Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman ready to shake things up for Crewe clash

Stanley have not won in nine league matches since beating Blackpool in mid-October and have slid into a relegation battle as a result.

And, with the visit to Crewe followed by a home game with Hartlepool two days later, Coleman admits he is prepared to shake things up.

The Reds boss said: “I am thinking about it 24/7 and trying everything to stop the rot. We are trying to fix something that isn’t that broken.

“There is obviously a problem but we are putting good players in good positions to play well, to create chances, to have a stranglehold on the game, to defend well and hopefully win, and the only thing we are not doing is getting the win.

“How long do you go thinking this is the right way? We are dominating games, we are not giving up many chances to the opposition and we are creating chances ourselves.

“I have always said I am governed by how we play and not the results, but the results are the most important thing and it’s getting absolutely critical now.

“Something has to give and I have always been loathe to change things for the sake of change but perhaps if we do something different it will shake it up and the players will believe something different is happening.”

Coleman believes his side have been unlucky at times this season but insists the belief in the squad will not waver.

He added: “We have to keep believing and keep doing what we know is right but every time something seems to go against us.

“You can’t prepare for your centre-half slipping at Grimsby but it’s symptomatic of what has happened to us this season.

“We have had a horrendous run of bad luck but we have got to fight, we have got to work hard and we have got to believe first and foremost.

“We have a set of players here who I firmly believe are better than a lot of teams in this league but we have to do something about it – we have to start winning games.”