Accrington Stanley Football Club,

The Wham Stadium,

Livingstone Road,

Accrington, Lancashire, BB5 5BX

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).

Supporters Club Coaches – The easiest way to get there.

For full details of Away Travel: –

Click here: – FGR Away Travel – Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club (fgrsc.com)

Tickets & Travel: Accrington Stanley | WE ARE FGR

Book your coach ticket with your match ticket from FGR.

Discount for FGR Supporters Club members.

Supporters Club Members need to book by phone to get their discount.

Click – Tickets | WE ARE FGR

By phone on 0333 123 1889 Monday to Friday, between 9am and 3pm.

Please try to book as early as you can.

FGR Supporters Coaches at Accrington

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.

Always check times before travelling as there is the risk of train strikes.

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 to the ground 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.

FGR Supporters at 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 and Drink

Inside the Ground

The Accrington Stanley Sports Bar. Located in the HML Recycling Jack Barrett Main Stand at the Wham Stadium, the Redz Bar overlooks the pitch and offers a warm welcome to all home and away supporters. The bar offers draft lager, draft cider, and all the standard pub drinks along with a selection of pies, plus it shows live sport on the big screens pre- and post-match.

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

Outside the Ground

The nearest pub is The Crown, which is just behind the ground on the main Whalley Road and welcomes all supporters.

The ‘Peel Park Hotel’ in Turkey Street. This pub serves food and is listed in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. It also overlooks Peel Park, the site of Accrington Stanley’s old ground. Go along Whalley Road (A680) towards the town centre. Before reaching the town centre turn left onto the B6237 Queens Road (if you miss this turning proceed into the town centre and turn left onto the A679 Burnley Road). Continue along Queens Road into Penny House Lane. At the end of this road, you will reach a T-junction with the A679 Burnley Road. Turn left onto the Burnley Road and then go almost immediately right into Alice Street. Then after passing Peel Park School turn left into Turkey Street. The Peel Park pub is up on the right. The red brick wall opposite the Peel Park pub is the only structure that remains from the Peel Park ground.

For those fans who like a good ale, then Grants Bar in Accrington has its own brewery on site serving its own Big Clock Brewery selection of ales as well as other guest and well-known beers. It is a brisk 20-minute walk to the ground The pub also has a Pizzeria too. See the Grants Bar Website for more details.

Other than the pubs detailed above 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.

Last season Accrington were relegated from L1 in 23^rd place on 44 points, one place above FGR.

Accrington are currently 15^th with 14 points.

Recent Results

Morecambe 1 v Accrington 1

Accrington 1 v Stockport 3

Tranmere 2 Accrington 0

Accrington 4 Sutton 0

Accrington 0 Mansfield 3

Tommy Leigh

Midfielder Tommy Leigh was Accrington’s top scorer last season with 8 goals and 3 assists. 23 year old Leigh was born in Portsmouth; he came through Portsmouth’s youth system but was released at the age of 16. He then played non-league football for Baffins Milton Rovers & Bognor Regis begore joining Accrington for an undisclosed fee in July 2021.

Top scorers this season (as at 1 Oct)

Josh Andrews – 3, Jack Nolan – 3, Tommy Leigh – 3, Shaun Whalley – 2, Sean McConville – 2. (Unfortunately McConville has a long term injury).

Forward Josh Andrews has joined Stanley on season long loan from Birmingham City.

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.

Accrington Manager – John Coleman.

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.

Andy Mangan had 2 spells at FGR and 2 spells at Accrington.

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. He joined Derry City in 2022.

Sadou Diallo

No current FGR players have played for Accrington and vice versa.

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 returned 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. Sadly, last season they were relegated alongside FGR.

Accrington claimed they had never been relegated before; this is correct as they have a relatively short history as they are a phoenix club formed in 1968 following the demise of the original Accrington Stanley. The original Accrington Stanley had though been relegated e.g. 1960 to the old 4th Division. FGR’s only previous relegation was 1955.

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

Carl Rice – Vodka advert & 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.

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

• Haworth Park can be accessed from Manchester Road and is off Hollins Lane at the top of Harcourt Road. The Park was originally William Haworth’s private residence.
• The Haworth Art Gallery (Manchester Road, Accrington, BB5 2JS) holds the largest public collection of Tiffany glass in Europe, known as the Tiffany Glass Collection. The collection was donated by Joseph Briggs, an Accrington native who worked for the famous American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. In addition to the Tiffany Glass Collection, the gallery holds a range of artwork, including 19th and 20th-century oil paintings, watercolours, prints, and sculptures. The Haworth Art Gallery also holds temporary exhibitions showing contemporary art by local and national artists.

Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington (hyndburnbc.gov.uk)

• Accrington Town Hall(42 Blackburn Road, Accrington, BB5 1LA) was built in memory of former prime Minister Sir Robert Peel and opened as the Peel Institute in 1858 it is a Grade II listed building.

Homepage – Accrington Town Hall

The Arcade (Warner Street, BB5 2EL) is a Victorian shopping centre with about 10-15 shops and restaurants. The arcade was built in 1896 by Edmund Riley and is Grade II listed. It was originally intended as a theatre, but the river Hyndburn under its foundations made this an unsafe proposition and “shopping in the dry” was agreed upon, and it became one of the first arcades of its kind in the country. The stained glass over all the shop windows is lovely.

Victorian Arcade – News, views, gossip, pictures, video – LancsLive

• Accrington Market (Peel Street, Accrington BB5 1ER) – The building is ‘a hidden gem’ but there is a lack of stalls.

Accrington Market | Accrington | Facebook

Oakhill Park is a large and old park with a view of Accrington. It has won awards such as the best park in Lancashire. It is on the Manchester Riad.

Oak Hill Park (hyndburnbc.gov.uk)