Ground Guide

Accrington Stanley Football Club, The Wham Stadium,

Livingstone Road, Accrington, Lancashire.

Ticket information – Tickets & Travel: Accrington Stanley (A) | WE ARE FGR

Upon Arrival

The Coppice End (closest to you as you arrive down the lane) is usually reserved for away supporters and offers uncovered standing, with visiting fans also often given the choice of covered seating in the Whinney Hill Stand (on the far side as you arrive).

Useful Link for FGR Fans – visiting-supporters.pdf (accringtonstanley.co.uk)

By Train

By train is not very practical, from Stroud, on the day as it takes about 5 hours and involves 3 or 4 changes.

The nearest railway station is Accrington, this is approximately a 20-minute walk from the ground. Leave the station and proceed down the hill passing over the main Blackburn Road, follow the road down the hill passing the King Street Pub on your left, follow the road down to the main roundabout cross over the road and head up the hill passing the Aldi supermarket still on your left, at the top of the hill turn left (Whalley Road).

Follow this road straight on through the traffic lights, The Grey Horse and The Oaklea pubs are 300-metres through the lights, carry on straight along Whalley Road over the mini roundabout for approximately 200-metres and Livingstone Road is on your right. Turn down Livingstone Road and the ground is on your left.

Directions by Bus (from Accrington Town Centre)

The nearest stop is opposite The Crown Pub and is reached by the Hyndburn Circular Bus, this runs every 15 minutes from the main bus station in the centre of Accrington.

By Car

Sat Nav: BB5 5BX

From the Stroud area, on a good day, this takes over 3 hours.

Directions from the M65

Leave the M65 at Junction 7, taking the Clitheroe turn off the roundabout. Turn right at the first set of traffic lights opposite Clayton Business Park, following the A678.Follow the road over the canal bridge to the next set of traffic lights. Turn right again going over the motorway bridge and towards Accrington on the A680.Carry straight on at the next set of lights with the Greyhound pub on your right. Follow the road as it bends to the right and then take the first left after The Crown pub into Livingstone Road.

Directions from the M66

At the end of the M66 follow the A56 until you come to the Rising Bridge roundabout. Take the first turning, the A680 towards Accrington for around 3 miles.

After passing the police and fire stations on the left follow the ring road dual carriageway around the town centre, through the pelican crossing and three sets of traffic lights. At the fourth set of lights, opposite The Castle pub, turn right to re-join the A680.Follow this road up the hill for approximately one mile, and Livingstone Road is approximately 400 yards past Accrington Victoria Hospital on the right.

Car Parking

Car parking is available on the Farleys Solicitors Stand following building developments at the club. There are 59 spaces available to pre-book on a seasonal or match-by-match basis. The price per game is £5 to pre-book your space please call Jo Ashton on 01254 356950. Limited disabled parking is available, call the same number to pre-book.

There is plenty of parking in the streets surrounding the ground.

Food is served within the ground at both the home and away ends, with the usual pies and hot dogs always available.

Rovers fans are welcome in Coley’s Bar ahead of the game. The bar at the Wham Stadium is open from 12pm – and FGR supporters just need to show their match ticket to gain entry. Food and drink is available to purchase at the bar – and Sky Sports is also shown.

There are a couple of places to eat close to the ground, The Oaklea Fish & Chip shop across the road from the Grey Horse, and of course in the town centre McDonalds and various takeaways.

Useful Link for Visiting Fans – visiting-supporters.pdf (accringtonstanley.co.uk)

How Are they Doing

Accrington finished 12^th in season 2021/22.

They are currently in the relegation places, 21st, with 31 points.

Reverse Fixture on 6 Sept 2022 – FGR 2 (Goals – Brown, March; Assists Myles-Peart, Fabiema) Accrington 1 (Leigh)

Tommy Leigh, Accrington’s top scorer, is suspended for FGR’s visit.

