Stanley skipper Andy Procter knows he and his team-mates now have to stand up and be counted.

The 14th-placed Reds have lost their last five league games – the last time they had this unwanted record was in 2006 – and find themselves 11 points adrift of the play-offs.

With seven games to go, the captain knows his side have to get it right and make sure it’s not a dismal end to what had, up until 10 games ago, been a superb season.

"It has been really hard to take," said the 26-year-old, one of the oldest players in the team.

"We got to 35 games and then we fell to pieces. We don’t know why but now we have got to show some character and backbone and see it through to the end of the season.

"With seven games to go, it is still a sizeable chunk and we have got to make sure that a really promising season – which included good FA¿Cup and Johnstone Paints Trophy runs – doesn’t peter out and make sure our league position is representative of how well we have done.

"We know we have not been good enough in the last five games, we have made mistakes and we had a long talk about it in the dressing room among the players after Monday’s defeat to Grimsby.

"All days off have been cancelled and there are extra training sessions as we look to put it right and we have all got a copy of the Grimsby DVD to analyse our own performances.

"We are short of confidence and have become a soft touch and we have got to turn it around. We have got to make sure all the hard work from earlier on in the season is not undone."

On current form Staney would be 23rd in the table, and tomorrow they take on bottom club Darlington. The Quakers are almost certainties to be playing non-league football next season but they have had two wins in their last three games.

Then it’s promotion-chasing Port Vale on Tuesday and boss John Coleman admits nothing short of wins will satisfy him now.

"We need to take 21 points out of 21 but I am not even looking that far ahead as I am only looking at Darlington," said the Reds boss.

"Monday was the lowest point of my career and the fans deserve better.

"I am embarrassed by the way we have performed in the last five games and the buck stops with me.

"It is my responsibility to get the best out of the team and, at this moment in time, I am not getting the best out of the team. It is me who is to blame.

"It is up to me to get what little is left of the squad and try to get it out of them between now and the end of the season or else we are in for an embarrassing end to the season.

"The only thing which has stopped us being the total laughing stock of the league is that Shrewsbury have lost six on the bounce. It’s not good enough."

Coleman has swapped and changed his squad in the last two games looking to find the winning formula and the Reds were also boosted by the return of striker Michael Symes against Grimsby.

But that hasn’t brought results – with a 3-1 defeat at Dagenham on Saturday

followed by the 3-2 loss to struggling Grimsby – and has left him scratching his head.

"We have conceded six goals in our last two games and so the changes haven’t worked. Whoever we seem to put in at the moment make mistakes.

"The two goalkeepers are shot of confidence and the back four aren’t far ahead of them, whoever we put in.

"The only way they are going to get that confidence is by working hard and getting through it and they’ve got to stop making mistakes.

"Unfortunately for us that’s something that we can’t stop doing at the minute.

"It’s the lowest point of my career. I’ve got to do something to turn it around for my own sanity. I am so frustrated.

"I have got to pick a team tomorrow who’ll be hard to beat and work themselves into the ground and I have got to get them back to fighting for the cause and, at this moment in time, for whatever reason we are not."

The Reds have played 50 games this season, including the cups – defenders Phil Edwards and Dean Winnard are the only ever-presents in the league campaign – and Coleman will hope, after a long, hard season, they can rally for the finale.

Coleman said he brought Jimmy Ryan off at half-time against Grimsby because of illness but the midfielder is expected to be fit, while Tom Lees is also available after missing the Mariners clash as Coleman changed his squad around.