A lifelong Stanley fan has uncovered rare memorabilia from the old club’s tumultuous final days.
The original Accrington Stanley resigned from the Football League on this week in 1962 after suffering financial difficulties, prior to the club’s reformation in 1968.
Enthusiast and fan John Thacker, 69, has been collecting programmes since the 1980s.
The father-of-one now holds a pair of rare programmes from the club’s ill-fated 1961/62 season for his collection.
At an auction this January he bought the Bradford City match programme from February 3, 1962, the last match for which a programme was printed. John already had the Stanley versus Harlepool United programme from Boxing Day, 1961, notable as the postponed match was never played.
Stanley resigned from the league on March 11, 1962.
John, who lives in Clayton-le-Moors with his wife of 37 years Hazel, said the programmes from Stanley’s last games of that season are much sought after, with the ones he bought attracting dealer prices of £40 to £75.
He said: “I have been chasing these programmes for quite a while but I finally got them in the end. Stanley were in a pretty poor financial state when they resigned.
“People in the town came forward and offered financial assistance to get them through the season but it was too late.
“After they resigned by post, they tried to withdraw their resignation but the league refused to accept.
“The league sought legal advice and concluded the club couldn’t go back on the resignation. They had switched the lights off at the pitch.”
John is now trying to obtain a copy of the programme for Stanley’s last ever game against Crewe Alexandra in 1962, but it is an expensive buy - one sold at auction for £1,100.
John, a retired tour guide with the museum service, said his first collection was programmes from all 92 football league clubs from the 1978/79 season and he had been left with two to find.
He said: “I collected them quite quickly – the last two being Oxford United and Peterborough United. Interestingly, Oxford United provided me with the Peterborough programme, and Peterborough found me the Oxford programme.”
John has followed the Reds closely for decades.
Since Stanley reformed in the Lancashire Combination in 1971, he has recorded every single result, right up to their most recent fixture against Portsmouth, and he is optimistic about the current team’s chances.