February Results –

Burton 0 Accrington 0

Accrington 0 Bolton 2 (EFL Trophy)

Accrington 1 Shrewsbury 0

Accrington  0 v Wycombe 2

Cheltenham  0 v Accrington 0

Port Vale 1 Accrington 1

Accrington 0 Lincoln 3

Last season’s top scorer for Accrington was Colby Bishop. Earlier in his career (2016) he played 9 games for Gloucester City, scoring twice. In July though he moved to L1 rivals Portsmouth.

In replacing Bishop Accrington have followed a similar route of going to a non-league club. This season the Accrington number 9 shirt is worn by Matt Lowe. The 26-year-old has played in the National League North for Brackley Town for the last six years after starting his career at Coventry Academy before moving to Cambridge United between the ages of 16-19. He went on loan to Brackley while with Cambridge and then signed for them permanently on his release.He went to university, studying sports science, and trained to be a teacher while playing part-time for Brackley. Lowe won the FA Trophy at Wembley in 2018 and scored 15 goals in all competitions last season while with the Saints, with his contract ending with them in the summer.

Accrington’s current top scorer is Tommy Leigh.

January Transfer Window

Accrington signed striker Nathan Butler-Oyedeji from Arsenal on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old has made 14 appearances in Premier League 2 this season and scored four goals for their under-21’s side in the Papa Johns Trophy. He has been in the first team matchday squad twice this season, once in the Premier League and once in the FA Cup.

Accrington Stanley signed midfielder Seb Quirk on a two-and-a-half-year deal from Premier League Everton. The 21-year-old joined Everton at the age of 11 and went on to sign his first professional deal in July 2020. He made five appearances for the club in this season’s Papa John’s Trophy.

Brentford have loaned striker Aaron Pressley to Accrington Stanley for the remainder of the season. Pressley, the son of former Hearts defender Steven, has played three senior games for his parent club. He is yet to figure at Premier League level but did play in the Championship, and scored four goals in 27 games for then-League One AFC Wimbledon last term.

In February Accrington signed free agent midfielder Anthony Mancini on a short-term deal. The 21-year-old has been without a club since leaving Burnley in June last year, for whom the Frenchman had failed to make a first-team appearance.

John Coleman with League 2 Manager of the Month Trophy

Manager – John Coleman

John Coleman played for several non-league teams. He was appointed player manager of Ashton United in 1997. After two years, he joined Accrington Stanley then playing in Northern Premier League First Division. His 12-and-a-half-year tenure saw the club win three promotions as champions to enter the Football league in 2006. He was also the club’s longest ever serving manager. At the time of his departure to Rochdale, Coleman was the third longest serving manager in England, behind Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

On 24 January 2012, Coleman and his assistant Jimmy Bell were appointed by Rochdale to replace Steve Eyre, who had left the club the previous month. Their contracts were terminated by Rochdale on 21 January 2013 following a poor run in form. In October 2013, Coleman declared his interest in replacing David Hockaday as manager of FGR but returned to Southport as manager on 7 December 2013, with Jimmy Bell once again as his assistant.

He took over as manager of Sligo Rovers in June 2014.

On 18 September 2014, Coleman was confirmed as manager of Accrington Stanley for his second spell with the club. He then took Accrington into League 1 for the first time. He is the second longest serving manager out of the 92 EFL/Premier League teams.

Nobody can be sure where the Stanley name first came from, but the best evidence suggests that patrons of the Stanley Arms on Stanley Street in Accrington formed a club called Stanley Villa in the early 1891. At this time, Football League founder members Accrington FC were struggling and ultimately resigned from the league in August 1893. Stanley Villa took up the town name and Accrington Stanley was born.

Accrington were one of the clubs involved in the expansion of the Football League and accepted an invitation to take a place in the new Third Division North.

The original Accrington Stanley then played in the Football League from 1921 to March 1962 but had spent its final four seasons in the Lancashire Combination before its collapse in 1966.

