JOHN Coleman admits he might not have been a football manager were it not for a trip to Coventry City 28 years ago.

Ahead of taking his Stanley side to the Ricoh Arena tomorrow for a crunch League Two clash, the Reds boss revealed an FA Cup semi-final clash in 1980 in the East Midlands played a defining role on his football path.

The Accrington chief was then a teenage Liverpool fan who made the journey to Highfield Road for a fourth replay between the Reds and Arsenal with a place at Wembley on the line.

Liverpool were beaten 1-0 and it convinced Coleman to return to playing rather than watching football at the weekends. A decision which saw him carve out a decent non-league career and ultimately led him to management at the Wham Stadium.

“If it hadn’t been for an away trip to Coventry then I probably wouldn’t be the manager at Accrington Stanley,” he said.

“I became a little bit disillusioned with football when I was younger at 16 or 17 and I stopped playing football on a Saturday and went to watch Liverpool instead.

“I went to the FA Cup semi-final in 1980 and there was three replays. It was Liverpool v Arsenal.

“The first two replays that were at Villa Park and I had been to both of them and had taken a half day of work, I was a YTS at a forklift truck company at the time. I asked work to go to the third replay and was told I couldn’t so I packed the job in because I wanted to go and watch Liverpool.

“I wasn’t going to miss the fourth game having been to the other three.

“Liverpool were awful on the night, Brian Talbot scored the winner for Arsenal.

“That game was at Coventry’s old ground and I then got disillusioned with Liverpool and went back to playing football and the rest is history.

“If Liverpool had performed better I might have carried on watching Liverpool.”

Stanley visit the Sky Blues five points and five places higher up the standings but such is the congested nature of the table each weekend sees sides regularly switching places.

And Coleman, whose side won 1-0 in the reverse fixture, is anticipating a tricky clash against Mark Robins’ men.

He added: “We are expecting a tough game away from home but we know we can play well and when we play well we are match for anybody.”