Accrington Stanley FC - The Store First Stadium

Accrington Stanley Football Club, made famous of course by that 1980's (correct me if I am wrong) milk advert. And still to this day, whenever you say the words Accrington Stanley, I am sure someone in a scouse accent will say "Who are they?"

Again, I personally had to focus playing my own game on Saturday, sadly I wasn't focused enough, and we lost 3-1. Shame really, it was perfect football playing weather!

Accrington Stanley, to me, appears as a family football club, they run loads of community schemes, there tickets are cheap and whenever you mention them you always get positive reports about it being a superb day out. I checked the fixtures, they played Torquay in a feisty relegation six pointer, bring it on! 

I was joined by my Granddad Hayes and my cousin Jacob, whom is a Manchester City season ticket holder. The plan was Granddad and Jacob would pick me up at around 13:30pm and we would then begin our journey from Bolton to Accrington.

Accrington isn’t very far really so it was quick hop on the motorway then off about 3 junctions later, Granddad did a route planner so we found The Store First Stadium with no problems at all, but I must warn people who are planning to visit Accy the stadium isn’t very well signposted, so watch out! We arrived at around 14:00

I was looking forward to watching Stanley vs Torquay for many reasons, this was my first trip to The Store First Stadium so it was nice to tick off another ground, another being that (as mentioned before) I always here positive reports about the club and finally, it is a relegation six pointer, love it! Jacob was looking forward to it as well; it was his first League 2 experience! 

When we arrived it was a case of finding the ticket office to collect the tickets Granddad had pre-ordered, while he collected them I had a look in the rather cramped club shop, I was tempted to buy Accrington's snazzy looking home strip, but with the end of the season coming upon us, I decide to wait to see what they come up with next season. 

Granddad collected the tickets and in we went, I collected a very well put together programme along the way, for £3.00 it isn’t the worst I have seen it had interviews with two players and up to date match reports, not bad really. 

With it being unreserved seating we decided to locate ourselves in the John Smiths Stand on the bottom row next to the away dugout. The stand we sat in runs the full length of the pitch, it is split in two though buy the dugouts, on the home dugouts side is the main stand, this is the newest stand at Accrington with it being erected when the club were still in The Northern Premier League, on the away dugouts side is The John Smiths Stand which is home to the media facilities, it’s also home to the food! 

To the left was the Sophia Kahn Stand (The Clayton End) this is home to the Stanley Ultras, you will hear more about them later on. It is a combination of standing and seating options. 

Opposite us was the Whinney Hill terrace otherwise known as the Cowsheds, it is a three row deep covered seated terrace, it runs 2/3 of the pitch and to be honest it’s nothing much at all really.

And finally, to the right was the Coppice End it is a simple terrace, like the one at Radcliffe but bigger, it has no roof and this is where the away fans are put.

I like Accrington, some people may say it's a dump but in my opinion it's great I love it, it is just what Accrington need, and they only get small crowds so why would they need anything bigger? I love it!

It was time to search for some food, we found some! Normally, food at football matches is stupidly overpriced but here at Accrington there not! We ordered, Pie and Gravy (for me), Chips (for Jacob), a Cheese Burger (for Granddad) and a hot chocolate (for me), all for £9.50! And, they all got full marks back, Jacob said the chips were better than what the Etihad put on offer, Granddad said the Cheese Burger was nice and the hot Chocolate and Pie was great.

It was soon time for the teams to come out, both teams needed three points for exactly the same reason, survival! Accrington were looking to get two wins on the bounce after beating Rochdale 3-0 and Torquay were looking to end seven defeats on the run.

The first half started off to a flyer! Torquay started the brighter side when in the opening minutes Ryan Jarvis just shot wide of Paul Rachubka's left hand post.

In truth, the only real talking point of the first half was when the linear, Peter Wright, got injured on 20 minutes and the fourth official Mathew Bristow had to replace him. Que chants like "You’re not fit to referee" coming from the Stanley Ultras and after a quick turnaround we were ready to re start the game. 

Lee Molyneux had earned a start thanks to a fine performance at Rochdale in midweek and he nearly broke the deadlock with a fine free kick which could only be pushed aside by the Torquay keeper Micheal Poke, he dealt better with Rommy Boco's follow up. 

HALF TIME!

The second half started with a bang, both sides created numerous chances.

The first one falling to Torquay, Billy Boden escaped his marker and sprinted down the left wing before firing just over the bar. 

Then it was Accrington's turn, Tom Aldred headed superbly from a corner kick but it just skimmed the top of the cross bar.

In the dying minutes of the game Accrington were contriver sally denied a winner, Rommy Boco forced a good save from Micheal Poke which was parried into the path off Will Hatfield whom slotted home.... In an offside position - APARENTLY!

FULL TIME!

It was very quick getting away from Accrington; we had no traffic problems up until we got on the A666 from Blackburn into Bolton because of the Blackburn football traffic. I was home for 17:30.

Overall, I had a supper time at Accrington, the tickets were cheap, along with the food (although I didn’t pay), the game was good and The Stoor First Stadium was really nice. I have no doubt that I will be going to Accrington again sometime, in fact, I am already planning my next time going there!