Coleman's Stanley have four games in hand over seventh-placed Gillingham

Accrington manager John Coleman believes his side need to hold their nerve if they are to stand any chance of reaching the League Two play-offs.

Stanley are 14th, seven points off Gillingham in seventh.

He told BBC Radio Lancashire: "We've been down the road before of getting on the cusp of where we want to be and then falling away dramatically.

"Hopefully we'll have learnt from last season but we've got a bit more strength in depth this time round."

The 48-year-old added: "We manoeuvred ourselves into a magnificent position last year but then with around 14 games to go we faltered and ended up taking one point out of 27.

"That derailed us although we ending up finishing quite strong at the end when we took seven points out of the last nine, but it was too little, too late."

Hopefully we'll have learnt from what went wrong last year and try and put it right this time Accrington manager John Coleman

Coleman feels the club are better placed to push for a top seven finish, particularly as they do not have a transfer embargo imposed on them which affected potential signings last season.

"We haven't got the embargo placed on us and that'd make it easier if we had a disastrous run of injuries and suspensions," he said.

"Whether we'd have the finance to do that I don't know but we certainly have the ability to bring in new faces if we wanted to.

"But the one constant from last year that hasn't altered, and I think it was a big problem that held us back was the pitch.

"So that's something that we'll have to overcome again and hopefully we'll have learnt from what went wrong last year and try and put it right this time."

Accrington travel to League Two strugglers Lincoln City on Saturday.

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