Donald would just Love to see Stanley pick up a first league win

The Reds have yet to win a League Two game in five attempts and will be hoping they can break that duck at fellow winless side Cheltenham Town on Saturday afternoon.

While there are similarities to Stanley's start to last season - they went nine games without a win and battled relegation throughout the campaign - Love insists John Doolan's side are better equipped to deal with the situation this time around.

Cheltenham currently sit bottom of the table with a point while Stanley are two points and three places above them having drawn three of their opening five games.

While some will say this is a perfect opportunity for Stanley to pick up that first win, Love is taking nothing for granted - just as Stanley didn't against another winless side, Shrewsbury Town last weekend in a game that ended goalless.

"We just need to go and get the first win," he told the club website. "They will be saying the same thing and Shrewsbury would have been saying them same thing last week.

"Just because it has gone a week further, there is more emphasis on this game rather than the Shrewsbury game last week but it is still so early in the season where if you get that win, it changes everything and if you go on a little run and you are sitting in the play-offs, top three and it is just the way the league works."

Love knows the importance of picking up a first three points of the season but said the only pressure they are feeling is the pressure they put on themselves.

"It is the pressure we put on ourselves more than anything to go and win," he said. "It is probably in our heads, last season, not getting the win for nine games. We are now on five, so it is just getting that win.

"Last year when we got it, it was like a breath of fresh air and everyone could relax.

"We don’t want to be in a position where we were last year when you get stuck down there, we’d go and win a few games, lose a few and end up still in and around it.

"We should have been safe by January, February but it is just the way it went when we ended up taking it all the way to end.

"But that was on us and I think we are a better team this year than we were last year and I think you can already tell that by the way we are playing."

Stanley's only two wins have come in the cup competitions, beating Oldham Athletic and Peterborough Town in the Carabao Cup, while they were 2-0 up against Fleetwood Town in the EFL Trophy before drawing and losing the group game on penalties.

Love wants to see the relaxed approach to cup games adopted for the league encounters - although he did say Stanley are trying to play with a bit more freedome this season.

"It has been a stop-start start to the season where we have have obviously done better in the cup games," he said. "In the league games we just need to relax a bit more, play a bit more football like we have been doing in the cups. I think that will come, it is just getting over the line with that win and everything will take care of itself.

He added: "We are trying to play a bit more football this year, football on the floor, and once we get that win, I think we will take a few more risks.

"It is just about getting that win, we could have done it last week at Shrewsbury, we didn’t play great but we had that chance at the end where Isaac squares it to Hendo who was in the box.

"If that goes in, then you have got your first win and that was probably our worse performance of the season so far and that literally sums up football."

Love has seen the Stanley squad bolstered by a number of new loan signings in recent weeks and he says there will be no issues with them settling in.

"That is just football when people come in, they will get used to it," he said. "Some will take longer than others but that is just how football is.

"We will work with them, it is a really good changing room so everyone will work together and everyone will be embedded at some point.

"Whoever is out on the pitch, will hopefully get us the win at the weekend."

One new addition has been Everton forward Isaac Heath who impressed on his debut against Fleetwood, scoring a fine individual goal while also providing an assist.

Love admitted it is the strikers who grab all the attention when they join the club

"That is more when you see a striker come in," joked Love when asked about the excitement of getting a new teammate. " When you see a defender come in, it is just a defender! The striker usually gets all the credit but it is nice seeing fresh faces come in and see what they can do and what they can add to us.

"Isaac (Heath) the other night, you know what he is going to give us and he had only been in the building a day…hopefully he does the same this weekend."