Accrington had been without a football team since 1966. At a meeting at Bold Street Working Men’s Club in 1968 the revival was initiated, and in August 1970 the new club played at a new stadium, the Crown Ground. Eric Whalley, a local businessman, took control of the club in 1995 and began the development of the club’s ground. After the club was relegated in 1999, Whalley appointed John Coleman as manager.

In 2005/06 Stanley win The Nationwide Conference Championship by eleven points and with it earn promotion to The Football League after a gap of 44 years.

In 2011/12 John Coleman leaves Accrington to manage Rochdale but returns in 2014/15.

In 2015, the board of Accrington Stanley voted to approve local businessman Andy Holt’s takeover of the club. Holt, who owns What More UK, attained a majority share of 75% in Accrington Stanley, in return for clearing the club’s £1.2m debt.

2017/18 – A historic season for Stanley as they won promotion to League One for the first time.

Carl Rice starred in both the vodka advert and the original milk advert.

In the 1980s, Accrington Stanley was mentioned in an advert for milk, which briefly brought the club to the attention of the general public. The advertisement featured two boys in Liverpool replica shirts played by young actors Carl Rice and Kevin Staine. It made reference to Accrington Stanley’s obscurity in comparison to Liverpool’s success at the time.

Boy 1: “Milk! Urghh!”
Boy 2: “It’s what Ian Rush drinks.”
Boy 1: “Ian Rush?”
Boy 2: “Yeah. And he said if I didn’t drink lots of milk, when I grow up, I’ll only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley.”
Boy 1: Accrington Stanley who are they?”
Boy 2: “Exactly.”

(Ian Rush at the time was the Liverpool and Wales centre forward.)

The original script for the advert referred to Tottenham Hotspur, an obscure North London football club, but they complained so non-league Accrington was used instead.

To view the advert, click here: –

Ian Rush, Accrington Stanley Milk Advert, CLEAN AND IN FULL! – Bing video

A shot for shot remake advertising Black Cow Vodka, which is made from milk, began airing in September 2016, with a much older Rice reprising his role. The advert was banned from airing in March 2017, due to concerns that it targeted children, because of the connection to the original advert, and promoted excessive drinking.

In February 2023 Kevin Spaine, now aged 43, was sentenced to 18 years minimum for murder

Ian Rush playing for Liverpool in their crushing 4-3 defeat by C Palace in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final.

Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh who played Hayley Cropper on the TV soap,

Cricket legend & commentator David Lloyd and the late comedian Jim Bowen.

Accrington Stanley’s mascot is called Winstanley – see what they have done there – who is possibly a dog?

Sadou Diallo played 9 times on loan from Wolves at Accrington Stanley during season 2019/20. He joined FGR in July 21 and has played 9 times for FGR. He was born in Guinea but brought up in Rotherham and has played for England Under 19s. In July 22 Diallo left FGR and joined Derry City.

Rovers Connection – Andy Mangan

Andy Mangan had two spells at Accrington Stanley and two at FGR. Mangan was part of the Accrington side that won promotion to the Football League. He subsequently moved to Bury. As a result of bets placed on a Bury v Accrington Stanley match, he received a 5 month ban from playing. He had by that time joined FGR. Mangan was, in his first season at FGR, the Conference top scorer with 26 goals. Mangan left FGR for Wrexham but returned to FGR for a second spell between 2013 – 2014. Mangan is currently first team coach at Bristol Rovers.

Defender Farrend Rawson and goalkeeper Jonny Maxted have played for both Accrington & FGR.

The club plays at the Crown Ground, currently known as the Wham Stadium as part of a three-year £200,000 sponsorship deal with What More UK Ltd. So, nothing to do with George Michael and Andrew Ridgley who played their Final Concert at the old Wembley Stadium.

The Wham stadium has a capacity of 5,057 (2,000 seated).

The Accrington Fans Forum is here – Accrington Stanley – Accrington Web