STANLEY boss John Coleman hailed his side's 2-1 success over Swindon Town as a 'victory for the will to win' his men showed.

The Reds roared back into the automatic promotion spots in League Two with a win over their fellow promotion contenders.

Coleman was delighted with the performance as goals from Billy Kee and Kayden Jackson secured victory, despite Marc Richards halving the defect from the spot with 20 minutes to go after Janoi Donacien was adjudged to have fouled Paul Mullin.

"Tonight was a victory for the will to win that we showed," Coleman said. "Our intensity in the first half was fantastic, we ran ourselves into the ground and it unsettled them.

"First five minutes I was fearing it because they had a bit of ball around our box but after that we defended really well.

"Janoi is absolutely devastated over (the penalty), he says he got nowhere near the lad.

"You get things like that in football and it's how you respond. Six weeks we ago might have buckled, but we didn't, we showed a great determination and game knowledge and saw it out quite comfortably in the end.

"If anything we could have pinched another one on the break."

Kee and Jackson took their tally for the season in the league to 20 while Sean McConville was again impressive.

Coleman was delighted with the way his side played and can see comparisons between their campaign two years when Matt Crooks and Josh Windass were instrumental as the Reds missed out on promotion on the final day.

"It was difficult conditions, but we did try and pass it and we made some really good chances with good approach play," he said.

"We got the penalty and I thought Kayden's goal was fantastic, it was a fantastic ball from Sean and Kayden has been a threat like that for the past four weeks, he's been on top of his game.

"When we had that run a couple of years ago we had Crooksy and Josh Windass and they were really on top of their game, then we lost through Crooksy through injury and Piero stepped up to the plate and Shay McCartan stepped up to the plate.

"When players are on top of their game and you've got three and four who are confident attacking-wise it can make a big difference in the league.

"You couldn't get anyone more confident than Sean at the moment, Kayden is absolutely flying and I'm pleased he got his goal, he's deserved it for his past few performances."

Kellan Gordon saw red with 15 minutes to go for Swindon but Coleman felt more of the visiting players could have gone for some poor tackles.

"There were a couple of really nasty challenges, Callum (Johnson) got an horrendous challenge on his hip on the edge of the box in the first half that went unpunished, there were a couple of really bad ones on Billy and a really, really poor one on Sean that made him go off. The lad has made no attempt to go for the ball, he's kicked him and for me that's a red.

"It's a callous challenge, it could have broken his leg and if he'd punched him he'd have been sent off. I just don't get why you can kick someone, he didn't make any attempts to win the ball."