HAVING opened their account for the year in Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over Oxford United, John Coleman is now targeting back-to-back wins against Crewe at the Wham Stadium tomorrow.

The Reds had to wait six games for a first win of 2022 having drawn three and lost two of their League One fixtures since the turn of the year.

But after finally breaking their duck, Coleman is keen to make is successive wins for just the third time this season - and edge closer to the magical 50-point mark that usually guarantees safety.

However, the Reds boss has warned fans not to take anything for granted against a struggling Crewe side after beating promotion-chasing Oxford having narrowly lost to leaders Rotherham at the weekend.

“People will think playing against Rotherham, you should get beat because they are top of the league,” he told the club website.

“Then playing against Oxford, they have been on a great run, they could have gone second the other night, you should be struggling against them.

“Then you are playing against a team who are down in the lower reaches of the league and you should be beating them but it’s not the case.

“No matter where they are in the league, everyone is capable of beating each other.

“I have watched Crewe three or four times this season, they played unbelievably well at Ipswich, and were so unlucky to lose and things have conspired against them.

“People shouldn’t take for granted that we have had a good win against Oxford, so we will beat Crewe. It doesn’t happen like that.

“For us, it doesn’t matter who we are playing, we just want to try and pick up the points and this is an opportunity for us.

“It’s also an opportunity for them and they will see it as a way they can start climbing the table.

“I was here a couple of years ago in the FA Cup when they played us off the park so we are not getting ahead of ourselves in any way, shape or form.

“We know the threats they will pose.

“We need to get to the magical 50/52 points, to be safe.

“But we know, as quickly as you can get onto a good run, you can get onto a bad run and when you get into a slump, it’s difficult to arrest that so we are always trying to keep our head above water.

“It’s hard getting points on the board, Oxford was our first win in seven times of asking. We have played alright in those other six games, we have just not won them and winning games in any level of football is hard but League One is the most condensed league, a lot of teams are not much different in their strengths.

“There are 14-16 teams, even more, who can generally threaten for the Play-Offs, in my opinion it’s the toughest league.”

John O’Sullivan, who scored the opener in the 2-0 win over Oxford United, is likely to be out with a hamstring injury after hobbling off on Tuesday.

Colby Bishop and Joe Pritchard have both returned to training.