Heroes & Villains – Accrington Stanley
This is the first in the new series called ‘Heroes & Villains’, a feature that lists a hero and villain from each club’s history. The first club to feature in this series is Accrington Stanley.
Hero – Brett Ormerod
Brett Ormerod is an Accrington Stanley legend. He is a local lad, having been born in nearby Blackburn and started his career at the Crown Ground.
After scoring 32 goals for Stanley in only 54 league games in the Unibond Premier Division, he played for 11 different Football League clubs and played in the Premiership for Southampton.
Whilst at Southampton, Ormerod scored one and set up the other in Southampton’s 2-1 win over Watford in the 2003 FA Cup Semi Final. He then went on to play in the Final but Arsenal won 1-0.
Villains – Accrington Stanley’s Board of Directors, 1962
The only true ‘villains’ in Accrington Stanley’s history have to be the board who let the club die back in 1962.
Having looked into the last few days leading up to the club’s demise in March 1962, there seems to have been a lot of blame aimed at club chairman Sam Pilkington.
Bob Lord, Burnley’s chairman at the time, was called in to offer some assistance to try and aid Stanley in their hour of need and he too came in for some criticism.
Whoever’s fault it was, the club folded and a new club was born in 1968. The club finally returned to the Football League in August 2006, 44 years after the first club lost their league status.
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