One town that will seemingly never give up on seeing league football is Blackburn’s neighbours to the east, Accrington. They have had three different clubs (they are NOT the same club, each was a stand-alone club) and two enjoyed league football. The third made it into the Conference in 2003 and after a moderately successful season in 2003/2004 look well-placed to become the third Accrington club to be a member of the Football League. It is a long tradition, which goes back to before league football in this country even began.

The Original Accrington Club

The original Accrington club was founded in 1878 in time-honoured club-beginning fashion; in a public house. This particular pub went by the name of ‘The Black Horse’ and still does to this day, in the same location on Abbey Street. They played their home games at the ground on Thornyholme Road which remains to this day as the home ground of Accrington Cricket Club. As their name suggests, they played in red. They were to be regular opponents of Rovers, mainly in friendlies before the start of the Football League.

Probably the most amazing spectacle of all the games was provided by their first meeting, thanks to two huge lamps at each end of the Alexandra Meadows ground in Blackburn providing artificial lighting on 4th November 1878.. A huge crowd of 6,000 turned up to see Rovers win 3-0, although many more thousands watched for free on the adjoining hills. Rovers had by far the upper hand in their regular meetings, with Accrington not recording their first win over their neighbours until 1883, by which time the number of Rovers wins over the ‘owd Reds’ had already reached double figures and included a 3-1 win in a Lancashire Cup final. Below is a picture of the ‘owd reds’(copyright http://hem.passagen.se/accringtonstanley/ unofficial website). They did have better luck against other Blackburn teams however, most notably when they beat Blackburn 6-4 in the Lancashire Cup final 1881, the first of their three Lancashire Cup wins.

Accrington were to become famous (or, rather, infamous) in 1884 when they were expelled from the FA for paying players and thrown out of the FA Cup competition that year (in which, for once, they were progressing nicely). Although they were only one of many clubs doing so at the time, they were the first caught and were made an example of. They soon rejoined the FA when professionalism was also welcomed as being inevitable. In their friendlies and local cup games with Rovers they continued to get a regular spanking and so, when the two clubs were drawn together in the 1887/88 FA Cup they viewed the match as their way to gain recompense for ten years of mostly continual defeats, especially as they had actually managed a rare win over Rovers 1-0 in the final of the East Lancashire Charity Cup the season before. They lost 3-1 though at home to Rovers so much for dreams!

The year after saw the formation of the Football League and, despite their uninspiring FA Cup pedigree Accrington were invited to join the league and became one of the twelve founding members. Their Lancashire Cup win that year (they beat Preston North End in the final) probably sealed their invitation. That first season they were the very first league opponents of one Blackburn Rovers. An amazing game finished 5-5 in front of 5,000 fans and was the first ever league match played in Blackburn. The reverse fixture saw Rovers win 2-0 at Accrington. Just to complete their misery Rovers knocked them out of the FA Cup for the second year, beating them 5-0 in a replay. Accrington finished seventh in that first league season and improved the next year to their highest ever league placing of sixth.

They were not to last much longer in the league, bowing out after five seasons in 1893 after losing a Test Match 1-0 to Sheffield United and then resigning from the league altogether due to financial difficulties. They had managed their first (and only) major win over Rovers they year before however, winning 1-0 at home. Interestingly enough, of all the teams they had played in the league, only one failed to beat them; Newton Heath, who were soon to rename themselves as Manchester United. With the departure from the league they were forced to move to another home ground, at Moorhead Park, which they shared with a new Accrington team, Stanley Villa. The club continued outside the league until 1896, when they finally folded following a 12-0 thumping on January 14 from Darwen F.C. Accrington FC is the first and only founding member of the league to no longer exist. Caught between two larger towns, their gates were never especially large even by the standards of the 1890s and financial mismanagement led to collapse after less than two decades. Yet they were not to be the last Accrington side to grace the league...

Accrington results against Blackburn Rovers in major competitions

• 1887/88 – FA CUP R3 – Accrington 3 Blackburn Rovers 1
• 1888/89 – FA CUP R1 – Accrington 1 Blackburn Rovers 1
• REPLAY - Blackburn Rovers 5 Accrington 0
• 1888/89 – DIVISION ONE – Blackburn Rovers 5 Accrington 5
• 1888/89 – DIVISION ONE – Accrington 0 Blackburn Rovers 2
• 1889/90 – DIVISION ONE – Blackburn Rovers 3 Accrington 2
• 1889/90 – DIVISION ONE – Accrington 2 Blackburn Rovers 2
• 1890/91 – DIVISION ONE – Blackburn Rovers 0 Accrington 0
• 1890/91 – DIVISION ONE – Accrington 0 Blackburn Rovers 4
• 1891/92 – DIVISION ONE – Blackburn Rovers 2 Accrington 2
• 1891/92 – DIVISION ONE – Accrington 1 Blackburn Rovers 0
• 1892/93 – DIVISION ONE – Blackburn Rovers 3 Accrington 3
• 1892/93 – DIVISION ONE – Accrington 1 Blackburn Rovers 1

Accrington Stanley

Even today it is still unknown exactly where the second Accrington side found the inspiration for their famous name. The Accrington part is obvious of course yet the reasoning behind them appropriating the word ‘Stanley’ remains a mystery. The most likely reasons are that either the club was formed in Stanley Street, Accrington or that they took it up due to the influence of ‘The Stanley Arms’ pub. Regardless, Stanley Villa formed in 1891 and plied their trade first in the amateur Lancashire leagues.

