IAN Craney believes that getting Accrington Stanley into League One would be as big an achievement as Blackpool’s rise to the Premier League – and he thinks the Reds have managed to recapture the spirit that saw them return to the Football League five years ago.

Stanley host 11th-placed Oxford tomorrow bidding to bounce back from the shock of an injury time equaliser at Macclesfield in their last match and climb back into the League Two play-off places.

John Coleman’s side are well placed to make the top seven with a favourable run-in and Craney, who returned to the club earlier this season for a third spell at the Crown Ground, knows missing out now would be a crushing blow.

The Reds have taken 31 points from their last 14 games and would have moved level on points with the automatic promotion places with a win at Macclesfield, having come from a goal down to lead 2-1.

“If we didn’t get in the play-offs now we’d be hugely disappointed,” said the midfielder, who was part of the Stanley side that won the Conference during his first spell with the club in 2006. “If he had won at Macclesfield we were well on track to go up automatically, but we’ve got to dust ourselves down and beat Oxford.

“Everyone was hurt, even the subs and the staff, so we’ve got to use that hurt on Saturday.

“We came back from 1-0 down in that game and I have played in Accrington sides in the past who wouldn’t have come back.

“The spirit we had was big in the Conference season.

“Every game we went into we thought we were going to win and that’s the belief we’re getting now.

“We had our setbacks in the Conference season but we showed we had more about us and cracked on and won the games.

“I believe we’ve got a better squad and a better team now.”

Craney has reached League One twice before – leaving Stanley on two occasions to join Swansea and then Huddersfield – but he knows promotion with Accrington would be an achievement as remarkable as Blackpool’s ascent to the Premier League.

The Tangerines had not played in the top flight since 1971, while Stanley have not been in the third tier since 1960.

And the 28-year-old insists his long affiliation with Accrington would make reaching League One even more special now.

“Accy are very close to my heart, so doing it with Accrington would be the icing on the cake,” he said. “It would be one of my greatest ever achievements if we got Accrington into League One.

“I think it would be for every single one of us. To get Accrington into League One would basically be like the Blackpool story going into the Premier League. But it’s going to be a very hard task. We’ve just got to knuckle down and do it.”

Stanley (probable): Cisak; Winnard, Edwards, Hessey, Jacobson; Joyce, Procter; Ryan, Craney, McConville; Gornell.

Oxford (probable): Clarke; Batt, Wright, Purkiss, Tonkin; Heslop, McLaren, Burge; Potter, Constable, MacLean.