NEXT week marks the 44th anniversary of Accrington Stanley's shock resignation from the Football League.
Back then they made the headlines for all the wrong reasons as the founder members of the League folded under a mountain of debt.
But now the Reds are lapping up media attention for the right reasons as they look destined for an emotional return.
The Reds are currently 13 points clear at the top of the Nationwide Conference with 12 games left.
It is what chairman Eric Whalley has striven for since he took over the club in 1995.
And it will be a dream come true for the loyal fans who have followed the club through thick and thin for those dark days of 1962 are still alive in a lot of people's minds.
No-one had really expected it would be the end, despite Stanley being £65,000 in debt following a long-term struggle with poor attendances and at the bottom of the old Fourth Division.
It had come to a head, beginning in February 1962, when Stanley received a letter from the Football League asking about the club's financial status. Vice-chairman Sam Pilkington came in to help and asked his friend Bob Lord, the Burnley chairman, to assist him.
Pilkington called for six Stanley directors to resign and they agreed.
On 24 February the Reds played what was to be their last-ever game at their Peel Park ground when they lost 2-0 to Rochdale.
They then drew 1-1 at Doncaster and lost 4-0 at Crewe on 2 March 1962 - their final League game.
People still remember the creditors' meeting on 5 March when it was revealed the debts were more than £60,000. Utililty bills needed paying and National Insurance stamps for the players had not been paid either.
Lord told the remaining four directors the only thing for the club to do was resign.
The next day, those directors sent a letter of resignation to the League and the players learned what had happened when they turned up for training.
In the following days, the town rallied and the club received offers of financial help, with Stanley president William Cocker trying to save the club and rescind the letter of resignation.
But, the League Management Committee, without going to a vote of the 92 clubs, decided it would accept the resignation.
And that, supposedly, was that.
But it wasn't.
Thanks to the efforts of Councillor Bill Parkinson and Stanley fan Jack Barrett, it was decided in October 1968 to try and re-form the club.
They started out again on the bottom rungs of the football ladder and slowly but surely climbed their way up - with a few hiccups along the way.
And now, they stand so close to returning to the Football League - a feat which so many people thought they would never see in their lifetimes.
