Accrington Stanley 4 Jamie Speare XI 0. . .

GOALKEEPER Jamie Speare bade an emotional farewell to Accrington Stanley after his six years of service were acknowledged with a testimonial.

And the fans' favourite thanked the supporters and players who turned out to make his special match so memorable.

"It was good to see everyone again," Speare said.

"It's sad to be leaving but these things happen. You can't stay in the same place all the time otherwise you could go stale.

"I would like to have stayed, but circumstances meant it was time to move on."

He added: "I'd said before the game if there were 100 people there then I'd be happy, so for 420 people to turn up was unbelievable and if I could say thank you to every one of them individually I would."

Those supporters greeted Speare with poignant applause as both teams lined up outside of the dressing rooms to form a guard of honour for the popular goalkeeper.

Familiar faces including Jay Flannery, Mark Brennan and Russell Payne, who with Speare lifted the UniBond First Division title in 2000, also received a warm welcome.

But then it was down to business, made all the more entertaining by the rare sight of Neville Southall playing at the heart of the defence.

The gloves were off for the former Everton goalkeeper, who flew from Ireland the day before to take part in the game, as he partnered his former Toffees team-mate, Dave Watson, at the back.

Southall's two-footed attempted tackles left a lot to be desired, but Watson's touch didn't let the veteran down.

Dream Team actors Michael Ryan and Alex Lawlor added star quality to the line-up Speare had assembled to take on the current Stanley squad.

But while the goalkeeper would have loved to have bowed out with a clean sheet, he was picking the ball out of the back of the net after just 10 minutes.

The current Reds, captained by Andy Procter, took the lead through Damien Hindle after Speare's attempted dummy backfired inside the area.

Moments before, his cheeky nutmeg had worked, with Speare charging towards the halfway line with the ball at his feet.

But Hindle got revenge when he got the better of the stopper and rolled the ball into an empty net.

The former Burnley striker made it 2-0 when he beat Watson for pace on 13 minutes.

Speare then made a great stop to deny former Stanley trialist Griff Jones as the youngster chested the ball down and coolly volleyed on the turn.

Speare switched sides at half-time and was a virtual observer to his testimonial match, celebrating a goal five minutes into the second half when Paul Howarth crossed from the right for Steve Halford to slot home at the far post.

Stanley manager John Coleman and assistant Jimmy Bell laced up their boots to make an appearance for the testimonial XI just after the hour. Coleman went close to pulling a goal back with a free kick three minutes after his introduction but, despite their best efforts, neither could get on the scoresheet.

Jones completed the scoring with 17 minutes to go after linking with trialist Blake Naughton on the edge of the box.

But the scoreline was irrelevant. This was Speare's day, and when the final whistle signalled embraces from former team-mates and manager Coleman as he said goodbye, there was barely a dry eye in the ground.

Speare said: "I'd like to say thanks to everyone who played and came down, to Neville and Dave and the lads from Dream Team, to all the old lads who we played against - and to Coley and Jimmy for trying to cheat, as usual!

"It was a good game. Damo got his own back for when I nutmegged him, which I think he was quite happy about.

"But I was just out there to enjoy my last game."

STANLEY XI: Danny Alcock, Will Ryder, Paul Howarth, Steve Halford, Andy Procter, Steve Flitcroft, Chris Lynch, Paul Carvill, Damien Hindle, Griff Jones, James Locke.

JAMIE SPEARE XI: Jamie Speare, John Doolan, Jay Flannery, Dave Watson, Mark Brennan, Brett Baxter, Russell Payne, John Durnin, Michael Ryan, Jonathan Smith, Neville Southall.