Accy Are Winning At Snakes And Ladders

IF I’M being brutally honest, during my playing career a visit to Accrington Stanley held about as much appeal as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

- Gregor Robertson

Yes, the changing rooms are tiny – and freezing or sweltering depending on the season. The stadium is decrepit and, come winter, the pitch invariably turned into a swamp.

It wasn’t the nicest place to play football, but there was also a feeling that Stanley’s team of kids and cast-offs relished their status as League Two’s most unfashionable outfit.

They were always hungry, combative and talented, too, while the opposition didn’t always fancy being there. I don’t think my team ever left with more than a point.

Somewhere buried in that truth, perhaps, is a seed of the story blossoming in Lancashire this season, in which promotion to the third tier for the first time in Stanley’s history looks increasingly likely.

Ten wins and a draw in the last 12 games lifted them to within a point of leaders Luton ahead of their meeting at Kenilworth Road yesterday. As you read this, they may very well be top of the pile.

John Coleman, now in his 17th season as manager of Stanley, over two spells, received the League Two manager of the month award on Friday, but if he leads the club with the division’s second-smallest budget and average attendance to promotion he should be named manager of the year.

Coleman has always had the knack of finding steely characters of all ages and backgrounds who look beyond the surroundings to grasp an opportunity to play League football perhaps unavailable to them elsewhere.