Name: Accrington Stanley
Ground: The Fraser Eagle Stadium
Nickname: Stanley
Home Kit: Red

For many, Accrington Stanley may seem like a fairly new club and for those older football fans they associate the club with the famous milk advert of the 1980's.

But there has been a football club in Accrington for well over 100 years and the original town team of Accrington FC were one of the original founder members of the Football League in 1888, 10 years after their inception.

They played their first league match at Anfield Road, which was ironically then the home of Everton, going down 2-1. Their last Football League match came just five years later on April 22nd 1893, when they lost to Sheffield United at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, in a match to decide promotion / relegation.

The club resigned from the league, when they were relegated to Division 2, opting to withdraw and join the Lancashire League, where they spent two seasons before joining the Lancashire Combination. But they withdrew after just five matches and went out of business shortly after.

A team called Stanley Villa also existed in the town and following the closure of Accrington FC they took the name of the town and became known as Accrington Stanley.

The club Stanley Villa is believed to have been formed way back in 1891, named because the people behind setting up the club lived on Stanley Street while others believe the club was formed at the Old Stanley Arms.

After several years playing in the Lancashire Leagues Accrington Stanley joined the Football League in 1921, when the Third Division (North) was formed. They lost their first ever league game, going down 6-3 to local rivals Rochdale. Stanley won the division in 1945/46 and the success remains their only league title to date.

On March 5th 1962 Accrington Stanley were forced to resign from the league and went into liquidation due to debts in excess of £40,000.

A new club by the name of Accrington Stanley (1968) was formed six years later, although the (1968) was later dropped. The club worked its way slowly through the local county leagues, until they reached the Football Conference in 2003.

The club made a historic return to the league three years later, a 1-0 win at Woking on April 15th 2006 sealing their sensational fightback.

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