IT WILL be a case of friends reunited for Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman when the Reds travel to Portsmouth for this afternoon’s League Two clash.

Coleman will come up against two ex-Stanley managers in Pompey boss Paul Cook, who also played for Burnley, and his assistant Leam Richardson.

With former Stanley players Kal Naismith and Gary Roberts also in the Portsmouth squad, Coleman will not be short of handshakes at Fratton Park.

But the Reds chief, whose side head into the clash five points and 11 places behind Pompey in the early season tables, is targeting success on the South Coast for the second season in a row after winning 3-2 in December 2014.

“They have assembled a good squad but we will go there with a game plan and, if we stick to it, we have a great chance to win. We did it last year,” said Coleman.

“It’s the first time I have faced Paul as Accrington manager.

“I faced him once when he was Accrington manager, but it’s not me against Paul or Jimmy (Bell) against Leam.

“We will probably have a cup of tea before the game and a glass of wine after and it will have no bearing on the game.

“Portsmouth have some good players and Paul says there is a lot of hype around them as, because of what he did at Chesterfield, they are favourites to win every game and go up.”

And Coleman believes he played a role in Cook and Richardson’s success, the pair guided Chesterfield into the League One play-offs last season having won promotion the previous season.

“I would like to think working with Jimmy and I gave him (Cook) an appetite for management. I would like to think we were role models,” said Coleman.

“He has done fantastically well and we would like to think we played a part in that. He has gone to places which, by his own admission, have financial clout and he has taken them one step further. He has assembled good, attractive sides.

“Leam didn’t play for me as much as I would have liked due to injuries but I would like to think we also helped him on his way.

“When Leam was manager at Accrington we gave him a lot of advice but he stood on his own two feet, galvanised them and kept them up.”