ACCRINGTON Stanley have the quality to keep punching above their weight in League Two, says manager John Coleman.

With more than a third of the season gone the Reds are sitting fifth with 29 points from 17 games, three points above eighth placed Bristol Rovers and just two points behind Northampton in the automatic promotion places.

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Stanley have proved their push for a top seven finish is no flash in the pan, with a sustained spell in the play-off places.

But while Coleman is still conscious of the need to keep up the good work, he feels his side is more than capable.

“You still get nothing for the first third of the season but if you’re not in there at this point it’s very difficult to get yourself in there towards the end, if we were scratching around at the bottom. You’re looking to make 15/16 points up on the pacesetters. It’s very difficult,” he said.

“I still think we should be a couple of points better off than we are, from what our play has deserved. I can’t remember us stealing too many games.

“But we know there’s a long job ahead of us, and a tough job ahead of us. We also know that everyone’s got to play each other so there’ll be points getting picked up and lost all over the place. We just have to hope that we accrue enough to get ourselves where we want to be.”

Asked if the football world is still surprised by their lofty position, Coleman said: “They should be surprised shouldn’t they because we were everyone’s tip to go down at the start of the season. It’s ‘little Accrington’ syndrome.

“But everyone who’s seen us knows how good we are, and certainly the managers in League Two aren’t surprised at how well we’re doing because they’ve seen the quality of the players we’ve got.

“That will only get magnified as the season goes on.

“Anyone who watches League Two a lot will know we’ve got good players.

“Unless all of those good players hit a dramatic loss of form or we have a catalogue of horrendous injuries there’s no reason why we can’t stay up there.”