ACCRINGTON Stanley's Dean Calcutt has enjoyed the club's first season in the Nationwide Conference.

The midfielder admits that the strains of combining football and work in a higher division has started to take its toll on the squad.

The 28-year-old has also revealed that he is uncertain about what the future might hold for him at the Interlink Express Stadium, with manager John Coleman set to make sweeping changes in the summer.

But he is confident that, if the Reds chief was to offer him a full-time contract, his game would benefit.

"Not having to go to work would be a lot easier because you'd be able to concentrate more on the fitness side of things and improve areas of your game and enjoy it more," said Calcutt, who has been hampered by a hernia problem over the last couple of months.

"It's been brilliant in the Conference. It's the first time I've played at this level, and I just wish I could have stayed fully fit.

"Being in and out of the side has been disappointing but I don't think I could have lasted 90 minutes week in, week out because I know it would have aggravated the hernia."

Calcutt's season will come to a premature end after tomorrow's home game against Gravesend and Northfleet. He and winger Rory Prendergast are suspended for the Reds' last game of the season at Exeter next Saturday after both were sent off in last week's Lancashire FA Marsden Trophy final defeat at Morecambe.

He added: "I've enjoyed the last two years here. There was a chance that I was going to leave at the end of last season but they stuck with me.

"If they offered me something I would stay because, like a lot of the players, I enjoy working with John.

"If the worst comes to the worst and it is a case of thanks but no thanks then there wouldn't be any hard feelings."