ROBBIE Williams is almost certain to miss tomorrow's Nationwide Conference clash at Dagenham and Redbridge.

That means Accrington Stanley will travel to East London without their first choice central defenders, with Steve Halford sidelined for at least a month with a broken leg.

But manager John Coleman is refusing to label the situation a defensive injury crisis.

"We've got a squad and we're going to use it," said Coleman, who has recalled Jonathan Smith from his loan spell at Conference North side Barrow.

"Jonathan probably has mixed emotions because he enjoyed his time there, but he is our player and needs must as Robbie is struggling with his injury and probably won't travel."

Coleman also secured the signature of young Everton centre half Anthony Gerrard on a month's loan this week.

The 18-year-old, who is the cousin of Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard, is eligible to play tomorrow after signing up until October 7.

And Coleman hopes both Smith and Gerrard will play their part in helping Stanley to a third away win of the campaign.

"It will be a tough game because they had a decent start," he said.

"They've had a little bit of a hiccup so they'll be looking to get back on track.

"But we're looking to kick on as well because we dropped points last weekend and you don't want to go too long before you get maximum points again."

And after not conceding for three consecutive games, Coleman has urged his side to carry on keeping it clean.

He added: "The chairman's always telling me that the team which concedes the least goals invariably wins the league and that's something we've got to target.

"We always fancy ourselves to make chances and take chances. The other end's always been a little bit of a problem.

"But the longer we go on and work at it, the benefit of full-time training should help us and maybe we can improve on our defence."

The Reds' boss added that he was also impressed with his side's discipline.

Stanley earned themselves something of a bad boy reputation last season due to the number of sendings off and yellow cards they chalked up.

But they have now gone four games without so much as a booking.

Coleman said: "It's pleasing. It's something that we've tried to address and I think the players have responded very responsibly to that.

"They're not getting involved in incidents that maybe they would have last year.

"They're certainly staying on their feet more in the tackle and in the short term we're reaping the benefits."