FOOTBALL romantics could point to tomorrow’s visit of Exeter City as a fitting one for Accrington Stanley to win promotion.

For it was a televised trip to the Grecians’ St James Park in January 2006, and 3-1 win, that is viewed as a pivotal moment in their Conference winning season.

It was not the game that mathematically secured the Reds the title and promotion back to the Football League. That came 13 games and almost three months later with a 1-0 win at Woking.

But Stanley manager John Coleman recalled: “We all believed that when we beat Exeter that that was the turning point.

“We felt very confident then that we were getting promoted, and we still sing the song about it ‘We won it on Sky’.

“It might be coincidental that that is the case but I don’t care who we beat, if we can win the game.

“People are thinking we’ve already won (promotion) - we haven’t - it’s going to be a really tough game.

“Be it Exeter, be it anyone, I just want to win.”

But Coleman admits there are other echoes of Accrington Stanley’s Conference winning team that are keeping him optimistic about promotion.

“I see a lot of parallels with the Conference winning side - the attitude, the spirit of the lads, how hard they work. Just little things, even down to having a major kit sponsor that time around too,” said the Stanley boss, referring to the Nike manufactured kit they wore from 2003 to 2006.

“The way certain games have panned out and the way we’ve won games are very similar to the way we won games in the Conference - keeping it tight and then scoring a goal and keeping it even tighter.

“The spirit that we had then I see it emerging in this squad, and hopefully it will continue.”