PROMOTION chasing Accrington Stanley must brace themselves for “14 wars” - that is the message from manager John Coleman.

After climbing into second spot with last weekend’s win at Coventry, the Reds backed it up with three points at home to Crewe Alexandra in midweek.

That made it four wins on the spin for Coleman’s side, in what is proving to be a fabulous February.

But after maintaining their position and keeping tabs on leaders Luton, who are just six points in front having played a game more, the Stanley boss is keen to maintain momentum and avoid a potential banana skin at rock bottom Barnet tomorrow.

Graham Westley’s Bees managed to beat high flying Notts County a week ago, breaking a sequence of eight games without a win, which included six defeats.

They were unable to follow that up, suffering a 2-0 loss at Yeovil on Tuesday night. But Coleman says stealing points from the Magpies should serve as a timely reminder that Barnet’s struggle should not be taken for granted, as his players experience a different fight at the other end of the table.

“I think we saw that on Tuesday with Crewe - we had far more to lose than Crewe did,” said the Stanley boss. “Some might argue they might get dragged into the relegation zone but I don’t think they will.

“But I’ve said all along, every game is probably the same. You will get different variations of style but, although we’d class ourselves as bucking the trend, generally the style of League Two is quite similar.

“And it doesn’t matter where they are in the league - ask Notts County that last week - we know it’s going to be a really tough game.

“Coming into the last three months of the season we’ve got 14 wars that we’ve got to do our best to compete in.

“They (Barnet) had a very good result last week and then didn’t follow it up with a win in midweek in a game that could have gone either way to be honest.

“The one thing you know about Graham is that he’ll have them organised. He’ll tighten them up, that’s for sure, and they will be difficult to play against.”

Coleman and Westley go back around 15 years, when they were Conference counterparts with Westley then in charge of Stanley's old foes Stevenage, with whom he won promotion to the Football League before going on to manage Preston, Peterborough and Newport County.

Westley has his critics, but Coleman said: “He’s got a lauded reputation in the Football League, both good and bad. I think he does his best to set football teams up to win games, and what’s wrong with that? He’s had quite a lot of success so I certainly wouldn’t be one of the ones queueing up to criticise him."