Looking Back, with Eric Leaver

IT had been a year of sensation - a new group called the Beatles had taken the pop world by storm, the Profumo sex scandal rocked the government, President Kennedy was assassinated in the USA and Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had quit.

But 34 years ago this month, as that event-packed year drew to a close, East Lancashire was hit by the surprise after-shock of an explosion that had shaken not just the region, but the whole of English soccer 20 months before.

In March, 1962, the legendary Accrington Stanley had been the first club to quit the Football League in the middle of the season. Now, with the town still mourning the downfall of its famous club and with an eviscerated Stanley pitched from the League's Fourth Division into the semi-oblivion of the Lancashire Combination, one last creditor was poised to swoop on the wounded club and local pride - with a move that threatened to take away even the side's illustrious name "Stanley."

The circling vulture appeared in the form of the Commissioners of the Inland Revenue with a High Court petition for the winding-up of the club, which owed £3,500 in taxes.

It was a step that opened up the barely-healed wounds at Peel Park, where less than a decade before average crowds of 10,000 had watched Stanley apparently heading in very opposite direction from obscurity as, for three seasons in a row, they came tantalisingly close to promotion from the old Third Division North. Yet, by 1962, gates had tumbled to around 2,500 and the club, £60,000 in the red, was deep in trouble. One item that had contributed to Stanley's financial plight was the £15,000 "white elephant" new stand, formerly used by spectators at the Aldershot Military Tattoo, which the club had built in 1958 when it seemed on the brink of higher status.

It came as soccer gates generally where beginning to fall. Yet if Accrington was destined to be the first small-fry victim in an emerging soccer jungle dominated by the big clubs, there was much bitterness about the nature of its downfall.

For as its financial troubles began to pile up, Bob Lord, chairman of big-time neighbours Burnley FC, emerged as a potential saviour, promising to do what he could in a personal capacity to help. Accrington's position at the bottom of the Fourth Division and its huge overdraft were no disgrace, he said.

There was speculation that Stanley might become a "nursery club" for the Clarets. But Football League secretary Alan Hardacre warned there was no way Burnley could "take over" the Accrington club while it remained in the League. It would be different if Stanley went into the Lancashire Combination, he said.

Brought in to lead the survival fight was Sam Pilkington, ex-player, secretary, director, chairman, president and "Mr Accrington Stanley." The friend of Bob Lord received messages of sympathy from all over the country and there was even a suggestion that a "Help Stanley" collection should be taken at Ewood Park in the forthcoming First Division clash between Blackburn Rovers and Burnley as a gesture by the "Big Brothers." On the afternoon of February 24, as 33,914 watched Rovers win that derby, just 2,727 were at Peel Park as Stanley went down 0-2 against Rochdale in what was to be their last game there.

The night before, Bob Lord, Sam Pilkington and the club's directors had met. Five Stanley directors were willing to stand down to make way for the Burnley boss and a creditors' meeting was called for March 5.

The Accrington side clawed a point in their next match away at Doncaster but three days before the momentous meeting they were thrashed by four goals to nil at Crewe Alexandra in what was destined to be their last-ever League match.

Rather than a rescue plan, a death sentence was delivered. More than £48,500 was owed to unsecured creditors, nearly £8,000 was needed to meet the players' wages until their contracts ran out in June and the chairman of the meeting, Mr J Pollard, warned that unless £400 was found, the phone, gas, water and electricity at Peel Park would be cut off.

The man on whom so many hopes of deliverance were pinned, Bob Lord, said there was only one businesslike decision to take - to fold up.

The next day, the removal men were at the ground stripping the assets on behalf of the accountants. Light fittings, washing machines, step ladders and even a broken portable radio went into their vans and services were cut off.

Yet as the board's letter of resignation went to the League, last-minute efforts were being made to keep Stanley going. The largest shareholder, club president and Oswaldtwistle chemical works chief Sir William Cocker, emerged two days later at the head of a group of businessmen offering financial aid. But even though the club's letter of resignation had not been put before the League's management committee, secretary Alan Hardacre refused their pleas to rip it up.

He and Bob Lord became the villains of the piece. Many fans blamed Hardacre and the League for not giving Stanley a chance to carry on. They suspected that what Lord really wanted was for Stanley fans to switch support to Turf Moor.

Stanley's angered shareholders decided to launch a legal challenge to the League's decision to accept the resignation after the club tried to withdraw it. And the following month, the directors decided to re-apply for admission to the Fourth Division. But as these moves emerged, the first ominous noises from the taxman were heard and in November the following year came his winding-up petition which, three weeks later, the High Court upheld.

Accrington Stanley Football Company (1921) Ltd, formed the year when the team became part of the old Third Division North, was no more. Gone, too, was the famous and unique "Stanley" tag which stemmed from the Stanley Villa side, made up in 1892 of local lads from the town's Stanley Street area.

The team's antecedents stretched back to the town's "Old Reds," the Accrington FC who were formed in 1878 and who had in 1888 been one of the 12 clubs invited to form the Football League.

For the sake of £3,576 in unpaid tax, the "Stanley" were killed off and the new club which emerged from the ashes played on as Accrington Football Club.

History and tradition, however, remained kinder than the taxman. In 1968, a new Accrington Stanley was formed and in 1970 in the Second Division of the Lancashire Combination, it entered the annals of football once again.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.