CAPTAIN Seamus Conneely has called for character, and insists Accrington Stanley remain in a strong position to claim the League Two title.

With just one point needed to secure the silverware the Reds were expected to get the result required at Newport County on Tuesday night and return from South Wales as champions.

Conneely admitted there was disappointment in the dressing room that they were unable to get the job done at Rodney Parade, where instead their 15-game unbeaten run came to a disappointing end with a 2-1 defeat.

Players sunk to their knees and put their head in their hands at the final whistle.

But with a six-point advantage and two games to go, starting with the final home game of the season against fifth placed Lincoln City on Saturday, Conneely insists they are still well placed to clinch the club’s inaugural title in the Football League.

“When you do take a step back and look at it we’re six points clear with two games to go. If someone had offered you that at the start of the season you’d snap both their hands off and both their legs off to take that,” he said.

“We’re in a strong position and if we get another result on Saturday we’re going to have another party.

“If you want to be successful you’ve got to be relentless. Our first goal was to get promoted, and we’ve got promoted.

“People were asking ‘Is that it now, do you just see out the season?’ and we showed at Wycombe that we’ve no intention to do that.

“For whatever reason in the first half (at Newport) we weren’t able to reach those levels.

“Maybe in the back of our minds, just because we needed a point maybe we thought we’d just try to get to half time at 0-0 and let the game open up as it always does in the second half, which would have suited us.

“Going 1-0 down it was a bit of a shock to the system because we haven’t been 1-0 down too often during this run. Maybe that was it.

“We have put in a huge effort lately so maybe a few lads are feeling a bit tired but we’re trying to win the league so there’s no excuse.

“But that might just put a little bit of a spark and a little bit of hunger back into us.

“Maybe there’s a few questions being asked of us now and we’ll look to answer them on Saturday.”

Conneely was also keen to make amends to supporters, notably the 189 who travelled to Newport expecting more celebrations a week to the day since promotion was secured with a home win over Yeovil Town.

“We’re very disappointed,” he continued. “We weren’t at the races in the first half,” he continued. Newport got the better of us and it turned into the kind of football game that they’re good at, they stamped their authority on the game a lot more than we did.

“In the second half I thought we got a bit more to grips with it but when you’re 1-0 down and chasing the game you’re always liable to a goal on the counter attack and although we created chances they did miss a couple and they got the second goal with about five minutes left. Jimmy’s bundled one in and made it a helter skelter finish but we weren’t able to get the equaliser, so the over-riding emotion is disappointment.

“We feel like we have let the fans down who have travelled.

“Saturday can’t come quick enough now because we’ve got to try to put it right.

“We haven’t had this feeling for quite a while now.

“We’ll get it out of the system and see what Saturday brings and we’re going to be all guns blazing to try to get that result.”