Oxford United pay their first visit ever visit to Accrington Stanley's Crown Ground on Saturday. This may or may not also be known as the Fraser Eagle stadium, however Fraser Eagle went bust in 2009, or prior to that the sponsored name was the Interlink Express Stadium. Aerial pictures show the ground dropped in the middle of a 5 sided field, with house on 4 sides behind the ground, and open ground on the other side. Strangely, none of the sides of the ground are parallel with any of the surrounding streets, and there appears to be wasteland behind all but the main stand and the back-gardens of the houses.
The Accrington story is well known, the original Accrington FC being founder members of the league in 1888, leaving after 5 years, with Stanley Villa taking the name Accrington Stanley 1891 and their league status until the resignation from the league in March 1962, due to debts of £4,000 in transfer fees, £4,000 to the Inland Revenue, £40,000 to other creditors, and £458 of National Insurance, which seemed to be the tipping point. Oxford took their place the following season, and a reborn Accrington Stanley FC were formed in 1968. The Stanley swapped league status with United at the end of 2005/06, and the two teams had never played until the home fixture this season. This was a Nil-Nil draw.
Last week saw United draw 2-2 with Wycombe Wanderers in front of 9,309, the second highest home crowd of the season after the Bridle-promoted Macclesfield game on the Tuesday bank holiday between Christmas and New Year. The Wycombe game was entertaining, with United going ahead through Potter after 35 minutes, forcing an own goal on 54 minutes, before Wycombe pulled back two goals on 63 and 66 minutes, to leave the tie level. Wycombe will have been happy to take a point after being two down, and keep the third automatic promotion spot, two behind Bury.
Accrington, whose squad contains many graduates of the Liverpool FC youth academy players, have won their last six home games, scoring 19 and conceding three, to leave them in eigth place on 64 points, although should Torquay's one point deduction for fielding an ineligible player stand, they would move up to seventh.
United have one enforced change, with Harry Worley suspended after picking up 10 yellow cards, and Jimmy Sangare is likely to make his debut in defence. With United now seven points outside of the play-offs and with inferior goal difference, the players will be fighting for their contracts. Nonetheless,
Danny Shelley of Crewe, who are another two points back, is aiming for five straight wins and believes they have a chance.
At the start of the month, Ilyas Khan took full control of Accrington, confirming he would settle all debts including arrears of players' wages. Khan however announced his ownership to be temporary, with the aim of having a widely spread ownership with no controlling shareholder.
The Accrington story is well known, the original Accrington FC being founder members of the league in 1888, leaving after 5 years, with Stanley Villa taking the name Accrington Stanley 1891 and their league status until the resignation from the league in March 1962, due to debts of £4,000 in transfer fees, £4,000 to the Inland Revenue, £40,000 to other creditors, and £458 of National Insurance, which seemed to be the tipping point. Oxford took their place the following season, and a reborn Accrington Stanley FC were formed in 1968. The Stanley swapped league status with United at the end of 2005/06, and the two teams had never played until the home fixture this season. This was a Nil-Nil draw.
Last week saw United draw 2-2 with Wycombe Wanderers in front of 9,309, the second highest home crowd of the season after the Bridle-promoted Macclesfield game on the Tuesday bank holiday between Christmas and New Year. The Wycombe game was entertaining, with United going ahead through Potter after 35 minutes, forcing an own goal on 54 minutes, before Wycombe pulled back two goals on 63 and 66 minutes, to leave the tie level. Wycombe will have been happy to take a point after being two down, and keep the third automatic promotion spot, two behind Bury.
Accrington, whose squad contains many graduates of the Liverpool FC youth academy players, have won their last six home games, scoring 19 and conceding three, to leave them in eigth place on 64 points, although should Torquay's one point deduction for fielding an ineligible player stand, they would move up to seventh.
United have one enforced change, with Harry Worley suspended after picking up 10 yellow cards, and Jimmy Sangare is likely to make his debut in defence. With United now seven points outside of the play-offs and with inferior goal difference, the players will be fighting for their contracts. Nonetheless,
Danny Shelley of Crewe, who are another two points back, is aiming for five straight wins and believes they have a chance.
At the start of the month, Ilyas Khan took full control of Accrington, confirming he would settle all debts including arrears of players' wages. Khan however announced his ownership to be temporary, with the aim of having a widely spread ownership with no controlling shareholder.
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