ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman said his side were “an unstoppable force” in the pursuit of promotion.

The Reds sealed their place in League One with a Billy Kee first half double in a 2-0 win over Yeovil Town last night.

Coleman had set promotion as the club’s target on the first day of pre-season, and after securing it with four games to go, said: “The lads have taken ownership of that dream, and thankfully the dream’s come true.

“It feels better than I expected it to.

“No-one was going to get in our way tonight, no-one was going to stop us, and really the scoreline should have been more.

“I was delighted with the way we played. For the first 10 minutes we were a little bit edgy, after that we were absolutely terrific.”

There was an additional personal reason that made promotion all the more special for Coleman.

“It’s quite poignant for me tonight, it’s my late dad’s birthday today, so it’s quite fitting that we did it tonight, and I like to think that he played his part in it,” he said.

“You get quite emotional on night’s like this. We had a youngster, Jordan Moseley, who sadly died earlier in the season and that hit the club hard.

“We’ve had a couple of deaths, most recently one of our old directors who put a lot of work in, John Demaine, who sadly passed away last week.

“There’s been a lot of hard work gone on (Chairman) Andy Holt has come in and stabilised the club, done terrifically well.

“But the players have worked their socks off. I can’t praise them highly enough.”

Coleman, who was crowned League Two manager of the year on Sunday, added: “I’ll get a lot of bouquets thrown at me in the coming weeks but it’s those boys in there, people praise you for being manager of the season, it’s team of the season, because they are the team of the season.

“They’ve been on the crest of a wave since the turn of the year. They were like an unstoppable force tonight, nothing was going to get in the way, certainly not Yeovil.

“I think you could have put a Championship side in front of us tonight and I think we’d have beaten them.

“My best memory still is when I was player-manager in 1999 and we won (the UniBond First Division) on the last day of the season in front of a packed house and I was fortunate enough to play and score. That will never be taken away, that will never be beaten. But this is a close second.”