WITH Bury on the brink of folding, it was no surprise to the people of Accrington that their club did everything they could to try and save them last year.

The Shakers are still in a precarious position, but it was Stanley chairman Eric Whalley who helped to highlight the plight of their Second Division neighbours.

Whalley couldn't stand to see a local club heading down the same tracks as the Reds did 40 years ago yesterday.

It was March 6, 1962, when Stanley, founder members of the Football League in 1888, handed in a letter of resignation.

That was the day League football in Accrington died.

With crippling debts of £40,000 and struggling to pay the water, electricity and phone bills at their Peel Park ground, it was felt the club could go no further.

It is a sad story in the days of money-laden clubs that they needed just £4,000 to keep the club afloat.

Burnley Chairman Bob Lord initially offered some hope but their fate turned on the meeting of the club's creditors on March 5.

Lord told them that the situation was hopeless and many Stanley fans still feel that he was doing this to get the Accrington fans to switch their allegiance to Turf Moor.

And so there was no rescue plan - just a death sentence.

And that day the club's four remaining directors sent a letter of resignation to the League.

Public uproar followed and it seemed the seriousness of Stanley's plight had not been appreciated.

A couple of days later an unknown man walked into Peel Park with a bag of cash containing £10,000 - but it was too little too late.

A group of business men also got together with pledges of cash and what they hoped would be a survival package and Stanley sought to withdraw their resignation.

Their fate rested with secretary of the Football League Alan Hardaker and the League Management Committee.

But the LMC, which included Lord, accepted the original letter and Hardaker refused any number of appeals from Stanley to rip up the letter of resignation - and so that was that.

Player George Forrester said at the time: "The writing was on the wall for Stanley when the few spectators who turned up for home matches began to jeer."

His team-mate Willie Devine said: "It is sad to see the club die, but many of us are happy. It was time the club was wrapped up."

The team was sold off. Michael Ferguson went for £2,000 - he later was sold from Blackburn to Aston Villa for £60,000 - while goalkeeper Alex Smith, who was worth £10,000, was sold for £750.

Then former Stanley player Ian Gibson left Bradford PA to join Middlesbrough just a week later. He went for £20,000, money the Reds felt should have been in their coffers as midfielder Gibson was poached by Bradford at the age of 16 before he could sign a full-time contract - that could have saved them.

Fan Ellen Rishton admitted: "I don't know what I will do now. It is like a death."

Stanley's 'extinction' was however to prove only temporary as they reformed in 1968 thanks to the instigation of the town in the Lancashire Combination League. And the intention then remains as it does now - to get back into the Football League.

READ more about Stanley's history in 'Images of Sport: Accrington Stanley Football Club' by Phil Whalley, available at the club shop.