IT was once a standing joke that John Coleman only signed Scousers.

The suggestion was not without merit, given that he brought a clutch with him from Ashton United, including Steve Hollis, Robbie Williams and Russell Payne to name of few.

But it was, of course, inaccurate. There were a smattering from Yorkshire in his UniBond League squads, as well as a trio from East Lancashire in Jonathan Smith, Andy Procter and Paul Mullin.

In the Conference winning team of 2006 there was a Greenwich-born goalkeeper in Rob Elliot and a French-born Benin international in Rommy Boco.

Since securing promotion to League One, Coleman’s phone has been ringing red hot with players being offered to him from all parts of the UK and beyond. His first post-title signing is Southampton’s Will Wood.

“You get bombarded by agents every minute of every day - texts, emails, phone calls. Everyone’s got the next Wayne Rooney that they’re going to give you for nothing,” he said.

“In the beginning recruitment was a lot of local knowledge. You weren’t recruiting as far and wide - probably a 40-mile radius - whereas now we’re taking people from all over the country.”

But Liverpool born, bred and still based, the Accrington Stanley manager says he would be missing a trick if he ignored a pool from the Pool - a market he knows virtually inside out.

“Scouse mafia. I remember someone telling me to take my Scouse mates with me and leave,” said Coleman with a wry smile.

“The thing is, I’ve always said that if I don’t get the best players around from Liverpool - the up and coming lads who are available - I’m not doing my job. I liken it to Arsene Wenger not bringing the best French players to Arsenal.

“If fish are swimming in your pond and you don’t catch them, there’s something wrong.”

Stanley were a big fish in the UniBond First Division pond when he was appointed manager by then chairman Eric Whalley, still with a role on the playing side, in 1999.

Even so, he could never have imagined the journey he would take the club on over the next 19 years, with a two-and-a-half year gap year that took in spells as manager of Rochdale, Southport and Sligo Rovers.

The pond got bigger and better with each promotion, but Coleman and his players adapted and improved, and what they lacked in money in comparison, they made up for in motivation.

“When I first came in we’d been relegated to Division One of the UniBond League. I knew all about that league because I’d managed in it the year before and missed out. I’d finished third two years running so I knew I had the capability of having a team to challenge there.

“When I came here we probably had one of the biggest budgets in that league so I would have been disappointed in myself if I didn’t get the first promotion.

“The way it happened was fantastic. I wouldn’t have wanted to put myself through it but it turned out to be fantastic because we actually did it.

“But it should have been a bit more comfortable than that with the resources we had available.

“Once we went up you then start believing in your own ability - in your own ability to attract players and to coach players, to tactically set up a team to beat other teams.

“And we quickly realised that we could compete.

“From being a big fish in the First Division of the UniBond we weren’t in the UniBond Prem. There were much bigger clubs than us - Barrow, Altrincham to name but two. And when you think about it Southport were a league above us and we were aspiring to be like Southport. They are now, what, four leagues below us.

“It was an achievement to win the UniBond Prem but we got good players.

“Going into the National League, I know Eric Whalley was petrified, thinking that we weren’t going to be able to compete.

“But with the help of the Brett Ormerod money - the windfall that we got from that - and a couple of good cup runs, that enabled us to go full time, and then once you go full time you can compete.”

Ormerod had left in a £50,000 move to Blackpool two years before Coleman arrived at the Crown Ground. A subsequent £1.75million switch to Southampton resulted in Stanley receiving 25 per cent of the profit in 2001.

Albeit a shot in the arm to Stanley at the time, it only went so far. But it gave Coleman a better base to work from.

“We weren’t competing on a realistic basis because we had the fourth lowest budget when we won the Conference, but we had a bit of knowhow and a bit of hunger about us,” he said.

“There are very similar parallels to the team that won that league to the team that has won League Two this year. We had one of the lowest budgets, but there’s a sense that they wanted to prove themselves and prove a lot of people wrong, and they were good players. If we can keep doing that hopefully we can keep causing upsets.”

TOMORROW: Working - and winning - with his best friend, and an ongoing education for former teacher Coleman