JOHN Coleman hopes the entertaining performances his side have produced at recently will persuade both Accrington Stanley and Blackburn Rovers fans to attend tonight’s fund-raising friendly at the Crown Ground.

Stanley face Rovers at 7.45pm in a match organised to help the Reds avoid winding up proceedings, with the club needing to pay a £308,000 tax bill by October 28.

The Reds’ last three home games have produced three wins and 11 goals, including Saturday’s 4-0 victory over Cheltenham, and crowds have increased as a result.

And Coleman is now hopeful that fans will keep flocking to the Crown Ground on a regular basis, with a number of home games coming up including Thursday’s friendly against American side Austin Aztex and Saturday’s League Two fixture against Bournemouth.

“A lot of the Blackburn fans have been very good,” said the Stanley boss.

“They’ve come to the games when they haven’t been playing.

"We need that support and it would be nice if we could get a little bit more from our town as well.

“We’re trying to go into the schools and grow our own supporters.

“If we can get people coming to watch the type of football we showed on Saturday, I’d want to come again if I was a fan.

“I said in my programme notes on Saturday that if you remember all the club’s good memories - and there are some bad memories in that as well, anyone who has Stanley in their heart like myself, Jimmy and a lot of the players, will not want this club to die.”