VICTORY in his first game as a manager will always rank as one of the highlights of Leam Richardson’s career, as the Accrington Stanley caretaker boss attempts to repeat the feat at Crewe tomorrow.

Richardson guided Stanley to a 4-3 home win over Gillingham on Saturday, days after taking temporary charge following the departure of John Coleman to Rochdale, and another good result at the Alexandra Stadium could move him ever closer to securing the job on a permanent basis.

For the 32-year-old, the Gills win ranks alongside his debut at Blackburn Rovers and LDV Vans Trophy victory with Blackpool at the Millennium Stadium among his career highlights.

“It was definitely up there,” he said.

“I’ve won a couple of medals in my time, made my debut against my home town club Leeds United, played at the Millennium Stadium. But it was definitely on a par with them.

“The lads pulled together as a unit, they proved they were professional and that they were good players.”

And Richardson hopes he could get the chance to take the role on full time after hearing encouraging noises from key figures at Stanley, including chairman Ilyas Khan, having also been given the go-ahead to look into the possibility of loan signings.

“I’ve had many chats with the board,” he said. “We have had a lot of meetings and a lot of things have been discussed, nothing’s been finalised yet, I’m just doing the best I can with what I’ve got at the minute and trying to be as successful as I can this season.

“Every time I’ve spoken to them they’ve been very positive, they seem to think this is the way forward, they’ve voiced their opinion that they’ve not really rushed into looking at any applicants who have come through the door and they seem really pleased with how it’s going so far.

“I think obviously as time goes by people will want to know the structure and what’s going on, whether somebody new’s going to come in, they’re going to need time.

“The season’s coming to a close and it starts to become towards the business end of the season.

“But the longer it goes, I don’t mind at all, I’ve stepped up and I’ll do my best for as long as they want me to do and hopefully I’m here for a long time after.

“Before this opportunity came I’ve been trying to build towards this aspect of my career.

“I’ve done all my qualifications, I didn’t expect it to come this quick but I’ve been learning and, yes, becoming a manager is something I want to achieve.”

Stanley came close to losing Padraig Amond on the final day of the transfer window, only for the loan forward to reject Portuguese parent club Pacos de Ferreira’s request to recall him.

“Podge has voiced that he’s really happy here and he wants to stay here,” Richardson said. “On deadline day there were a lot of phone calls and emails, and in the end he was allowed to stay, which is massive for us.”