JOHN Coleman is refusing to give up on Accrington Stanley’s play-off dream as the Reds look to claim another major scalp tomorrow.

After losing five league games in a row, Stanley have stormed back to form in the last few matches.

MORE TOP STORIES:

They have taken 10 points from their last four games, including wins over league leaders Burton and play-off chasing Southend.

Two-and-a-half weeks ago Coleman’s side were looking over their shoulders as their poor run of form threatened to see them dragged into a relegation battle.

But Tuesday’s success over Burton has moved them back within nine points of the top seven, and with 16 games to go Coleman is refusing to rule out one final tilt at the play-offs - an ambition he targeted when he returned to the club in September.

“I still haven’t ruled out trying for the play-off places,” said the Stanley manager.

“We’ve just got to get on an unbelievable run now and there’s no reason why we can’t.”

Those five successive defeats, coupled with a run of one point from their first five games of the season, have put a major dent in the Reds’ hopes of having a chance of promotion at the end of the campaign.

It is a spell which Coleman is left ruing as his side try and make up lost ground.

“Unfortunately for Accrington we’ve had two little really bad runs,” he said.

“If we’d have picked up points in both of them, at the start of the season before we came and in that little five-game run, if we could have picked up three or four points from those games we’d be talking about a different push here.”

But the boss says his side can take confidence from Tuesday’s win over a Burton side who had not lost since the end of November.

Their tough run of fixtures continues tomorrow with the visit to fourth-placed Luton, before they entertain second-placed Shrewsbury on Tuesday.

“I think the performance rather than the result shows we can compete against the top teams,” said Coleman.

“In the main our performances have been quite good.”