It is believed they changed their name to Accrington Stanley in 1893 which coincidentally saw the resignation of Accrington FC, with whom they shared the Moorhead Park ground. After the demise of ‘th’owd reds’ in 1895, Stanley were suddenly the main team of Accrington, a town by then which had grown used to league football. In 1900/01 they played for the first team in the Lancashire Combination league, which contained the reserve sides of many local league clubs and won the league the season after. They would remain in this league for the next twenty years.

During that time they did however meet their illustrious rivals of Blackburn Rovers in the first round of the FA Cup in 1910. A huge crowd of 15,000 (by some distance their highest they played for until then) at Ewood saw a typical result for an Accrington side against Rovers- a thumping victory for the Blue-and-whites. 7-1.

Accrington Stanley became the second Accrington club to achieve league status in 1921, when they became founder members of the Third Division (North). They also had a new home ground by this time, Peel Park, after they were forced to leave Moorhead Park following a stand collapsing in high winds. Accrington were to have little real success in the league, their highest finish being as runners-up twice and third place twice in four years in the mid-fifties. As only one team was promoted, they remained were they were. Things could have been much different if they had gone up but it was not to be. Of less happy seasons, there were also three finishes as the bottom-placed team in the division, requiring them to re-apply to the FA for their league status.

Instead, the greatest moment in the history was probably in FA Cup history against…Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn were not having the best of times in what was their first ever season outside the top flight and hoped for some relief in the shape of an FA Cup run and were confident when drawn at home against the lower league side of Stanley in the third round. The highest attendance of the season at Ewood, over 31,000, saw a 2-2 draw played out. The replay attracted almost 12,000 into a packed Peel Park and saw Stanley stun Rovers 3-1 after extra time. The once proud and mighty Rovers were humiliated. Accrington went out 2-0 away at Maine Road to a Manchester City side that would go on to be the league champions that season (and then, amazingly, relegated the next!).

The highest attendance in the history of the club was also against Blackburn Rovers in 1954 when, in an echo of proceedings 76 years before, artificial lighting was experimented with although this time at the home of Accrington. 17,634 turned up to see a 2-2 friendly draw.

Better times seemed to be around the corner for Stanley but they weren’t. Instead they were relegated in 1959/60 after the league was organised into four national divisions with a miserable 27 points from 46 league games and a colossally bad goal difference of -66 after conceding 123 goals and looked forward (if that is the right expression) to life in the Fourth Division. They finished the next season in eighteenth but were not to stick around long enough to finish another.

The financial situation had deteriorated to the point where the Vice-President deemed it prudent to ask his old pal to help. Unfortunately the old pal was Burnley chairman Bob Lord. Lord then demanded the resignation of the board, which happened although Lord had not revealed just what his intentions were. Lord then recommended that the club closed and they resigned form the league by a letter sent to the Football League.

Once the town of Accrington and the wider local area heard of this difficulty, offers of help apparently flooded and local businesses refused to call in their debts with the club. There is also a legendary story of a man who walked into the Stanley boardroom and placed a bag on a table. He said to a random official: "I don’t want to see this club go under." In the bag was £10,000 in cash; his life savings. At this time after receiving such support a second letter was sent to the Football League which asked for the original letter to be ignored. Stanley prepared for a home match against Exeter expecting a large turnout from those wishing for Stanley to survive but the sides were ordered not to play by the Secretary of the Football League Alan Hardaker which not in his power to do. Rather than call a meeting of the other of the 92 clubs and put the question of Stanley to them the League Management Committee decided to accept the resignation of Accrington Stanley. There was no way back for Stanley; they had resigned and it had been accepted. Despite this, the haste with which the club resigned from the league before they knew the reaction of the town is still debated today. As is the role of the Burnley chairman, Bob Lord. Certainly the demise of a local league club could hardly be anything other than beneficial to his own club. After being asked to help Stanley, he decided it would be best if they were no longer a league club. On Tuesday 13th March 1962 the Accrington Observer reported “Stanley-It's the death sentence”. They weren’t wrong. Details of the final days of Stanley as a league side can be found HERE.

Stanley joined the Lancashire Combination League division two, the league in which their reserves had played the season before! Despite winning promotion to the first division the club folded in January 1966 after the final home game had been played out in front of a paltry fifty spectators. Once again, an Accrington league side was no more.

Accrington Stanley results against Blackburn Rovers in major competitions

• 1909/10 – FA CUP R1 – Blackburn Rovers 7 Accrington Stanley 1
• 1936/37 – FA CUP R3 – Blackburn Rovers 2 Accrington Stanley 2
• REPLAY – Accrington Stanley 3 Blackburn Rovers 1

Accrington Stanley the Second

Accrington Stanley - The Second! Yet another Accrington club was formed in 1968 called themselves by the unoriginal name of Accrington Stanley, although this was a new club as they themselves advertise. Playing at ‘The Crown Ground; they have gradually worked their way up the non-league structure until they gained promotion to the Conference in 2003. Although they haven’t played Blackburn Rovers yet they have played at Ewood Park. In 1995 Stanley reached the 2nd round and was then rewarded with a home draw with Crewe Alexandra. Stanley switched the game to Ewood Park and were rewarded with a crowd of 10,801, by some distance the highest home crowd of this the third Accy team. Whether they will eventually become the third Accrington league side is yet to be seen…