ACCRINGTON Stanley have enjoyed a rare break from midweek games, but manager John Coleman says he does not feel rest and rotation gets the best out of players.

The Reds have had a bit of down-time to recover from the rigours of a succession of Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday fixtures.

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But Coleman warned them not to get used to the time-out.

“People often talk about a reluctance to use substitutions when players are getting tired but you’ve got to balance that with when a system’s working, you don’t want to change it for the sake of changing it because you think they’re getting tired. Players should be able to play 90 minutes.

“If they have to work really hard they still should be able to play 90 minutes because that’s their job.

“We’ve had some good performances from our lads and they have worked really hard. But one of your jobs as a manager is to try to gauge fitness over freshness, or freshness over fitness.

“When you’re getting to this stage of the season this is the time you maybe have to look at it more, look at what your own eyes tell you in training and judge what you’re going to do for that week and try to get yourself to your optimum level for the game, and that’s what we’ve tried to do this week.

“But I’m not one of these who believes in resting players for games, or rotating squads. I don’t buy into that.

“I know people say the game’s moved on but Liverpool won the league playing 42 league games as well as the cup games and I think they used 13 or 14 players, so that squashes that argument for me. I think players benefit from playing, especially the younger players. They learn game knowledge by playing games.”

Coleman believes consistency in selection is important for consistency in results.

“The more settled a side you can get (the better). When we got into the play-offs I think we used the same team for 10 games on the bounce,” he said.

“You’ve got to be lucky with injuries and suspensions for that, but I certainly wouldn’t be resting my players because I think they’re tired.

“I think the only time I’ve ever done it was when I played a weakened team against Burton in the last game of our play-off season, and I’ve regretted it ever since to be honest because I think that possibly took a bit of momentum away from us.”

But the Stanley chief stressed competition for places is just as crucial.

“You’re looking to try to win games and if things aren’t going right then it’s your job to change it,” he said.

“It hasn’t pleased me that I’ve had to change the side so often since I’ve been back. That’s not something I like to do. I like to give people a run and then see where they go from there. And then if we have to change we have to change.

“But when you’re making five or six changes every week you get no rhythm at all. That can only have a negative effect on you in my opinion.”