The Kindergarten Kopite's vision

And, to this day, the 40-year-old lives and breathes the game. It's hard not to when you grow up in close proximity to Liverpool, so it's pretty apt that he is now leading a team nicknamed 'The Reds' to glory.

Coleman spent many a happy hour watching his beloved football team, rotating between spells on the Kop, in the Kemlin Road Stand and the Paddock. His favourite venue was the latter: "We stood near the halfway line. I suppose that's why I've gone into management!"

He has been at the helm of Accrington Stanley for the last four years, taking them back into the UniBond Premier Division the season after they were relegated.

His personal ambition to succeed wherever he goes has rubbed off on the Crown Ground outfit, who have been sitting pretty at the top of the league since September. They are in the driving seat, five points clear of second placed Stalybridge Celtic with two games in hand.

Fourth-placed Vauxhall Motors are capable of catching the Reds, despite being 13 points adrift, because they have five games in hand.

But it is Stanley who Coleman is confident can move through the gears and accelerate towards promotion to the National Conference.

"This is the most successful I've been as a manager, trophy-wise. We've won four now and I'm just hoping the players can do themselves justice because they are capable of being successful," he said.

"It doesn't matter about trophies now. Promotion is all that matters to us.

"It's focused in our minds all the time without talking about it. Maybe the nerves will get to us but hopefully we will just concentrate on playing well and winning."

And he believes his club's famous name could also play a crucial part in helping their Conference dream become a reality.

"The romance of the name 'Accrington Stanley' is an edge I think we've got over the majority of non-League clubs.

"There's a bit of jealousy on their part because we are more well known than most. Everyone got a soft spot for Accrington Stanley when they were unfortunately knocked out of the League.

"And if we could get back into it, it would fantastic."

Although Coleman didn't sign Brett Ormerod, he had a hand in helping him become a professional, when Stanley sold him to Blackpool in 1997. Turning professional was something Coleman himself always dreamed about when he was younger but it never quite materialised for him.

He had trials with Wigan and Stockport County but was never offered a contract.

"After that, I put my heart and sole into non-League," said Coleman, who played for Morecambe for six years and then Macclesfield, Runcorn, Southport, Rhyl and Witton Albion. He became coach at Lancaster City for eight months before moving into management at Ashton United, where he spent three years before switching to Accrington Stanley.

The club has progressed so much under his leadership they now have an abundance of ex-professionals on their books, such as Lutel James, Mike Marsh, Mark Sertori, Andy Gouck and Rory Prendergast.

"In hindsight, I probably left one or two clubs a bit hastily in my younger days. I was a bit of a hot head," said Coleman, who has mellowed significantly since then. So much so that he is in the process of taking up a second career in teaching.

He is in the final year of a three-year BA Hons and Qualified Teaching Certificate (QTC), specialising in physical education, at Edgehill College.

"In six months time I'll be a qualified primary school teacher. I got into it because I've done a lot of coaching with children over the last 10 years and I took some advice off other teachers I know."

But if he had to choose between the two careers, there is no doubt in Coleman's mind.

"I've always been involved in footballl. It's been my life. I live and breathe it so it was a natural progression for me from player to manager.

"If I had the chance of doing football full time I would take it because it's always been a dream of mine.

"I've not completely hung my boots up yet and everyone says there's no substitute for playing. But the pleasure you get out of management easily equates to playing, if it doesn't better it.

"The buzz you get when you score a goal, you get the same feeling whenever one of your players scores. So, as a manager, you get that buzz more often, so that more than compensates for not being on the field myself."

He added: "I've noticed that the club seems to have got bigger in the four years I've been here. More and more people are becoming interested in the club and the support has certainly grown.

"There's a focus about the club as well and everyone's pulling in the right direction."

Particularly chairman Eric Whalley, who Coleman has established a sound relationship with.

"I get on great with the chairman and I wouldn't have a bad word to say about him," he said.

"Sometimes we don't see eye to eye but it's all constructive because we have a common aim to do well for Accrington Stanley.

"I'm lucky because I've got a chairmann who has worn both hats.

"He's been a manager at quite a few non-League clubs so he knows the sorts of pressures that I'm under.

"He doesn't interfere when it's not necessary because he knows he wouldn't have liked that when he was a manager, so we have a good understanding."

But despite their ambition and desire to see Accrington Stanley progress, they didn't, Coleman says, devise a master-plan.

"We never set out a definitive plan when I took over, but I'm very ambitious as a person," he said.

"When I left Ashton it wasn't just a case of coming to Accrington Stanley and keeping them in mid-table. I wouldn't have wanted the job if that was all that was required of me.

"People say success brings pressure, but I'd bring that pressure on myself anyway.

"The club is capable of going places. We are well supported and well run and I couldn't be happier.

"The development of the ground has been magic. The new stand looks really impressive and the plans to re-develop the ground have been tremendous."

He added: "There's a lot of hard work to go. We've had a great start and it would be a shame not to capitalise on that."