JIMMY Bell says the January transfer window can't come soon enough for Accrington Stanley.

The Reds' assistant boss admitted an injury-ravaged squad needs fresh faces to boost their fight for League Two survival after their 4-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers.

"Now January can't come soon enough and we may have to recall a couple of loan players. David Brown is certainly one that comes to mind," said Bell.

"We have to compete with other clubs to bring people in during the January sales."

Bell made no excuses for Stanley's poor defensive performance as their goals against column reached 45 - the worst in the whole Football League.

"It was totally down to ourselves. John Coleman and I will take the blame for this performance and accept every bit of criticism that's aimed at us," said Bell.

"The mistakes we made and our defending was abysmal at times.

"We had a plan, but it went out of the window after five minutes when they scored. You put your hat on players to defend, but they make silly mistakes at crucial times and it's not good enough.

"For their first goal, Andy Todd lost control of the ball to allow their lad in and Robbie Williams lost his man. That changed the game.

"Why it happens we don't know because they are good enough, but we are getting punished week in and week out and it's down to us to sort it out.

"We are down to our bare bones because of injuries and we have had to play people out of position. Whether that is part of it, I don't know."

Stanley's options will be further damaged by a three-match suspension for Andy Mangan, who was shown a yellow card and then a straight red seconds later.

"We will deal with that internally. Apparently he was given a straight red for comments made to an opposing player," said Bell.

"For their penalty, I think Phil Edwards had a bit of a tug at their player, but he was allowed to turn in the box, which was poor defending again on our part.

"The mood is obviously very low because we are not used to this. Throughout my and John's careers, we have never had teams down at the bottom of the league and now it's up to us to show a bit of character.

"This is the lowest point of our season so far. Now we have to be up for the game on Boxing Day, and we are a different prospect at home."

Stanley face Bury today (3pm) at the Fraser Eagle Stadium.