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Accrington Stanley F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Accrington Stanley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Accrington Stanley Football Club |
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| Nickname(s) | The Stans or Stanley, The (Famous) Minnows, The Owd Reds |
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| Founded | 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Crown Ground Accrington Lancashire England (Capacity 5,057 (1,200 seated)) |
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| Chairman |  Eric Whalley |
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| Manager | John Coleman |
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| League | League Two | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006–07 | League Two, 20th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Accrington Stanley is a football club from Accrington in Lancashire, in the north-west of England, formed in 1968. The town regained a club with league status after 44 years, when they were promoted as champions of the Nationwide Conference on 15 April 2006 [1]. One of the clubs relegated from League Two was Oxford United, the team that was elected to replace the former Accrington Stanley as members of the Football League in 1962. They should not be confused with the earlier club of the same name, nor with Accrington F.C., who were one of the original twelve founder members of the Football League. There is no connection between the three clubs.
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In a meeting in the town library in October 1968 the revival was started and in August 1970 the new club played at a new ground, The Crown Ground. The 'new' club are seen to hold both the legacy of both Accrington F.C. and the old defunct Accrington Stanley. Since the revival, Stanley have clawed their way back up the non-League scene to reach league football. Eric Whalley, a local businessman, took control of the club in 1995 and started the development of the club's Crown Ground. After the club was relegated in 1999, Whalley appointed John Coleman as manager. In 2003, Stanley advanced to the Nationwide Conference, which is the highest level of football outside The Football League (ironically switching places with relegated Oxford United- the team that replaced them in the Football League in 1962). Each season, the winner of the Conference and the winner of playoffs between the next four top teams in the Conference replace the bottom two teams in The Football League.
The club's recent rise to the Conference level, and eventually to the League, is attributed in part to the windfall of hundreds of thousands of pounds reaped by the sell-on clause in the December 2001 transfer of former Stanley star Brett Ormerod to Southampton, which paid Blackpool over a million pounds for his contract. Stanley had taken £50,000 from Blackpool in 1997 with the agreement that Blackpool would pay Accrington a quarter of what they might have received if they in turn transferred Ormerod to another team. The 2002-2003 championship of the Northern Premier League followed quickly on Accrington's getting the cash.
And At 16:51 GST on Saturday 15 April, 2006, Accrington Stanley were born again with a 1-0 win over Woking at The Kingfield Stadium.
On 21 August 2006, Accrington Stanley won their first ever Carling Cup game against two times European Champions Nottingham Forest, with Paul Mullin scoring the only goal of the game on 61 minutes. Easily the club's finest victory in its history, despite Forest putting on a below-par performance whilst resting some of their key players, set up a clash with Premiership new boys Watford at Vicarage Road, which the team were unlucky to lose 6-5 in a sudden-death penalty shoot-out. They also have a Ladies team playing in the Lancashire FA Women's County League Division Two.
The original town team, Accrington F.C., were amongst the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888, before resigning from the league after just five years. A team called Stanley Villa already existed at the time, named as such because they were based at the Stanley Arms on Stanley Street in Accrington. With the demise of Accrington FC, Stanley Villa took the town name to become Accrington Stanley. There was also a team originally based in West London called Stanley F.C., who played against the likes of Fulham F.C. and QPR in the late 19th Century before folding.
Stanley are currently pushing for fans in the Asian, mainly Chinese market (similar to Manchester United) for revenue, calling themselves "the world's most famous little club - although the average attendance they generally get at their home games is around 1400".[1]
The club was name-checked in a celebrated British advert for milk, from the 1980s.[2] The scene was two boys with thick Scouse accents in Liverpool football shirts in a kitchen, looking for something to drink after a game of football. The dialogue ran as follows:
Boy 1 enters shot, puts ball on top of fridge, and opens it
- Boy 2: "Got any lemonade?"
- Boy 1: "If you want!" (he takes a bottle of milk from the fridge)
- Boy 2: "Milk.....Ugh!"
