Accrington Stanley defender Mark Hughes admits that the team can still make improvements – despite picking up an emphatic 4-0 victory over Chesterfield on Saturday.

The Reds ran out dominant winners at the Wham Stadium, with Hughes getting on the scoresheet, along with Sean McConville and Billy Kee, plus there was an own goal from Aaron Ramsdale.

The victory also meant Accrington moved up to fourth place in the League Two table.

While Hughes was pleased to make it back to back wins for Stanley following the poor run of form over the festive period, he agrees with his manager John Coleman that there are still areas to improve.

“You can’t complain with a 4-0 win, but I understand what the manager is saying, I felt the same out on the pitch, you always want more and you always want to be better,” he told the club’s official website. “I thought that we were fortunate to score two goals in the second half, they had a good go at us.

“I didn’t think we played that great but sometimes in football if you make a good start to the game then the rest can take care of itself.

“After the run that we went on we took everything back to basics, which is working hard and getting into people’s faces, the ugly side of the game.

“I think it’s been no surprise that we’re back to getting results because the football side seems to take care of itself because we know that we’ve got good players here.”

Only goal difference separates Stanley in fourth and Mansfield in seventh, and the Reds are one point behind third placed Coventry with a game in hand.

With that in mind, Hughes says his team have their sights set on moving into the automatic promotion places, rather than worrying about the teams that are behind them in the table.

“We’re believers and we’re always looking up. We’re lucky that we made such a good start to this season that we’re still right up there even after losing four games on the bounce,” he said.

“A lot of other teams would be looking over their shouldejirs after a run like that.

“If we could have finished the Morecambe game then we might have saw ourselves sitting in that top three now, but it’s all in our own hands and we’ll take that.”