ACCRINGTON Stanley owner Andy Holt believes there will be more stability at the Wham Stadium this summer than ever before as he continues to try and build for the future.

The Reds were left heartbroken six days ago as they suffered an extra time defeat to AFC Wimbledon in the League Two play-off semi-final.

That came after the dejection of missing out on automatic promotion in the final seconds of the season, when a goalless draw at home to Stevenage proved costly as Bristol Rovers snatched third place with an injury-time winner.

Despite the dejection at seeing a season end so cruelly Holt is positive for the future having signed several key players up to long-term contracts during the season, a move previously unheard off at Stanley.

"I think we’ve got the best manager and assistant in the league," he said of John Coleman and Jimmy Bell. "We’ve got some contracts signed up and we’re discussing others.

"Accrington has been like a game of snakes and ladders previously. Everyone is out of contract at the end of the season and John has had to start again from scratch. It becomes a bit of a lottery,

"This year it’s not like that as much. We’re probably going down two thirds of the way on the board, and hopefully next year it will be one third of the way.

"Players like Billy Kee, Matty Pearson, Seamus Conneely and Sean McConville (have signed long-term contracts), we’ve got a little core, and we’ll look to improve that year on year so we have more stability."

Holt refused to be too downbeat after seeing the club he invested in earlier this season miss out on a remarkable promotion to League One, admitting he was proud of their achievements this term.

"We feel we’ve done enough to go up automatically," he said. "We know about the referee’s decision at Wimbledon with Billy Kee’s goal (when the whistle went for half-time as the ball was on it's way into the net.

"We feel we’ve had a few decisions that have really hurt us, it’s decisions that have been clearly wrong like that one

"Despite all that we’ve played brilliantly, we’ve had a great season. John and Jimmy are absolutely gutted, but as I said to them if we’d finished mid-table it wouldn’t have felt as bad and given what he’s got to play with that would have been a good result.

"There’s no way I’m going to get into feeling really bad when we’ve done so well. There’s disappointment, but there’s also pride."