ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman has warned his players not to assume they have got their season back on track, but admits their midweek win over Oxford United was a step in the right direction.

The Reds ended a run of five defeats on the spin when returning striker Terry Gornell struck late at the Store First Stadium on Tuesday night.

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The win eased the pressure towards the bottom end of the table, with just five points separating them from the relegation zone before kick-off.

But, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Southend, Coleman stressed there was hard work ahead to maintain a winning habit.

“It’s not like all your problems are solved with one win, you’ve got to keep going and trying to win games. We’ve given too many opportunities up in the last seven or eight games,” said the Stanley boss.

“Obviously the clean sheet was great but Oxford are a good side and they could have scored quite easily on Tuesday.

“We’ve got to have a mentality that we’ve got to get stronger and start occupying teams more, which we did.

“That was a typical home performance on Tuesday. It was similar to the Bury game, which was a game we should have won. We’ve got to keep our concentration, hopefully gain confidence from the clean sheet and take that into the remaining games. There are a lot of games to be played and there are a lot of points to be won.”

With a win and a clean sheet recorded in the same game for the first time since early October, Coleman is hopeful of a repeat outcome tomorrow.

“They can be like buses, both of them really,” he said.

“Winning breeds confidence. I would have liked us to score more goals the other night, with the chances we created, but we’ve got to keep believing that we’re going to win games.

“If you go out expecting a result, you’ve got more chance of getting that if it’s positive rather than negative.

“If you go out expecting to win, there’s no guarantee that you will but it gives you a better chance.”

He added: “You go through all the clichés, ‘our season starts here’ and all that palaver, but no matter what way you dress it up, every time we take to the pitch we’ve got to perform to the best of our ability and we’ve got to try to reward the fans for their patience and for the money that they spend watching us. We’ve got to try to put on a show for them and try to excite each other, and try to win games.

“Whatever way you dress it up the best way to please fans is by winning, and I’m sure everyone went home on Tuesday night happy.”

Coleman will be without Adam Buxton, who has suffered injured a hamstring injury after overcoming a severe abscess problem caused by an ingrowing hair.

There are question marks over striker James Gray’s availability this weekend after his proposed loan move to Southport broke down.