman has warned his Accrington Stanley side not to be lulled into a false sense of security by their last two results.

The Reds have eased themselves away from the relegation trouble that five straight defeats cast them into with back-to-back wins over Oxford and Southend.

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Last weekend’s win on the south coast, putting a dent in the Shrimpers’ promotion push, was particularly impressive.

But Coleman said: “I made a throwaway comment the other week, in jest, that we hadn’t become a bad team overnight and that it had taken two or three weeks. Equally, you don’t become a good team overnight or from two or three good results.

“You have to have faith in what you’re trying to do and trying to achieve and the players have to buy into that and see where that takes you.

“You just have to prepare your players as much as you can and give yourselves as good an opportunity as you can to be successful. You can also play a style of football that keeps you in the opposition’s half and allows things to break for you and see where that takes you, but even that might not be enough.”

But he said the players had, rightly, taken confidence from their last result in particular.

“We’re in the league on merit and we know we can compete against any side,” he said.

“We’ve always shown that and there’s no reason why we should stop doing that now.”

Meanwhile, Coleman is hoping to benefit from the feelgood factor that Friday night football has brought the club in recent seasons.

While results have not always gone there way, Stanley have generally welcomed more through the turnstiles when they steal a march on the weekend fixtures, than in the previous weekend home game.

“The extra numbers can make a big difference,” said Coleman. “I’ve always liked night games because I like the atmosphere.

“I used to love going to watch night games when I was a kid, I used to love playing in night games as a player and so it’s just a natural progression for me. I hope the players buy into that too.”

He added: “We can’t govern how many come in. We can try to put in performances on the pitch that encourage people to come.”