ACCRINGTON Stanley assistant manager Jimmy Bell admits he still has an irrational fear about the Reds losing their remaining five games and seeing a top three spot in League Two slip from their grasp.

Stanley can secure promotion with a win over Yeovil tonight while even a draw or a defeat could be enough if Exeter fail to beat Chesterfield at home.

It would require a remarkable sequence of results for John Coleman’s side to not be playing League One football next season.

But Bell is taking nothing for granted and revealed he had thought about the worse case scenario.

He said: “Before the Exeter game, everyone was coming to the game saying we were going to be promoted and I was thinking, if we get beat then Exeter are only eight points behind. Then if we get beat on Tuesday and they win and we lose at Wycombe and all of a sudden they are two points behind us but that is me!

“I always look at that side of it to try and ensure everyone is focussed and show the other side to the players that if they don’t perform then this could happen, if they do perform then that could happen. For me I always look at both sides and if you do that it spurs the players on.”

For all that a small part of Bell fears the worst, he also wants his Reds to finish the season strongly to ensure not just promotion, but also the title.

Stanley currently have a one point advantages of Luton Town at the top with two games in hand.

Such are the vagaries of the division that John Coleman’s side, not yet promoted, could be champions come Saturday afternoon if results go their way.

And Bell admits the players are focussed on winning the league and as a consequence securing promotion to the third tier for the first time in the club’s history.

“If they reach for the stars and fall a little bit short then they will get promoted,” said Bell of the squad’s ambitions. “But they want that star and the players are the ones that are pushing it more than the staff.

“They want to win the league, really, really want to win the league. But there is a lot of hard work ahead and Luton have got the bit between their teeth at the minute.

“If you go up you want to go up as champions and that is a massive goal. For Accrington to be in this position so big, it is huge. To win the league would be absolutely unbelievable, to get promotion would be unbelievable. The players are the ones pushing and we are just steering the boat at the moment.”

Yeovil come to East Lancashire tonight sitting 18th in the table and their survival all but secured but Bell is warning against complacency.

“We’ve got a very tough team in front of us,” he added. “We’ve got no divine right to just blow them away. We’ll have to be at our best.

“Yeovil have had a few really good results. They put six past Coventry, they had a great result at Swindon and they should have won the game against Wycombe on Saturday, they hit the post three times. They are an exciting team that can score goals.

“We cannot take our eye of the ball because it’s going to be tough between now and the end of the season.”