AS a journalist, you get bombarded with press releases each and every day.

Some of them head straight for the bin but the one sent this week by the new Football Pools really caught my eye.

Some "Statto" has worked out, using thousands of results, league tables, club records and financial data to compare the size of each club with what it has achieved on the pitch each season since 1992.

By creating this annual benchmark, the boffins have worked out each club’s achievements so that it could be assessed on equal terms.

And, at the end of it, Accrington Stanley came out as the 10th highest in the country.

What an achievement!

The Fraser Eagle Stadium may not be the Nou Camp but Eric Whalley, John Coleman and the rest of his staff have done a remarkable job.

With so few fans and a tiny budget, Coleman has had to wheel and deal to keep Stanley in the lofty position they have fought so hard to get themselves into.

I don't know if anyone else could have done what Coleman has done. He used the markets he knew best and has turned the likes of Ian Craney and Gary Roberts into higher league players.

The current TV documentary has lifted the lid on the organised chaos that is Accrington Stanley but that just makes them more endearing in my eyes.

So let's hear it for Stanley.

Just for the record, in the national poll, Doncaster Rovers came top with our other local sides Blackburn Rovers 31st and Burnley 35th.