AN Accrington Stanley fan who boosted crowd numbers at away games by putting on coaches for supporters is retiring from the role he created himself.

But lifelong Steve Lowe is handing over the responsibility for away travel to three fans who recently set up a supporters' group called the Stanley Ultras.

Steve, 31, has been organising the coaches and entertainment on away days for the past two years.

He said: "It was getting tight at the top of the table and Stanley were playing Worksop away. I wanted to make sure there were plenty of people to go and sing, so I thought I would try organising a coach."

The Unibond Premier Division clash ended in a 4-1 Stanley victory and the club won promotion to the Conference at the end of the season.

Steve added: "We have always had a real mixture of young and old on the coaches."

Under Steve's organisation, there was always a quiz and singing during the journey out and videos to watch coming back.

A football team, Accrington Supporters' Team, was also formed during some of those journeys and now plays in a league.

Steve, who lives in Guide with his wife, Freda, and 10-year-old son Thomas, has decided to give up organising the away travel to concentrate on running the supporters' football team.

His final trip will be to Forest Green this weekend and after that he will hand the responsibility for getting fans to away games to the Stanley Ultras - Jason Graham, Andrew Camm and a fan everyone knows as Bubs.