PROMOTION TO THE Football League might have been Eric Whalley's long-awaited dream but the ambitious Accrington Stanley chairman isn't stopping there.

"Who knows this time next year I could be sat here talking about promotion to Coca Cola League One," smiled the chairman.

Not for one minute, though, is he getting too carried away.

He has been in football too long to think that his beloved Stanley are already in the Football League.

Despite being 13 points clear, anything can still happen although Whalley is still pinching himself that they have come so far.

"I don't know how we have done it. After only being in the Conference for two-and-a-half years, it is the beginning of March and we are 13 points clear. I can't believe it but you have to. It is a fact, it is not fantasy."

The chairman has been striving for since he took over the club in 1995.

Before this, as a young lad, he played at Accrington Stanley in 1958 for the reserves.

He moved onto Great Harwood but rekindled his association with the club in two spells as manager before buying the club when former chairman John Alty decided to sell it.

Whalley is Accrington born and bred and has followed Stanley all his life - although Blackburn Rovers were his first love.

"It was Blackburn first but Accrington were always my second club and I watched them as a kid.

"I remember Accrington were well-known for being an all-Scottish side when Walter Galbraith came. He virtually had 11 Scotsmen in the team and some of the fans, the knockers who you get at any club, said if you are not Scotch you wouldn't get into the team - a bit like they say nowadays about Scousers!" he joked.

"They put the reason Stanley were forced out of the league down to all reasons. To Bob Lord, to Mike Ferguson turning a move down and to the Aldershot stand. I don't know. They were just never successful on financial ground.

"I remember 1962 and everyone was devastated. They did not think it would happen but obviously it did and everyone was despondent.

"I think they always thought someone would come along and bale them out and clear the debts. That someone would do what club's like Leicester and others have done and gone into liquidation and then come back to start afresh.

"A lot of clubs have been in the same situation as Accrington Stanley but never gone out the league as they have always been baled out.

"It was a big shock and a big story at the time. It was in every national newspaper. I have copies of the headlines on the sport pages but I just hope it is as big a story if we can back in the league - we have certainly been attracting a lot of attention and it sells stuff, we can get sponsors and we are selling out of merchandise."

Some of the merchandise was bought by two people from the Israel Times last week who came to interview the chairman about Stanley's success - and left with scarves and hats!

And, despite the hectic and nerve-racking times, he has enjoyed it all since he took over the reins.

"I had been asked to join the board and the chairman John Alty then told me he was selling his shares. I stepped in and bought all of them and that was it.

"I remember coming back from Matlock soon after after a UniBond First Division game and two supporters were on the coach with us. They were despondent and saying "what a load of rubbish" and I said "You won't be saying that when we are in the Football League." They laughed then but hopefully I will have the last laugh!

"But I have no regrets. My wife Tess would say I spend most of my time here but I am lucky in that I have four kids who can run the business so I can spend the time here. I am certainly the only full-time non paid employee of the club."

In 1999, the chairman pulled off the master-stroke of getting John Coleman to the club.

"I came to hear about John through Liam Watson. He rung me to say that if I was looking for someone John had just left Ashton and was interested in coming to Accrington. So I met him and Jimmy Bell at the Tickled Trout and the rest, as they say, is history.

"I could see a lot of John in me. He is a bit aggressive but he can put his arm around people if necessary. We haven't really looked back as he has guided us to three promotions - we were the first club to bounce straight back into the Premier Division after relegation - and won numerous cup competitions.

"He has been easy to work with and we get on all right - although he might tell you differently! We have got an understanding and if we can't afford it we won't do it. We have got to make the books balance.

"Accrington have the problem of being in between Burnley and Blackburn but saying that, things can change quickly. I remember Blackburn being in the old Third Division and only getting crowds of 7-8,000 and look where they are now.

"Wimbledon went from non-league to Premier League and there is no reason why Accrington can't do the same.

"But we aren't getting ahead of ourselves, but if we get to the stage where no one can catch us, even I might have a little drink!" said the chairman who usually sticks to the soft drinks.

And, despite nothing being certain, the plans have begun for next season.

"We will do what we have to on and off the field," said the chairman. "The Stadium Inspectors have been round and the ground needs a few things doing which will start this week and hopefully be finished by June.

"We have got planning permission to take the capacity, with segregation, up to 5000 and we have got to get more turnstiles, a police control room and a first aid room.

"And there is enough land on the lease that means we can go higher if we get into the Football League and we want to go as high as we can. Realistically, we can certainly get into League One.

"First year teams in the Football League do tend to do well as adrenaline takes you through. The second season is a different kettle of fish."

But are the people of Accrington ready for a Football League club again, after what happened in 1962?

Whalley admitted: "That is my only concern - are they ready for it? I don't know. There are a lot of good people in Accrington and a lot of the councillors have backed us with their feet and kept coming but will they keep coming? We may have to wait and see."

But there is one promise Whalley may not fulfil. "I said I would get them into the Football League and then retire. I don't know yet."