ACCRINGTON Stanley’s recently postponed games have cast manager John Coleman’s mind back to his days as a teacher.

“I think we’re like a gang of school kids who’ve been on three days’ wet playtime. We’re climbing the walls to be honest,” said the Reds boss, after three weeks without a league fixture.

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“It’s too long for me, and when you’re doing so well like we have been doing in the league it’s really frustrating that you can’t build on that.”

The only consolation has come from results elsewhere, as they stay in the play-off mix in fifth place following their FA Cup second round exit to Portsmouth.

“When you’re not playing you just want everyone to draw, and there were quite a few draws on Saturday, said Coleman.

“Everyone equates games in hand to three points and sometimes they can be a hindrance.

“We need to build on how we’ve started the season, and hope that this break doesn’t derail us too much.

“I just hope that the Portsmouth game wasn’t a blip in that we didn’t play anywhere near as well as we can and we get back to the levels of performance that we’ve been turning in on away trips in the league, because we’ve been excellent away from home and hopefully that can continue.

“Players react to getting rewards when they play. If they see what they’re doing is paying off they’re more likely to do it more and more and they can quickly forget about it.

“We’ve got to get back to playing the type of football I know we can play, and I know then that we can be a match for any team we play.”

The Reds have seen home games with Hartlepool and Wycombe called off in recent weeks.

Stanley next face Teddy Sheringham’s resurgent Stevenage, who have gone on a five-game unbeaten run to move well clear of the bottom two.

“We’re going to play Stevenage at probably the wrong time of the season but I’m a firm believer that whenever you have to play them, you play them, and don’t moan about it,” said Coleman.

“They’ve had a bank of good results, but we’ve got to go there believing that although we’ve had the last two home games called off we haven’t lost that much ground on the leaders.”

They are hoping to end that enforced break at Broadhall Way, hoping to pick up where they left on November 28, when they triumphed 5-1 at York City. Coleman is confident their play-off semi-final defeat of 2011 there will not come into play tomorrow.

“That will have no bearing on it. We’ve got a totally different squad of players,” he said.

“We’ve got to just concentrate on performing to the best of our levels.

We’ve got to pick up points between now and the New Year and give ourselves a chance to go and get the success I think this squad of players deserves.”