ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman says he has never contemplated walking away from the club during their financial crisis.

Coleman and assistant Jimmy Bell have been at the helm for 10 years, helping the club from the UniBond First Division to League Two, but they have had to guide the team through a difficult few months as a £308,000 tax bill has threatened the club’s very survival.

Stanley came within a whisker of going out of existence at Wednesday’s High Court hearing, when businessman Ilyas Khan had to step in to guarantee he would meet any shortfall in the debt, and the situation has posed a risk to the security of all jobs at the club.

There have also been wage delays amid problems paying off the tax bill and keeping the club running on a day-to-day basis, but Coleman’s love for Stanley is as strong as ever.

Asked if he had ever thought about leaving, he said: “No, because I still love football and the thought of not being involved with football would break my heart. I know it’s the same with Jimmy.

“The affinity we have with this club gets you through.

"We’ve had some great times and some really bad times but the support we’ve had from people in the area has been absolutely magnificent.

“It’s never entered my head that I wouldn’t want to be here.”

Coleman’s side currently sit 14th in League Two following Friday’s 2-2 draw at Grimsby, when the boss was again frustrated that a late goal denied them victory as Barry Conlon – often the scourge of Stanley – headed a 95th-minute equaliser.

“You’ve got to defend until the referee blows his whistle,” said Coleman.

“It’s definitely not down to fitness because we are possibly the fittest team in the league. It’s concentration.

“But I don’t think we were anywhere near our best. As soon as we made it 2-1 we completely stopped playing and invited them into our half.

“We’ve got to learn quickly because we’re a third of the way through the season now and we’ve probably cost ourselves five or six points in the last 10 seconds of games.

"That would take us into the play-offs.

“And we let another little thing slip on Friday. We were the only team in the league to have won every time we had took the lead.”