JOHN Coleman believes it could take a record points tally to win promotion this season, such is the congestion at the top end of League Two.

Plymouth lead the way on goal difference ahead of Northampton with 55 points, followed by Oxford in the last automatic promotion spot with 48.

Accrington Stanley moved up to 42 points and sixth in the table after making the most of one of their games in hand and beating Hartlepool United 3-1 in midweek.

Now, with four of the five teams above them playing each other this weekend (Bristol Rovers v Plymouth and Portsmouth v Oxford), Coleman is hoping for an opportunity to make up even more ground.

“It opens the door. You can boot it in or you can try to squeeze through it, and my waistline doesn’t lend to squeezing!” said the Reds boss, making it clear what his intentions are for tomorrow’s trip to Exeter City.

“I think the league is the closest it’s ever been. There are lot of good teams and lots of good footballing teams as well.

“It’s possibly going to take a special points tally to get automatic promotion. Probably the highest.

“Bury went up with 85 points last year, but it might take even more than that to get promoted this year.

“We are slap bang halfway with 42 points (from 23 games). If you replicated that you’d be devastated if you didn’t go up. But you could well replicate that and not go up.”

As for Stanley’s opponents, Coleman is not anticipating a hangover from Exeter City, despite their FA Cup exploits and exit at the hands of Liverpool on Wednesday.

“There’s an impact, but it doesn’t mean you are going to lose the next game,” he said.

“I remember us beating Huddersfield in front of a packed house at home, and two days later we played Hereford and we were exceptional and won 2-0.”

Coleman, who thinks Exeter will make changes from their midweek defeat at Anfield and adopt a different approach when his side make the long trip south added: “The one thing about Paul Tisdale is that he does try to play a passing game, which is what we try to do.

“If you’ve got two teams like that it generally lends itself to a good game of football, and hopefully that will happen on Saturday.”