ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman is challenging his players to prove they have what it takes to compete against the top teams in League Two.

The Reds ended an eight-game winless streak with a 2-1 victory over Luton Town thanks to goals from Paul Mullin and Terry Gornell.

But with high-flying Shrewsbury the visitors to the Fraser Eagle Stadium tonight, followed by a home game against Wycombe and a Lancashire derby at Morecambe, Coleman is hoping his players can build on their win over the Hatters and start to climb the table after finally ending their barren spell.

He said: “There was a sense of relief in the dressing room, that’s for sure.

"There was also a sense of satisfaction that we’d buried the ghost from the week before and they’d worked hard to do it.

“We were starting to think that we were stuck on seven points.

"It was crucial to get off that mark and hopefully we can get off 10 quickly as well.

“We were talking about it on the way home from Luton on Saturday and tried to put the result into perspective.

“If someone had said to us 10 years ago that we’d be travelling home from Luton after having beaten them in a league match, people would have laughed at you.

"It’s testament how well we’ve done as a club to get ourselves in this situation.

“But we’re not happy just playing at this level, we have to compete and we did that on Saturday.

“I think we’re capable of beating anyone in this league but sometimes our concentration lets us down.

“It’s all part of the learning curve and to try and educate yourself through your experiences in life in general.

"The players are all keen to do well and they’re all keen to work hard and if you’ve got that I think you are halfway there.”

But Coleman was only too aware of the size of the task facing his players against Paul Simpson’s free-scoring Shrewsbury.

He added: “It’s going to be a difficult game but it will be a great fillip for the players and a great boost for morale if we can go and win the game.

“But what we have to be mindful of is that we have to keep that gap between us and the bottom clubs as big as possible.

“I’d have to say that they (Shrewsbury) have to be the favourites to win the league with the resources they’ve got available to them.

“Every game we play in this division is tough but Shrewsbury are in good form, scoring goals, and they’ve got possibly the best budget in the league so you’d expect them to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. That’s why these games are a good test for us.

“He’s (Simpson) a very good manager and he’s very clued up to what it takes at this level.

"They’ve certainly got some great players but we’re slowly but surely getting a good squad together here and I think teams will be mindful of playing here.

“On any given day, we’ve always been confident of competing with teams.

“What we have to do is concentrate on our strengths and try impose ourselves on Shrewsbury and cause them some problems.

“We have to keep teams under as much pressure as we can, especially at home, and try and play the game in this half more.

“On Saturday we did just that. We played some smashing football against Luton and Bradford and we need to try and replicate that for longer periods.”