ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman believes his side need ‘11 or 12’ wins from their remaining 20 games if they are to achieve their promotion aim.

The Reds host Port Vale tomorrow sitting in third spot in the League Two table, five points behind Notts County in second but only five points clear of Colchester United in 11th in what is a congested top half.

Coleman’s side have won their last three matches without conceding a goal having won just one of seven league games prior to that recent turnaround.

And the Stanley chief said there is a desire within the squad to avoid a repeat blip in the second half of the season.

He said: “When we were on that bad run we asked people to step up to the mark and the players didn’t.

“The players needed to have a wake up call and realise what was going to happen to the season if they didn’t snap out of it and we are not out of the woods yet.

“You can say that we are on a great run because we have won three games in a row and not conceded but you can flip that over and say we have only taken nine points from seven games and that is not a great return for a club if you are trying to get promoted.

“We have got to up those stats and the only way you do that is by winning games.”

He added: “We had to work hard to stop the slide and stop the rot and I know the lads are keen to avoid going back into that situation because they didn’t enjoy it. No-one enjoys it, I didn’t enjoy it and the fans didn’t enjoy it.

“We need to win a lot of games, we probably need to win 11 or 12 games which isn’t easy in this league, it is difficult to win any game but if we want to get promoted then someone will have to do it and why not us?”

With things extremely tight at the top of the table, Coleman is focussing on his own team’s results in a bid to cement a place in the top three ahead of a run of three games against sides in the bottom half of the table, starting with the visit of Vale.

“You have to take care of yourself because everyone else can’t win below you,” he added. “We can only look at one game ahead which is Port Vale.”

The Reds will be without injured skipper Seamus Conneely for the game but otherwise Coleman has a full squad to pick from.