Accrington Stanley Football Club entered the football league with the other top Northern non-league clubs in 1921. It was not the same club as Accrington F.C which was a founder member of the football league. They were ejected from the League proper after a financial crisis at the end of the 1960/61 season. The club was reformed in 1968. They play at the Crown Ground in Accrington. The traditional home of the old club was Peel Park.
There are many theories relating to as to where the Stanley in the club's name originated. These centre around a merger with another side named Stanley Villa, a pub named the Stanley Arms in Accrington, and the family name of the Earl of Derby. In all probability the true answer will never be known.
Whatever the truth, they are a true part of the history of British football, especially that in Lancashire. The role of Burnley F.C chairman Bob Lord in refusing, in his capacity as administrator of the bankrupt club, to accept a bailout offer that would have permitted his close competitor to remain afloat is still unforgiven by some.
The club's recent return to the Nationwide Conference level is attributed in part to the windfall of hundreds of thousands of pounds reaped by the sell-on clause in the December 2001 transfer of former Accrington Stanley star Brett Ormerod to Southampton F.C,which had paid Blackpool F.C over a million pounds for his contract. Accrington Stanley had taken fifty thousand pounds from Blackpool in 1997 with the agreement that Blackpool would pay Accrington a quarter of what they might received if they in turn transferred Ormerod to another team. The 2002-2003 championship of the Northern Premier League followed quickly on Accrington's getting the cash.