- Boy 1: "It's what Ian Rush drinks."
- Boy 2: "Ian Rush?"
- Boy 1: "Yeah, an' he says if I didn't drink lots of milk, when I grow up I'll only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley!"
- Boy 2: "Accrington Stanley? ... Who are they??!"
- Boy 1: "Exactly!"
Boy 2 tries to get to Boy 1's milk.
- Boy 1: "Nah, gerroff!"
- Boy 2: "Gimmie some!"
- Jon Anderson, member of the band Yes
- David Lloyd, former England cricketer and Sky Sports pundit
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| Season | Division | Position | Significant Events |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joined the Lancashire Combination | |||
| 1970-1971 | Lancashire Combination | 6 | – |
| 1971-1972 | Lancashire Combination | 2 | Runners Up |
| 1972-1973 | Lancashire Combination | 3 | – |
| 1973-1974 | Lancashire Combination | 1 | Champions |
| 1974-1975 | Lancashire Combination | 10 | – |
| 1975-1976 | Lancashire Combination | 2 | Runners Up |
| 1976-1977 | Lancashire Combination | 3 | – |
| 1977-1978 | Lancashire Combination | 1 | Champions |
| 1978-1979 | Cheshire County Division Two | 5 | – |
| 1979-1980 | Cheshire County Division Two | 2 | Runners Up |
| Accrington Stanley were not promoted because of ground difficulties | |||
| 1980-1981 | Cheshire County Division Two | 1 | Champions |
| 1981-1982 | Cheshire County Division One | 13 | – |
| Placed in North West Counties Division One upon merger of the Cheshire County & Lancashire Combination football leagues | |||
| 1982-1983 | North West Counties Division One | 10 | – |
| 1983-1984 | North West Counties Division One | 7 | – |
| 1984-1985 | North West Counties Division One | 15 | – |
| 1985-1986 | North West Counties Division One | 11 | – |
| 1986-1987 | North West Counties Division One | 2 | Runners Up |
| 1987-1988 | Northern Premier League | 8 | – |
| 1988-1989 | Northern Premier League | 6 | – |
| 1989-1990 | Northern Premier League | 3 | – |
| 1990-1991 | Northern Premier League | 4 | – |
| 1991-1992 | Northern Premier League | 8 | – |
| 1992-1993 | Northern Premier League | 6 | – |
| 1993-1994 | Northern Premier League | 16 | – |
| 1994-1995 | Northern Premier League | 15 | – |
| 1995-1996 | Northern Premier League | 7 | – |
| 1996-1997 | Northern Premier League | 11 | – |
| 1997-1998 | Northern Premier League | 20 | – |
| 1998-1999 | Northern Premier League | 22 | Relegated |
| 1999-2000 | Northern Premier Division One | 1 | Champions |
| 2000-2001 | Northern Premier League | 9 | – |
| 2001-2002 | Northern Premier League | 6 | – |
| 2002-2003 | Northern Premier League | 1 | Champions |
| 2003-2004 | Conference | 10 | – |
| 2004-2005 | Conference National | 10 | – |
| 2005-2006 | Conference National | 1 | Champions |
| 2006-2007 | League Two | 20 | – |
| 2007-2008 | League Two | ||
- Official website
- Accrington Stanley Kits from the Past
- Accrington Stanley Shirts
- AccringtonStanley Asian website
- ^ James Ducker. "Watch out United, Accrington are advancing on the Asian market", Sunday Times, 2006-12-29. Retrieved on 2007-04-21.
- ^ Advert at YouTube
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Accrington Stanley | Barnet | Bradford City | Brentford | Bury | Chester City | Chesterfield | Dagenham & Redbridge | Darlington | Grimsby Town | Hereford United | Lincoln City | Macclesfield Town | Mansfield Town | Milton Keynes Dons | Morecambe | Notts County | Peterborough United | Rochdale | Rotherham United | Shrewsbury Town | Stockport County | Wrexham | Wycombe Wanderers |
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