Goal hero Seamus Conneely is keeping his feet firmly on the ground after Stanley opened a 10 point gap on fourth place Notts County – their opponents tomorrow.
The captain scored a crucial 60th minute goal in Friday's 1-0 win over Mansfield which extended Stanley's unbeaten run to ten games and made it five wins on the spin.The Reds leapt back to the top of the table with a massive game tomorrow at the Wham Stadium against the Magpies (ko 3pm).
But Conneely was part of the side which came so close to promotion two seasons ago and missed out by one goal – so he refuses to read anything into Stanley's current position with eight games to go for the Reds.
“I think we learnt from two years ago,” said the 29-year-old. “We were in a really good position and we let it slip away from us.
“Five of the players from that team are still here, it's the same management team and the fans went through it as well so we won't be getting carried away. We haven't achieved our goal of promotion yet, that's still to be accomplished.”
Conneely is relishing taking on the Magpies, who haven't won in three games, in front of a bumper crowd tomorrow.
“We had a good 2-2 draw at their place earlier in the season where we needed a late goal and they probably felt hard done by not to get the win.
“They have had a good season, they want to make the automatic promotion spots and it's a game they probably feel they need to win - but we obviously want to win too.
“Our dressing room is buzzing, the lads are full of confidence but we are not overly confident as we know there is a long way to go.
“We still have to play a lot of teams who are in with a shout of making the play-offs or automatic promotion so there is still a lot of work to be done.
“We are certainly guarding against any complacency in the camp and we are focused on what our goal is – that's promotion and anything else is a bonus.”
Conneely added: “We know we are the team to be shot at now, we are the form team but we want to be the team who have just won five on the bounce.
“Teams are probably looking at us and seeing us as a big scalp so we have got to be wary of that, we want to be one of the best teams in the league and think our form shows we are.”
In the game at Meadow Lane in August, County striker Jon Stead scored from the penalty spot – he now has 13 for the season – while Jorge Grant put the Magpies 2-0 up.
Stanley got one back through Mark Hughes before Mehki McLeod was dismissed but Leeds loan striker Mallik Wilks grabbed a 95th minute equaliser for the Reds.