MARK Patterson is looking for a move into management after his release from Accrington Stanley.

The 35-year-old former Bolton and Bury midfielder was this week told he was surplus to requirements at the Crown Ground.

But the experienced midfielder has now set his sights on a move into football management.

"I look around the UniBond League and there are a lot of former pros doing well in management," he said.

"This is my second season at this level and I have got a taste of it now. I know what it's about and I have made some contacts. I have my coaching qualification and management is something I am seriously interested in."

Patterson joined Stanley, who have a home game against Frickley Athletic in the UniBond Premier League tomorrow, at the beginning of this season after spending last year in the Conference with Leigh RMI.

But he said he sensed his days were numbered at the Crown Ground when manager John Coleman started playing a more 'direct' system.

"I could tell over the last four or five weeks, the way John Coleman was changing the way we played, I thought it was going to be more difficult to keep my place.

"He wants to play a more direct style of football, a more pressurised game.

"That's fine, there are different ways of playing football and that is the way John Coleman wants to play.

"He didn't think I could change my style to adapt to that and to be fair I think he had a point.

"The lads he has there are younger and fitter than me and I think he can probably mould those lads better than he could me.

"It is not the first time it has happened to me and it won't be the last. I have met a great bunch of lads, it is a really good crack down there, it has been a great experience."

Coleman agreed that it was the more 'direct' style he wanted to play that made Patterson surplus to requirements.

"He is an excellent player," he said. "He has done well for us but it has been difficult because of the direct style we like to play.

"I think he would be better off with a Conference side to be honest because he is a very good footballer."