ACCRINGTON Stanley look to build on their last-gasp victory at Wycombe when they host promotion-chasing Burton today, and Leam Richardson has urged his side to banish all worries of relegation before a potentially nervy final day of the season.
Lee Molyneux’s injury time winner on Good Friday decided a tight game and moved Stanley clear of the drop zone for the first time in several weeks.
It was the seventh goal in eight games for the winger, in a remarkable turnaround for a 24-year-old who spent the start of the season playing with a tag after a previous jail sentence for violent assault.
Now Molyneux has done much to save Stanley from non-league but Richardson is warning that the job is not yet complete, even though the Reds sit four points clear of the bottom two.
Stanley’s total of 46 points from 41 games would have been enough to see them safe by now in many previous seasons, but they go into this afternoon’s game against fourth-placed Burton knowing they need more to secure their Football League status.
So the euphoria of Friday has quickly passed.
Asked if Molyneux’s goal had provided the best feeling of his managerial career so far, Richardson said: “I think so, with the way the win came about.
“It was a fantastic to get the winner on the day and the feeling was as good as it gets.
“But our focus has now turned to Burton. We’re not there yet, we’ve still got a lot to do.
“For teams that go up and teams that go down it will probably go right down to the wire on the last day and we don’t want to be involved in that.
“The bottom two are on more points than they were on last year and I think the last seven years.
“But that’s the situation and we’ve just got the get the job done, whether it’s 50, 52 or 53 points that we need, whatever it is.
“We’ve just got to win these next few games, these next five games.”
Stanley’s hopes of survival look set to have no further distractions in terms of wage delays, after salaries were paid two weeks late last month.
Wages were due to be paid on time this time around, with directors putting money in to avoid a recurrence. Chairman Peter Marsden has provided significant funds from his own pocket.
Stanley have an extra day’s preparation than Burton, who lost at home to Paul Cook’s Chesterfield on Saturday and could have former Accrington duo Billy Kee and Michael Symes up front once more.
But Richardson will again be without injured trio Francis Jeffers (hamstring), Nicky Hunt (hamstring) and Charlie Barnett (groin).
BURTON Albion boss Gary Rowett is backing his side to bounce back to winning ways when they make the trip to Accrington Stanley this afternoon.
The Albion boss saw his side go down 1-0 to Chesterfield on Saturday, who ended the Brewers’ club-record nine-match victorious home streak courtesy of Drew Talbot's superb 52nd-minute strike.
Rowett said: “That defeat was always going to come at some point and the key thing now is to deal with it well and get back on the horse.
“These things happen and it's about what you do in the next game. It doesn’t really change anything because we knew we would still have to win more games – and we’ll go to Accrington with that mindset.
Of the weekend defeat Rowett added: “It was disappointing in the sense that we didn’t play the way we usually do, but I have to say first and foremost that Chesterfield are a good side and showed a lot of quality in the game.”
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