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Accrington Stanley stadium guide for visitors
The smallest ground in the Football League, two thousand standing places, and a club that folded in 1962 and rebuilt itself from nothing.
"Accrington Stanley — who are they?"
Most people in Britain know this club's name without knowing anything else about it, and the reason is a television advertisement for milk from the 1980s.
Two boys are talking. One says that if he does not drink his milk he will only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley. The other asks, "Accrington Stanley — who are they?" The first replies: "Exactly."
The joke worked because at the time the club did not exist in the Football League at all. It also made a small Lancashire club into a national punchline, and then, slowly, into something better than that.
The club that died and came back
The original Accrington Stanley played in the Football League from 1921 until March 1962, when the money ran out mid-season and the club resigned and folded.
A new club was formed in October 1968, started again in local football, and climbed. It took decades. They are now in League Two, which is to say back in the Football League their predecessor left in the middle of a season sixty-odd years ago.
This series has collected a lot of clubs that fell and returned — Paderborn through three divisions, Kaiserslautern, Bielefeld's double relegation. Accrington is the extreme version: not relegated, dissolved, and then rebuilt from nothing by a town of thirty-five thousand people.
Two thousand people standing
This is why a groundhopper comes.
Of the 5,450 places at the Crown Ground, 3,100 are seats. The rest — over two thousand — is terracing.
English terracing survives because of a rule most visitors get backwards. After the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, the Taylor Report and the Football Spectators Act 1989 required all-seater grounds in the top divisions. The requirement was relaxed in July 1992 for the third and fourth tiers. So terracing did not disappear from English football; it retreated downwards.
If you have come to England to stand at a football match, this is the level you need. The exact inverse of Germany, where Dortmund's terrace holds 25,000 and the small clubs have seats.
Getting there
- By train: Accrington station is on the line between Blackburn and Burnley. The ground is uphill from the station — a walk of fifteen to twenty minutes, and it is a real hill.
- From Manchester: around an hour, changing at Blackburn or Bolton. Manchester is the obvious base.
- Nearby grounds: Burnley, Blackburn, Bolton, Preston, Wigan, Oldham and both Manchester clubs are all within about an hour. This is the densest cluster of professional grounds in England.
- Match ticket and transport: as everywhere in England, not included.
Tickets
The English pattern: no document demanded, no fan card, online sale. But at this level there is something the German series never offered.
You can usually just turn up and pay at the gate. Lower-division English clubs generally still sell on the day, and a ground holding 5,450 in League Two rarely sells out. Check the club's page for the specific fixture, but walk-up is a realistic plan here in a way it is not at any German ground in this series.
That single fact is why the lower English leagues are worth a groundhopper's time. Everything in Germany requires a sale date and a diary. Here you can decide on the morning.
Where away fans go
Visiting supporters get an allocation including terrace, in a ground where nobody is more than a few metres from the pitch. Arrangements are set per fixture. Neutrals should ask at the gate which end to use; at this level the answer is usually friendly and specific.
The alcohol rule
Under the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985, alcohol may not be drunk within sight of the pitch at designated matches. Beer in the concourse, sale stopping around fifteen minutes before kick-off and resuming at half-time.
There has been argument in England about relaxing this at League Two and National League level — the Crouch review of football governance recommended exploring pilot schemes at exactly this level — but as things stand the rule applies here as everywhere else. Do not carry a pint to the terrace.
The ground itself
The Crown Ground, currently carrying a sponsor's name, holds 5,450 on a slope on the edge of the town. Low stands, terracing, a small main stand, and nothing whatever in the way of spectacle.
It is the smallest ground in the Football League, and that is precisely the entry it makes in a collection. Set it against Dortmund's 81,365 and the range is the point: the same country's league pyramid contains both, and the small end is where you can stand, pay at the gate and stand three metres from a corner flag.
Eating and drinking at the ground
Proper lower-league English catering, which is better than the corporate version: pies, chips, tea, Bovril. Ask for a pie and hold it in two hands.
Beer in the concourse only. Card payment is now usual even at this level.
Accrington and east Lancashire before the match
What to see
Accrington is a small mill town and does not pretend otherwise. What it has is genuine:
- The Haworth Art Gallery — which holds the largest public collection of Tiffany glass in Europe, given to the town by a local family. In a house, in Accrington, free to enter. It is the most unexpected thing in this entire series.
- Accrington brick — the town made the hard red engineering bricks known as "Accrington NORI", used in the foundations of the Empire State Building and in the Blackpool Tower. The town is built of them and you will notice.
- The Coppice — the hill above the town, walkable in half an hour, with a view across east Lancashire.
- Pendle Hill — twenty minutes north, associated with the 1612 witch trials and a good walk on a clear day.
What to eat and drink
- Lancashire hotpot — lamb and onion under sliced potatoes, baked slowly. The regional dish and exactly right in winter.
- Black pudding — Bury, half an hour away, is its capital and takes it seriously.
- Chips with gravy — a northern English habit that southerners find objectionable and that is correct.
- Cask bitter — Lancashire is good country for it, served cool from a handpump.
Common questions
Is the milk advert real?
Yes, from the 1980s, and most British adults over forty can still quote it. Mentioning it in Accrington is fine; the club has long since made peace with being the punchline.
Can I really pay at the gate?
Usually, yes — check the specific fixture, but walk-up is realistic at this level and is the main practical reason to collect lower-league English grounds.
Can I stand?
Yes. Over two thousand of the places here are terrace. This is what League One and below offer that the Championship and Premier League cannot.
How many grounds can I do from here?
Realistically three in a weekend. Burnley, Blackburn, Bolton, Preston, Wigan, Oldham and Manchester are all inside an hour, and lower-division kick-off times vary enough to make doubling up possible.
The smallest ground in the Football League, two thousand standing places, and a Tiffany glass collection down the road. Add the Crown Ground to your bucket list and build a Lancashire weekend around it.