HAVING just left Blackpool, the club that progressed to the Premier League thanks to team spirit rather than state of the art facilities, Danny Coid is feeling right at home at Accrington Stanley.

The Reds may never have existed in the most luxurious surroundings, even if Blackburn RUFC appears altogether more homely than some of their previous training bases.

But a tight-knit Stanley squad have always got by, and their performances on the field have rarely suffered.

It was the same at Blackpool, who went from League Two to the top flight during Coid’s time at Bloomfield Road, despite the fact that even last season players were still washing their own kit.

“I don’t think there’s that much of a difference with the training ground and pitch here from when we were coming through the leagues at Blackpool,” said Coid, who linked up with his new team-mates for pre-season training last week.

“When things don’t work out you can make excuses about things like that, but when a team’s doing well you can cover over the cracks.

“John Coleman has done a great job and I’ve seen already there’s a bunch of hard working lads here – with ability.”

Coid – expected to play at right back but capable of also figuring on the left or in midfield – should fit in nicely in a Stanley set-up filled with fellow Liverpudlians. He had always seen a move to Accrington as an option should he ever leave Bloomfield Road and it was the 29-year-old who made the first contact after he was released by Blackpool, turning down larger financial offers from Scotland.

“A friend of mine knows John Coleman and a friend of his, and he sent a text to ask if they would be interested,” said Coid, who has signed a one-year deal with the option to extend the contract further. “I got a text back saying they would. I had a chance to go to the SPL but I’ve got a one-year-old boy so it wasn’t the right time to move away.

“I had interest from some local-ish clubs but I wasn’t happy waiting around and Accrington offered me a deal.

“It was good to know they were keen.

“Accrington did really well to get to the play-offs and I wanted them to go up. I saw them in the play-offs and I knew that wasn’t the real Accrington.

“But hopefully this season the club will have another chance. I know they’ve lost a few players but if the manager can replace them with players of a similar standard we could do well.

“I hope people don’t expect too much from me, though.

“I was on loan at Rotherham last season and going back to League Two after so long did take some getting used to because of the difference in the time you get on the ball.”

For Coid, the move will be a chance for a return to first-team football after an agonising two years when Blackpool reached incredible heights but he featured only twice.

He missed out on the Premier League season altogether after making more than 300 appearances for the club, struggling to regain his place after injury in pre-season two years ago.

Even when Ian Holloway made 10 changes at Aston Villa he was not in the travelling party and in January he was left out of the club’s 25-man squad for the second half of the season.

“I want to get my career back on track,” said Coid. “I haven’t had any injury problems for a long time but they brought in Seamus Coleman and then Neal Eardley was playing right back.

“Whatever I did I just couldn’t get back past them. It was fantastic that the club did so well and I was just gutted that I never got the chance to play for Blackpool in the Premier League. That would have been a dream come true.

“I thought I would spend all of my career at Blackpool but it didn’t work out. As the club went through the leagues they sort of moved beyond me.

“It was really hurtful for me that I got no thank you at the end after 15 years at the club. But I’ve got a lot of friends at Blackpool. I would never say I didn’t enjoy my time there.”