"ACCRINGTON Stanley, who are they?" questioned the little scouse lad in the old television advert for milk which featured former Liverpool hero Ian Rush.

Well Merseyside should definitely know now.

The ambitious UniBond outfit outplayed and outgunned a young, but talented Liverpool side last night, before a bumper 2,028 crowd at the Crown Ground.

The mighty Reds of Anfield won the first tussle when they retained the right to play in their world-famous red jerseys - the Stanley Reds switching to a black and white strip.

Once the action got underway, however, the city slickers were left in no doubt that Accrington meant business, and in a highly competitive and entertaining match.

But the balance was tipped by some explosive finishing from the home side.

It took 33 minutes for Stanley to make the initial breakthrough, with new signing Paul Moulden working a quick free-kick for Welch to feed Taylor and he set-up Rawstron to give Stanley a deserved lead. A well-deserved victory was sealed for Stanley with two killer blows in the space of a couple of minutes early in the second half.

Firstly, a diving header from Moulden found the target, then left-back Tony Briffa rifled home a superb volley.

Former England international and Liverpool dynamo Sammy Lee - now an integral part of the Anfield backroom staff - paid tribute to Stanley's performance and insisted his young side would constitute the club's reserve team this term.

"I think Stanley are a good side and played some realy good stuff. Tonight introduced some of our lads into the big wide world. What you have seen here what is going to be our reserve side this year.

Stanley's director of football Brent Peters, enthused: "My chairman Eric Whalley makes no pretence that he aims to get Stanley back playing league football again. This evening will go a long to helping us get our ground up to Vauxhall Conference standards."

ACCRINGTON STANLEY: Mulloy, Molloy, Briffa, Quick, Burns, McLelland (captain), Mellor, Rawstron, Taylor, Welch, Moulden. Subs: Edmonds, Rogerson, Walsh, Robinson and Ormerod.

LIVERPOOL: Warner, Neal, Turkington, Brazier, Charnock (captain), Pryor, Quinn (S), Roberts, Parkinson, Newby and Fairclough. Subs: Quinn (M), Naylor, Whitehead, Burgnall, Yates and Williams.

Stanley beat Castleton Gabriels 8-4 in an away friendly fixture last weekend, while their Under-18s team recorded a 4-1 victory over a Craven representative side.

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