STANLEY boss John Coleman wants his players to keep the smiles on their faces tomorrow as they look to get their league form going again.

The Reds host Cheltenham Town (3pm) four days after their best performance of the season in the 4-1 EFL Trophy win at Chesterfield.

And Coleman says the main difference between the scintillating display at the Proact Stadium and the disappointing 2-1 defeat at Cambridge last weekend was his team had a blast.

He said: “One of the big pluses the other night was the players started enjoying football again.

“It can become a bit of a chore when things aren’t going right, but for an hour-and-a-half at Chesterfield I think everybody who was there enjoyed it.

“That might make them want to do it again and hopefully it will.”

Coleman says the signs have been there of his side putting in a top performance. And even if opposition teams come to upset their rhythm, he’s confident they’ve got the ability to get results.

“It clicked a bit against West Ham as well,” he added.

“What we’ve always been an advocate of is when teams try and press us, if your passing is good it’s even better than having time on the ball because once you get past that first line of their defence you’re opening them up. We had a right go at the players on Saturday about going route one and giving the ball away, and I think they had that in their mind, that they wanted to pass the ball.

“When we pass the ball we’re as good as any team in the league. If teams press us high and we play well, we’ll carve them open for fun.”

Coleman, who lost out to Plymouth’s Derek Adams for September’s Manager of the Month award, is delighted to have Shay McCartan fit again after he came off the bench in midweek, but has full-back Janoi Doncien and midfielder Sean McConville both missing with bans.

“I’ve been able to counter the suspensions with a couple of great performances the other night,” he said.

“Whoever I put in there I’m confident that they’ll be able to do a job.”

The Reds chief says he expects a tough test against Town, and wants the home fans to make a racket.

He said: “I had Cheltenham watched the other day and they will be a handful, like every team in this league.

“One of the problems we have is we don’t historically draw a big crowd, but if the people who are here can just make a bit more noise it might help to lift the players’ spirits if things are going badly.”