• Along with Preston, Accrington were expelled from the FA Cup for professionalism in 1884. At this point the FA chiefs, based in London, felt football should only be played by Amateurs, and only changed their minds when 28 Northern and Midlands based clubs threatened to form a breakaway British Football Association.

• When Preston won the first ever Football League a few years later, they were unbeaten, and the only side that managed to stop them scoring in a match was…. Accrington.

• In that first season, Accrington finished seventh in a league of twelve, and scored 48 times in 22 games. Unfortunately, they also conceded 48 goals - sounds like they were a pretty entertaining side to watch….

• On several occasions during the 1955-56 season, Accrington Stanley fielded a team entirely composed of Scottish players. Indeed, only 4 of their 19-man squad was not from Scotland! This was obviously a decent ploy as they finished 3rd in Division Three North, and beat the Quakers in the 2nd Round of the FA Cup, in front of over 13,555 fans at Feethams.

• From 1955, the clubs finances declined and they eventually resigned from the Football League on March 6th, 1962. As a result, all 33 of the matches they had played up to that point were deleted from the records. Earlier that year, Accrington had enjoyed a win and a draw against the Quakers.

• Throughout history, Darlington have made 29 trips to Accrington, and so far have won just the won, drawing 4 and losing 24! Thankfully, we have managed to win 20 of our 29 home matches against them….

Cheers

The dfcsc.co.uk team