ACCRINGTON Stanley chief John Coleman has ordered his men to keep their focus and stay positive to lift the Reds out of the League Two drop zone.

Stanley are just nine points clear of second bottom Bournemouth and their strikers have hit a lean patch just at the wrong time having gone 312 minutes without scoring, including the frustrating stalemate with Luton Town on Tuesday.

But Coleman knows his hitmen must keep up their work rate and not dwell on the famine if they are to address their problems at Aldershot on Saturday.

He said: “You have to keep going, the only way you can change a football result is to score goals - and you have to keep going in the danger areas because the more time you have the ball in the opposition box, the less time they have it in yours.

“I was pleased with the effort on Tuesday. They went on until the end and had a chance right at the death and then defended a corner well, which we haven’t always done to be honest.

“But we cant afford to get despondent with results or this run of not scoring.

“We have to be positive and proactive. When you start to believe that you are getting no luck, you generally don’t get any luck and the only thing you can do is work hard and get your basics right.”

The closest Stanley came to a goal was a Paul Mullin header that was tipped onto the crossbar by keeper Dean Brill.

“I thought it was a goal,” added Coleman. “It was a cracking header but then again Paul has never been a lucky striker.

“We have some good strikers and some good defenders at the club and some people could say it might not do any harm to give others a go.

“But Craig Lindfield worked his socks off and I don’t subscribe to the argument that if you are a striker you are the only one allowed to score.

“I believe that if you are playing well you keep your place no matter what. I went through bad spells myself and it makes you more determined.

“The one thing about our lads is that they are not afraid to go into the box - but we are not working hard enough to make chances happen, we are waiting for them to come and perhaps we need one to go in off someone’s backside to get us on a roll again.”

Coleman insists that if his men continue working the way they are they are more than capable of pulling away from danger.

But he warned: “We know we are in a scrap and we have to keep scrapping away to get out of it.”