JOHN Coleman has told his Accrington Stanley players to beware the York City backlash.

The Minstermen were thrashed 6-0 by Portsmouth in midweek, with all the goals coming in the second half.

But, while York slipped into the bottom two on goal difference, Coleman said their struggle should not be taken for granted by his high-flying Reds.

“I don’t think we can play them at a worse time than after a 6-0 defeat. He (York manager Jackie McNamara) will expect a backlash. I will expect a backlash and the players will expect a backlash,” said the Stanley boss.

“Don’t forget they were 0-0 at half-time and they had a man sent off just on the stroke of half-time so that will have had a big bearing on the game.

“But I can’t second guess what Jackie does. There are different ways of approaching it. I’m sure Jackie will have his own thoughts on that.

“I wouldn’t try to second guess what he does. I remember losing 8-2 to Peterborough and I played the same team the next week.

“There’s no guarantees that whatever you do is the right way to go about it.

“What we’ve got to do is focus on our own game and make sure we make it as difficult as possible for them.

“That means playing committed football and playing the game we know we can play.”

Stanley and York are familiar to each other having met in the FA Cup first round three weeks ago, which resulted in a 3-2 win for Coleman’s side.

“We’ve had a good look at them here, they’ve also had a good look at us so they know what we’re about,” said the Reds boss.

“I’m expecting a really tough game, but every game we play we expect to be tough.

“We have to make it tough for the opposition. I think slowly but surely everyone who plays us now is expecting a tough game whether we’re at home or away, and that’s the way it should be.”

Stanley slipped to fifth after their scheduled midweek home game with Hartlepool United was a late postponement because of the weather.

The Reds, who were leapfrogged by Portsmouth, have a game in hand to take advantage of, but Coleman isn’t worried about losing ground.

“It’s good that you’re worrying about results and you’re nervous about results at the top end of the table and all the players seem keen to discuss it the next day at training,” he said.

“It was a mixed bag really for us, some went for us and some didn’t.”

In midweek Northampton won 2-1 at Crawley, Oxford drew 1-1 at home to Newport County while Plymouth were held 1-1 at home to sixth-placed Leyton Orient to leave Stanley fifth.

“You’re very much governed by what you do yourself and it’s important that you get yourself focused on how you approach games and how you try to pick up points,” Coleman added.

“Everyone’s saying how it’s a missed opportunity to get three points but we could have easily lost the game or drawn the game. We’ve got less than a 50 per cent strike rate at home.

“There’s no guarantee that we’d have won but we want to give ourselves the best chance to win and that means playing on a pitch that’s suitable to play passing football, which is what we try to do.”