Special report

Stanley - the day a club 'died'

ACCRINGTON Stanley is one of the most famous names in football. Forty years on from the club's demise from league football, we chart how it 'died' and then rose from the ashes.

 

On Stanley On!

ON 12 March 1962 the directors of Fourth Division Accrington Stanley Football Club received a letter from the Football League informing them that their resignation - tendered days earlier in panic - had been accepted.

The world's most famous club

TELL anybody that you come from Accrington and nine times out of 10 they'll mention Stanley - the most famous non-league soccer club in the world.


 

Club hurtles to disaster – Cash-strapped Stanley forced to sell top players

IN MARCH 1958, Stanley were challenging strongly for promotion to the Second Division of the Football League. Their manager, a young Scot named Walter Galbraith, had just been the subject of an approach by Blackpool, then a First Division club.

Anger and tears as team crashes out – Fans heartbroken as crisis-hit team sinks to bottom

STANLEY began the 1961-62 season with a small but committed squad of 17 players, which included proven performers such as striker George Hudson and goalkeeper Alex Smith.


 

1962 – Diary of demise

A TIMELINE chronicling those fateful last few months.

Sad days at Stanley

ACCRINGTON may have lost its Football League town status in 1962 but many of the footballing imports who were brought here by virtue of their sporting gifts made the small Lancashire town their lifelong home.


 

More articles…

Sad days at Stanley
Fergie remembers ‘Our aim is to take the club back to the Football League’
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