Accrington Stanley come to Glebe Park for the first of a three game tour on Tuesday evening (7.45ko). The Lancashire club have done remarkably well after losing their league status in the sixties to work their way back through what is effectively public park football and up through the various pyramid levels until they gained a place back in the football league and managed to remain their last season. A souvenir programme (priced £1) will be on sale for Stanley's visit.

Stanley have a number of talented individuals in their side. City fans will soon recognise goalkeeper, Kenny Arthur, from his Partick Thistle days. They should also look out for prolific scorer Paul Mullen who has been responsible for netting many of the goals that have guided the club back into the football league.

In 1968, sixteen years after Accrington Stanley left The Football League, the club was reformed by a loyal band of supporters and two years later joined The Lancashire Combination.

In only their second season they completed a superb treble of The Championship, League Cup and Combination Cup. Over the next seven years, Stanley won both The Championship and The Combination Cup on two more occasions.

The 1979-80 season saw Stanley move into the much stronger Cheshire League, finishing runners-up in their first season and winning The Second Division Championship a year later. With the formation of The North west Counties League, Stanley were placed in Division One and marked their first season by reaching The Final of The County Cup for the first time, unfortunately losing to South Liverpool. In 1986-87, the club ended their last NWC campaign as Runners-Up, joining the newly formed Northern Premier First Division the following season.

Stanley was promoted to The Premier Division in 1980-81 and two years later reached The Second Round of The FA Cup, losing to Crewe at Ewood Park. Midway through the 1994-95 season, the former Stanley Manager, Eric Whalley took over as Chairman and from then it on things really began to improve.

A year later young striker, Brett Ormerod was sold to Blackpool, a transfer that eventually earned the club a quarter of a million pounds. In the following season Stanley reached their second County Cup Final, though again they were beaten, this time by Southport at Deepdale.
Meanwhile, under Eric Whalley’s Chairmanship vast improvements were carried out and even relegation in 1999 proved to be only a blip, for this was followed by the appointment of a new management team of John Coleman and Jimmy Bell, who built a side which achieved promotion in their first season. Two years later Stanley won The NPL Challenge Cup, The NPL Challenge Shield and The Marsden Trophy (County Cup).

In 2002-03 The Unibond Championship was won, with Stanley finishing 16 points in front of second placed Barrow and The NPL Challenge Shield was retained but much more importantly promotion to The Nationwide Conference was achieved. Stanley ended their first Conference season in a creditable 10th position and enjoyed their best ever FA Cup run, beating two League clubs before losing in a Third Round replay. They also reached the final of The County Cup, losing narrowly to Morecambe. In2004-05 season Stanley again finished in 10th position, having been amongst the challengers for almost all the season and again brought home The County Cup.

Then in 2006 Stanley won The Championship of The Nationwide Conference, finishing eleven points clear at the top of the table. So after a gap of 44 years the name of Accrington Stanley once again competed in The Football League. The first season was, as expected, a difficult season but having come through are confident that things will be better this term