ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman will take a comforting approach with his misfiring Reds as he attempts to end their ‘yellow ball syndrome.’

The Reds have not found the net in League Two since Janoi Donacien’s goal in the home defeat to Newport County a month ago, a run of nearly five hours.

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The goal drought has coincided with the Football League’s introduction of the winter yellow ball and Coleman is hoping his goal shy strikers hit the target tomorrow when Yeovil Town visit the Wham Stadium.

“I think you do have to put an arm around them,” said Coleman of how he has been working with the frontmen in the build up to the Glovers’ clash.

“You have got to advise them and we will do a bit of extra finishing before the game.

“It is very, very easy to criticise people. You watch the video and you show the players the video and you could stop it all day long and say ‘you should have done that,’ you could criticise people to the cows come home.

“The art of coaching and the difficulty of coaching is coming up with ways to improve and offering them avenues to improve their own thinking so that when they are in the game they make the right decisions.

“We are trying to lead them down the path of making the right decisions. We can't make the decisions for them.

“Be it how to strike a ball when to strike the ball what the best way is to beat a goalkeeper in a certain situation.

“We can give them models of it and give them a chance to practice it and give them situations that replicate a game and hopefully that will give them the confidence to hit the back of the net.”

Despite a run of just one win in nine games the Reds remain just six points off the play-offs, although Coleman’s side have slipped to 18th in a tightly bunched table and are only two points above the drop zone.

So are Stanley in a promotion race or a relegation battle?

“We have probably been lucky in that everyone has been going through similar patches,” said the Reds manager.

“We are not really in either at the moment.

“We’re in that inter-section bit of a Venn Diagram.”

Yeovil arrive in East Lancashire as one of League Two’s form teams with the Gloves boasting the longest active unbeaten run in the division at six games.

That has propelled Darren Way’s side up to 12th, three points off the play-off places with a game in hand on most of the sides above them.