STANLEY boss John Coleman admits he is concerned with his side's slump in form but believes the real worry is a lack of goals.

The Reds have not found the net in League One since a 2-1 Boxing Day win over Shrewsbury Town, a victory which left them ninth.

Since then they have gone six games without scoring, picking up just one point, to drop to 16th in the table, three points clear of the relegation zone.

Stanley's barren run in front of goal currently stands at 629 minutes and the Reds were once again left to rue missed chances in their 2-0 weekend defeat to Scunthorpe United.

They visit promotion-chasing Sunderland on a Friday night looking to arrest the slump and Coleman hopes that goals will convert into points.

Asked how concerned he was by his side's current position, the Accrington boss said: "Very but I'm more concerned we are not scoring goals to be honest.

"If we score goals, I know it will all change because we are a good side.

"In the main there was not a lot between the two sides (on Saturday) if you are honest and you analyse it from a neutral point of view."

Coleman moved to strengthen his attacking options in January with the arrival of strikers Luke Armstrong from Middlesbrough and Paul Smyth from Queens Park Rangers.

It was the latter who was given the nod at Glanford Park to partner Billy Kee and Coleman acknowledges that he might soon have to make changes to arrest the worrying run of form.

"I thought Luke Armstrong did ever so well when he came on," said Coleman. "He made a nuisance of himself, won headers, closed people down. He's a workaholic.

"We just could get Paul (Smyth) in for a one on one. He drifted wide and made really good opportunities but we have just got to keep going.

"As I said if it doesn’t work by changing the approach, we will have to change the personnel."

He added: "It is frustrating but we could be a lot worse off.

We can’t just say it will come good we have got to work harder on making it come good.

"Things don’t right themselves. So we have got to work hard, maybe try a different approach and if that doesn’t work I may have to try different personnel."