ACCRINGTON Stanley are on the brink of a ‘really exciting period’ in their history, according to boss John Coleman.

With Coleman’s team doing the business on the pitch, new investment in the club, from What More UK’s founder and Accrington Stanley fan Andy Holt, could see a debt of almost £480 000 owed by the club cleared, while Holt’s company would pump in more than £580 000 to pay off other creditors, with further investment to follow.

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Saturday’s 3-1 win over Dagenham & Redbridge moved the Reds back into the League Two play-off positions, and tomorrow’s board meeting could be a defining moment in the storied history of the club.

“We’re on the verge of a really exciting period in Accrington Stanley’s history,” said Coleman.

“I’ve had several meetings with him [What More UK founder and Reds fan, Andy Holt] and he is an honest, down-to-earth guy.

“He’s got the club’s interests at heart and this could be something big for us.”

On the pitch Stanley bounced back from successive defeats to Plymouth and AFC Wimbledon with victory over Dagenham at the Wham Stadium.

Coleman was furious with his players after the 4-3 defeat to Wimbledon, when Stanley had led 2-0 after 10 minutes, and admitted there had been plenty of soul-searching in the run-up to Saturday.

“There’s been a lot of harsh words said and a lot of open talking gone on this week, by all parties,” said the Reds chief.

“We embrace the players’ input and we like them to have a say and we’ve told them where we think they can improve.

“We set out of the traps quite quickly (against Dagenham). We kept our foot on the gas and we deserved to go in 2-0 up.

“We were desperate not to lose three on the bounce. We’ve got a massive game against Orient now.

“The sad thing is had we won on Tuesday, which I felt we should have done with the lead we had, we could have been in the automatic promotion spots.”

Dagenham’s fans were angry with their team and manager after defeat in East Lancashire, but Coleman urged them to keep faith with boss Wayne Burnett.

“I think Dagenham have made great strides in the last few years and I think their manager is coming in for unfair criticism,” he said.

“There’s a little mini club now of probably us, Dagenham and Morecambe, and you have an affinity with those managers.

“You’d probably like to beat everybody else but them, because us three are in the same boat, myself, Wayne and Jim Bentley, teams think they have an automatic right to beat us.”

The only downside was Stanley’s defence suffering another blow, with Adam Buxton forced off after nine minutes. But Dean Winnard is set to return for Saturday’s game against Leyton Orient, while Tom Davies is likely to come into contention.

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