MODERN day footballers are not averse to holding meetings with prospective new clubs in hotels.

The suites of grand buildings such as Manchester's Lowry and Midland, and the Savoy and Dorchester in London, have no doubt been used to discuss the finer details of contracts and wages of Premiership transfer targets.

But when Andy Procter was negotiating a move from Great Harwood to Accrington Stanley, with manager John Coleman and chairman Eric Whalley, the Reds were in a league of their own.

"I knew the gaffer had watched me against St Helens, and a week later he met me at Wickets Hotel in Rishton," Procter said.

"We went to a room. Me and my dad sat on one bed, the gaffer and chairman sat on another. It was very surreal!

"I said what I wanted, they said no, this is what you're getting'.

"It was enough to put me through university. A lot of my mates had to get jobs in bars or sport centres. I was getting paid for playing football."

But it's a real rags to riches story for the popular midfielder.

After writing his name in history by scoring Accrington Stanley's first Nationwide Conference goal, in a 2-1 defeat at Aldershot in 2003, his double against Macclesfield that in ensured the Reds' Football League survival in April will arguably go down as his biggest achievement to date. More so, perhaps, because it's a scenario that seemed so distant for this homegrown hero just over 12 months ago.

Stanley had progressed from the depths of the UniBond First Division to the ever-improving Conference - just one step away from the Football League - and Procter had enjoyed the ride for most of the journey, after signing in February 2002 when the team was building up to the UniBond Premier League title the following term.

He had earned an England cap after competing for the National Game XI against Iraq just over two years later.

But when he suffered a recurrence of a cruciate knee ligament problem in the summer of 2005, surgery was the only appropriate course of action after it had initially been allowed to heal without intervention.

For the former Harwood youngster, it couldn't have happened at a worse time. Stanley were on the crest of a wave and from November onwards looked odds on to clinch the title and end a 44-year absence from the Football League.

The town and the nation were gripped by the fairytale, but Procter could not have felt more isolated.

"I didn't follow our league. Not even Stanley's results. I went to watch Jonathan Smith (a friend and former team-mate) if Barrow were away. I just tried to keep myself busy because I just didn't feel involved with the club," he said.

"I wasn't allowed in the dressing room. Injured players weren't.

"I didn't do myself any favours because you're supposed to let everything settle down and heal. But I was almost too keen and wanted to start walking without crutches and get on the bike as quickly as possible.

"It did my head in because no-one else was injured at the time."

While Procter was building up his fitness, Stanley were going from strength to strength in the Conference.

Procter made his long awaited comeback on April 17, 2006, at home to Scarborough, just two days after the squad had celebrated into the night after winning the Conference at Woking.

"They said there was a chance I would have been involved against Woking because I'd done well in training," he said. "But Soss almost had the reins on me. They decided to go with Mark Boyd, which fortunately paid off because it was his strike that Paul Mullin scored from."

But 2006-07 has been Procter's season. The Blackburn-born former St Gabriel's Primary School and Clitheroe Royal Grammar School pupil, whose 2:1 sports science degree dispels the theory that footballers are an uneducated bunch, has come a long way since starting out at Langho Juniors as a seven-year-old, stunning even himself when he was picked to start Stanley's first game back in the Football League at Chester City on August 5 last year.

"I wasn't involved much in pre-season so I was as surprised as anyone to be picked for the Chester game," the 24-year-old admitted.

"I was prepared to be patient, plus the gaffer was looking to bring other players in. To be told I was starting was unbelieveable.

"They brought me off after 65-70 minutes and said I had been pretty much our best player on the day, which, after the season I'd had before, was incredible."

Even a three-match ban for a last-minute sending off at home to Darlington the following game wasn't enough to stop the former Preston schoolboy in his tracks, and despite a relegation battle, there was a happy ending.

"Every game became a must-win game and the adrenaline was brilliant.," he said.

"Surviving meant a lot to all the lads, but the fact that I've been there so long, and having not played a part really in getting there, it means everything. Plus I stil feel I have to make up for lost time."