ROSTYN Griffiths believes Accrington Stanley can make the play-offs this season – even though he may not be part of the Reds squad for much longer.

Griffiths has just three matches left on his loan deal with Stanley before he has to return to Blackburn Rovers as part of Football League rules, which only allow a player to stay on a short-term loan for a maximum of 93 days.

The 20-year-old has enjoyed his spell with the Reds and may yet be open to a return to the Fraser Eagle Stadium on a long-term loan or even a permanent basis when the transfer window opens in January.

And, whatever happens, he has already seen enough to be confident that Stanley are capable of making up a nine-point deficit to reach the play-offs.

Following Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Bournemouth, the Reds are currently 16th in League Two but sixth in the form table having taken 11 points from their last six games.

Griffiths said: “I’ve said all along that we’ve played against a lot of teams and I’ve not seen many teams better than us.

“I think play-offs should be a target for us and then see what happens from there.

“If we play like we have done in the last few weeks, there won’t be many teams in the league that can compete with us.

“It will be just a matter of scoring our goals, which we did on Saturday and hopefully we can do again.

“Now surely our confidence has got to be flying and there’s quality on the bench as well to come on.”

Coleman’s loan signings have been the catalyst for recent good form.

As well as Griffiths, Kieran Charnock has been rock solid in a defence, while Terry Gornell and Kallum Higgin-botham fared well in attacking roles against Bournemouth. A fifth loanee – Jamie Clarke – appeared as a substi-tute.

Stanley will not be able to keep the current team together for the whole season, with a permanent deal for Gornell looking unlikely, but things are finally falling into place for the Reds.

Griffiths said: “It’s good to finally start linking up between all of us and start to play as a proper team.

“But that’s what happens when you get loan players, it takes a little while to connect.”

Coleman added: “We’ve got five and that’s our maximum.

"Everyone tries to use the loan market as well as they can and we’ve got some good players.

“Choosing those players is the art of management but sometimes you can only pick what’s available to you.”