JAMES Beattie says his Accrington Stanley players deserve more credit than they have received for their climb up the League Two table – admitting they could easily have become another Hyde this season.

Stanley sat rock bottom of League Two in October with only two points from their opening 10 league games, but recovered to move out of the relegation zone and now sit in 16th place – on the verge of Football League survival.

Beattie cannot help but look at the fortunes of Hyde in the Skrill Premier, and marvel at the comparisons.

Hyde also had a nightmare start to the season and never recovered. They have only 10 points from 42 games, 35 points adrift of safety, and were relegated as early as March 11.

Beattie said: “If the lads here had just given up and thrown the towel in, I’m not saying Hyde did that but we could have been another team like them who were massively adrift at the bottom of a league.

“We could have just playing the youngsters and trying to get them through.

“But that’s not the case, they didn’t give up, they never once bowed down to any outside pressures or pessimists who wrote everybody off at the club.

“They’ve acquitted themselves unbelievably well and I’m going to champion them between now and the end of the season, because I think they deserve a huge amount of recognition that they’re not getting at the moment.”

Stanley’s march to the verge of safety has allowed Beattie to start thinking about potential additions to his squad for next season.

“We’ve got as hell of a lot of focus on the job in the hand and nothing well ever detract from that, but also you’ve got to look at your recruitment policy for next year,” he said.

“We’re going to watch players, we’ve had a number of players in on trial recently and we’re always looking to improve.”