ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman has targeted more awards for his side this season after becoming the first Reds chief to win the manager of the month award in the Football League.

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Coleman won the League Two honour after taking 13 points from a possible 15 in September, a month that included tricky away trips to Portsmouth and Bristol Rovers.

It is the first time a Stanley manager has won the award since they were promoted to the Football League in 2006.

Coleman believes the honour is more for his players than it is for him, but suggests a couple more accolades will mean his side will be in the promotion shake-up come May.

“It’s a team effort and a good compliment of how well the staff and the players have done, mainly the players,” he said.

“Sometimes in the past when I’ve been here we should have had it, but we didn’t for whatever reason, but if you can get on a run in this league it’s not about getting an award like this it’s about getting yourself as high up the table as possible.

“I wouldn’t mind winning it two or three times more this season as that would probably mean we’d be a cert for the play-offs.”

The manager of the month award often comes with a curse attached, although Stanley’s good form was punctured with a home defeat by Oxford United last weekend.

But Coleman doesn’t buy into the theory that the award is to blame for a sudden slump.

“I thought Sean Dyche made a salient point,” said Coleman of when the Burnley boss scooped the Championship award during the 2013/14 season.

“You get manager of the month, and it’s not really manager of the month it’s a team of the month, because the team have been on a good run.

“That’s got to end sooner or later and it generally ends when you get awarded manager of the month, because you’ve been on such a good run.

“I don’t dress anything up on that superstition wise, I am superstitious but that doesn’t affect me one way or the other.

“The last time we got any kind of recognition like that for the team we went on and won the league, so hopefully that’s an omen.”

Matt Crooks was also nominated for the player of the month award for his impressive form in midfield.

“Anyone who was at pre-season here saw Crooksy come back a different animal,” Coleman said of the 21-year-old.

“We knew he had the potential, that’s why we signed him. But he’s starting to deliver on that now, and he’ll only get better, he’s learning that midfield position and the more he gets exposed to it and the more he plays it the better he will get.”

Crooks was used in attack as well last season, having also played at the back for former club Huddersfield, but he has settled into midfield for the Reds this term.

“That was a conscious decision by us,” said Coleman. We had to pin him down to one position and say get on with it.

“He’s taken to it like a duck to water to be honest. I think he’s very close to mastering his position and he’ll be as good as anybody in the league.”