When Accrington Stanley went out of the Football League in 1962 it had a seismic effect on English football. Unlike now, when there is promotion and relegation between league and non-league football, teams only resigned from the League as a last resort and Stanley’s demise, basically because they could not afford to pay their gas bill, was a huge story.

After being resurrected in 1968, Accrington Stanley stumbled around the lower leagues in Lancashire until the early 1990s when the astonishing climb back to the League began.

In the 2005-06 season Stanley stormed to the top of the Conference, stayed there all season and at last the supporters’ dreams came true.

Writer, and long-time supporter, Phil Whalley, author of Accrington Stanley Football Club, has talked to the club’s charismatic chairman, his namesake Eric Whalley, and the club’s long-serving manager John Coleman plus supporters and club employees who were there in the bad old days.

The result in an Accrington Stanley book that captures the reasons why fans support their local club and why passion and hard work can achieve the unlikeliest of dreams.

If you buy one book on Accrington Stanley this is the one.

"Author Phil Whalley sets out the tale in a beautifully-crafted book that is a must for fans of any club. Above all this is a book about triumph over adversity; about fans refusing to let go. It is the antithesis of the Premiership with its bloated finances and bung culture. A bung at Accrington Stanley would have meant a plug in a barrel of beer."
The League paper

"It is a well-written books, with emotive photographs and gives a deep sense of the personalties who have helped to shape Stanley’s history. And it also gives plenty of new insights into what has been a well-told story over the years - especially this year!"
Accrington Observer

"The comfort of nostalgia is ... tapped into in Accrington Stanley the Club that Wouldn’t Die, an enjoyable, impassioned account of the club with the best name in football."
The Observer

Perhaps the most important purpose of this book is to pay homage to those resourceful and determined characters who refused to let the name and the reality of Accrington Stanley fade into memory. The return of the club to the League is the final justification for all their efforts and a telling reminder in this money-­besotted football world that some things do matter more than winning trophies and grabbing as much money as possible from the game.
Martin Atherton. When Saturday Comes