JOHN Coleman says Offrande Zanzala has an extra spring in his step after finding his scoring touch.

The 21-year-old scored a late winner against Doncaster last week to get off the mark in League One, and then followed it up with a brace in the 4-1 Checkatrade Trophy win over Macclesfield Town on Tuesday.

Zanzala was a big influence on the night, making the first for Sam Finley to nod in from close range.

And Coleman has noticed a marked enhancement in the striker's performance and already positive demeanour.

"He's a great lad, he's great around the place anyway, but the difference in him after he scored the winner against Doncaster, the next couple of days in training he was breathtaking," said the Stanley boss.

"It was just as though he'd gone up to another level his confidence was that high, and he took that on again the other night.

"The first goal - I know Sam ended up heading it in on the line, but to get where he got as quick as he did and going past two big centre halves and muscling them out of the way and delivering the shot shows that he's only going to get better.

"Hopefully we'll bear the fruit of that."

And Coleman admits Zanzala was not the only player to come into a much-changed XI on Tuesday and make an impression, ahead of tomorrow's visit of Bradford City.

"I thought Connor was terrific the other night and he needs a goal. I love my strikers scoring," said the Reds boss, who is adamant that Zanzala scored Stanley's third in midweek, despite an initial suspicion of an own goal by Dave Fitzpatrick.

"I just can't understand why someone would want to take a goal off our striker on Tuesday because it's his goal.

"It will be given to him, don't worry about that."

Coleman added: "The pleasing thing for me the other night was that we carried on playing the same way, we didn't alter our style," said the Reds boss.

"Our ethos of how we play the game and our pattern of play shouldn't change whoever comes in, and that was certainly the case the other night.

"We coach them a certain way to play a certain type of football and they either buy into it or they go somewhere else.

"You couldn't say it's not enjoyable to play in. It's hard work, but the style of football is easy on the eye and if you understand the game and you're good at it, it must be good to play in.

"The players must have loved the last 20 minutes on Tuesday night, the one-touch football, finding new reserves of energy. I know it's good when you score and go in front, and when we went 3-1 the handbrake came off and you play with a bit more freedom. It was pleasing to see and hopefully we can carry that on through the season."

The Stanley boss hopes the midweek momentum can continue against Bradford tomorrow, when they bid to bounce back from a first League One defeat in 11 games, at Shrewsbury.

"I've watched videos of them play so I know the style we're going to encounter, but as I say every week it's going to be a difficult game, because every game you play in the Football League is difficult, whether you're in the Championship, League One or League Two. There are no easy games and it certainly won't be an easy game on Saturday," he said.

"We've hosted Bradford before when they've been huge favourites, I think it will probably be even Steven on Saturday, but whatever you've done in the past goes out of the window, it's what you're going to do going forward each game you play. We've seen how they've performed in recent weeks and they can give anyone a game."