Accrington Stanley

This is the first of a series of articles (probably 23 in number, but you never can tell) in which we will take an in-depth (or in-shallow) look at next season's Division Four opposition. We'll be doing it in alphabetical order (mistakes notwithstanding) so the first side to come under the Rage Online spotlight is a club against whom we have never played.

Many people thought that United were fated never to play Accrington Stanley. They were the team that went pop in February 1962, allowing Oxford United to be elected to replace them in the Football League. Forty-four years later it was Oxford's turn to drop out of that competition, albeit through the ignominy of relegation to the Conference, in the same season that Stanley won promotion to the Fourth Division to replace the Us. However, this Stanley was a new club, formed in 1968, and was not a continuation of the previous incarnation, despite holding the same name and wearing the same colours as its predecessor. The original Stanley eventually died in 1963, after a season playing in the Lancashire Combination

The new club started playing at the Crown Ground, which is now called The Fraser Eagle Stadium, in Livingstone Road, although they did spend one or two seasons back at the old club's former home at Peel Park due to ground problems in the early 1970s. After knocking around in various local leagues, the club joined the newly formed North West Counties League in 1983 and won promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division in 1990. They won promotion to the Conference in 2003 and were the champions in 2006, winning the title by 11 points to seal promotion to the Football League.

Stanley play in all red, with an away strip of all yellow, which is nice. The capacity of their ground is 5,057, of which 2,000 can be seated. Last season it cost