ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman insists his side are firmly in a relegation scrap at the foot of League One.

Southend United handed Stanley their third defeat on the bounce after Charlie Kelman's opening goal was cancelled out by Dion Charles.

Jason Demetriou's penalty gave Sol Campbell his first win in charge as Stanley sit seven points above the drop zone.

Stanley have the chance to bounce back on Tuesday night as they travel to Salford City in the quarter final of the Leasing.com Trophy.

"Any game will do me, I just want to get that out of my system," said Coleman.

"I’m hurting more now than I have been in the last couple of years to be honest. I’m very, very frustrated. We’ve got to get ourselves out of this relegation zone.

"We’ve passed up two opportunities now against Rochdale and Southend, we won’t get easier games than them and we’ve got to be mindful that the games that will come up are going to be harder than that.

"We’ve got to knuckle down and improve otherwise we will go down."

Coleman thinks his side are now in a crisis after losing three games in a row and wants to bounce back quickly on Tuesday in the EFL Trophy.

"It is a crisis, the last three teams to come to us have won one game in 36 and all three of them have beat us," added the Stanley boss.

"How on earth we’ve lost this match I don’t know; we should have been 7-1 up at half time and I’m being kind with that. If you don’t take your chances, then you get punished.

"I think it is a penalty, a lot of things went on before that we didn’t get the rub of the green with, but if you don’t take your chances then you don’t win games.

"We had enough chances to win four games here. You can say well done to Southend; I don’t even think it is well done to Southend.

"I think we’ve just fluffed our lines and we’ll have to regroup and go again for Tuesday."