Accrington McStanley
 

1 McQueen
2 Ashe
3 Harrower
4 Hunter
5 Ryden
6 Sneddon
7 Wright
8 Scott
9 Stewart
10 Dick
11 McCredie

In 2-3-5 formation

On 29th August 1955 Scottish manager walter Galbraith fielded eleven Scottish players for Accrington Stanleys league match against Rochdale at spotland. Thus they became the first English league club to do this since 1902.

Imagine the outcry on this forum by some if this happened in our time :)

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

And I bet some fans whinged about Walter Galbraith the way they do about Coley now!

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

What a great team that was!

Stewart was the best header of a ball I've ever seen, and would have scored many more than he did if there hadn't been slope at the Peel park end, which seemed to result in most shots going over the bar.

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

This post brings back memories of Stanley's four golden seasons - how Walter must wish one up - one down had been superceded by then. Eeee, I remember a radio broadcast of the titanic table-topper at Hartlepool - before the days of subs ( or cards ! ) and Stanley clinging to a 1 - 0 with either 9 or 10 players on the pitch. Ref must have played 10 mins extra to let 'pool equalise. Oh shuddup Alan and get your a--e to bed - them days are gone forever owd lad !

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

i don't understand, t'point int'post, are we just appreciaten t'greatness o'team (and how great we were) or moanin about people who have criticisms of coleman, to be fair, t'jocks, were masters of the passing game back then, they played a game completeley different unlike the english game, involving, dribbling and shooting, the jocks brought finesse into our game, they were the first pro's and the people that made the north west of england the hotbed of football that it is today, what was the last great thing the scousers did for't'game?

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

Well id surely say they they were the team to put england on the map in europe how many cups???
so that was probably the last great thing they did for football oh yes and also is liverpool not part of the northwest or summut because last time i checked it was!!!!

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

This is just the sort of stuff I'd like to read a lot more of !

Simon, Redraine, Longlostson, Wynonie, you're handing down a great story which so many of us appreciate because (in my case) I've been involved with Stanley for less than a decade and I have a lot to learn about the Club's great history.

Any important anecdote like this will be really appreciated ; it isn't trivia, it's really significant information.

Heritage is unquestionably one of Accrington Stanley's greatest assets.

Many thanks . . . and keep it coming !

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

Henry - my first Stanley match was September, 1960 (against the "mighty" Barra!) so, unlike Redraine, Longlostson and others, I missed out on the golden Galbraith era. However, I've heard reminiscences from many supporters, including my late dad, who were all convinced that "McStanley" was a great team who could have achieved promotion with just a little bit more luck.

I know this will provoke sneers from some, but I truly believe that Coley is on his way to building a similarly great team who will take us into the football league...and not just to make up the numbers, either. It's easy to criticize him after bad results, but if you read the article on the 1953-54 season from last Saturday's programme, you'll see that Mr Galbraith had setbacks, too ("four defeats in a row"..."two heavy defeats at Gateshead and Wrexham"..."a 5-0 thrashing at Barnsley"). However, I'm still convinced that we are at the threshold of a new golden era with Coley!

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

so england was never on the map till the seventies?? was the european cup winning squad of the seventies not mainly made up of jocks?? i would have thought the team that put england on the map, were the england team of '66, no?

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

yeah but u said what was the last thing that scousers did for the game and he told u one

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

I went to Peel Park School in the mid 50s & have some good/vague memories of the Galbraith era-we used to kick a ball around on the car park with the players at 'dinner time'. George Stewart was a fantastic centre forward & I remember seeing Joe Devlin, No 7 on his back (another hero) playing under floodlights. Eddie Hunter, Armour Ashe, Tommy McQueen were around at the time, as I recall. It's good to see Accy enjoying another purple patch-long may it continue- & good on the management team.

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

I must agree with my fellow "old stagers" that the Galbraith era was a great time to be watching Stanley. ... and yes, George Stewart was something else!!! Let's not forget ,however, the value of his English partner Les Cocker, who went from being a thorn in OUR side when he played for Stockport, to being a pain in the butt for every team we played against, and a scorer of goals into the bargain. Then, of course, he went on to even greater things, being the assistant coach to the 1966 England world cup winning team. Sadly, he died in his 40s whilst out on a run.. RIP Les, you certainly gave a young Stanley fan some good memories.

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

I can just remember Stanley playing Fulham in a friendly & winning 2-0 & George Stewart scoring - floodlit match & Stanley playing Blackpool in the cup & drawing 2-2. I can 'see' them playing S****horpe, Hartlepools, Stockport. Tommy McQueen gave me his autograph on Highams' one day - he had a broken finger at the time. That would have been 1955 - I think. I've still got the autograph somewhere.

Old stanley book!
 

Here it is jimmymac :)

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

I remember going to watch Stanley play Alexander on boxing day about 1958-9. We caught the train down to Crewe and walked to the ground. As usual at half time I went to the wood hut for a coffee and a meat pie. As I was walking away I took a bite of the meat pie, it was the worst meat pie I,d ever had, I spun round to throw it at the hut---- I couldn,t throw it for laughing, there were about thirty pies already stuck to the side of the hut, Stanley lost 5-0, not a god day.

Re: Accrington McStanley
 

It just shows you that being at Stanley's matches at aged 8 or 9 & earlier provides not only wonderful personal memories of that time many years later, but ensures an affinity with the club is forged from that point on that will always be there. Hence the importance of getting youngsters to the matches & where possible, involved with the club. Incidentally, I wonder if any of the team mentioned above read this forum & would comment on what it was like playing at that time??