JOHN Coleman guided Accrington Stanley back into the Football League after a 44 year wait - and he's not about to let all that hard work go to waste.

Slipping back into non-league simply isn't an option for the dedicated Reds manager as he works about guiding the club away from the League Two dropzone.

Sitting perilously outside the bottom two - courtesy of a better goal difference over Macclesfield and Wrexham - Coleman remains confident that Stanley are capable of keeping their heads above water come May.

Relishing the task of maintaining the club's status, Coleman does not accept that his first managerial season in the Football League has been tough to cope with.

"I've not found it difficult at all," revealed Coleman. "We've just had a lot of bad luck, losing a couple of our best players and having quite a few injuries.

"That bad luck has meant we have needed more bodies because the lack of depth has hurt us.

"That is something we've had to take on board. It's not been difficult, just unfortunate, and we've got to knuckle down now and get enough points to make sure we stay in this division."

The sales of star players Gary Roberts and Ian Craney to Ipswich and Swansea respectively, for six-figure fees that represented good business deals at a time when home gates dipped a little, bulged Stanley's coffers somewhat, but without question weakened the team.

Coleman was never far away from his telephone leading up to the transfer deadline, putting in call after call to try to bolster his squad with quality and quantity.

He said: "It's not been a case of not attracting players because we are near the bottom of the table.

"There are other teams below us. The problem is that teams don't want to let their better players leave and we don't want to sign players just for the sake of signing players.

"I'm not going to go down that road again."

Last week, League Two rivals Chester made a five-figure plus player bid for Reds striker Paul Mullin, which was rejected out of hand.

Although Stanley's budget is one of the lowest in the division, Coleman insists he has been provided with enough resources to strengthen.

"The chairman gave me carte blanche to go out and compete with teams in this league," said Coleman, the longest serving manager in the club's history.

"And I'm trying to compete with teams in this league. The way I've looked at it is there are players who live down south and, geographically, it won't be feasible for them to move up. There's no point moaning about that."

He added: "We've offered more than what was offered for Paul Mullin at the start of the season ourselves.

"That's never been an issue. It's not as if we cannot buy players. The money is there, it's just that we will spend it wisely."

With a third of the season remaining, Coleman insists it will be the side that holds their nerve during the season's run-in that will stay clear of relegation.

Coleman said: "We have to hit good patches between now and the end of the season.

"Anybody who doesn't hold their nerve now and goes on a losing streak that we had the month before last is going to be in big trouble.

"We are just taking every game as it comes.

"We can't look at what other teams do. We've just got to know that if we are going to stay in this League, it's going to be down to what we do and not what happens elsewhere.

"We have got to win games ourselves, no matter what goes on elsewhere."