ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman says there will be changes at the Wham Stadium in January after seeing his side slump to a third successive league defeat at Grimsby on Boxing Day.

The Reds made it nine league games without a win as goals from Tom Bolarinwa and Ashley Chambers in either half meant the Mariners claimed the spoils at Blundell Park.

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Stanley started the season as one of fancied teams for a play-off place following last season’s exploits and enjoyed early season highlights beating Burnley at home in the EFL Cup and then pushing West Ham all the way in the same competition.

But since beating Blackpool at home on October 15 they have failed to register a League Two victory and are now out of the drop zone on just a single goal difference mark.

The common consensus is that they’ve played well at times through the barren run, but Coleman insists changes are needed to turn things around.

“I’m disappointed and I’m upset for the fans who travelled,” he said of the Grimsby defeat.

“But we can’t keep saying the same things – and I am saying the same things – so something’s got to change and that will probably be personnel in January.

“This set of players is very, very good. We’ve got great players who play really, really well.

“But we’ve just managed to find a way of losing game after game after game after game... and not scoring.

“Their keeper makes three great saves; our keeper has two to make, and I’m not blaming the keeper because he had no chance with either of them, but they get two easy chances both presented to them by us.

“I’m waiting to see our keeper keep us in the game, and I’m not blaming him, but keepers seem capable of making saves against us and we don’t seem to do it the other way.

“I don’t know whether it’s mental or not, but what’s the theory of madness? ‘If you keep doing the same thing and expect different results’.

“We’re expecting to win games because in the main we dominate games.

“We would have had more shots than Grimsby did, we would have had more possession, we would have had more corners, but the important stat is goals and they scored two and we scored none.”

Stanley are on the road again on at Crewe on Saturday (3pm).