THE bare bones of the Accrington Stanley story are known to many football and non-football fans alike.

They were one of the early members of the Football League in the 1920s before financial problems forced them to resign in 1962.

They hit the headlines on a milk advert in the 1980s - as a place for any footballer not to end up - but are now striving to get back where they started, in the Football League.

That's the basics but But Phil Whalley's new book 'Accrington Stanley FC' offers much more insight to the good times and more prominent, the troubles, of the 'biggest little football club in the world.'

He admits Accrington Stanley has become 'a football synonym for tragi-comic failure', but underneath is a club with a rich history who made a vital contribution to football and the area.

It is a pictorial history of Accrington Stanley from its early origins in 1891 through to the present day, emphasising the league years.

There are pictures never seen before of the earliest teams, action shots, the early grounds and the fans -- a bygone time.

There are also cartoons, old programmes and old tickets all of which seek to show how steeped in history the club is.

The book takes you in stages through Accrington Stanley's history.

Phil describes it as a story 'which affirms and saddens in equal measure' and as you read the battle Stanley had to become established in the 1900's -- the desperate measures fans and players went to to keep the club going -- knowing the outcome of 1962 makes it all the more sadder but still compelling.

The first chapter starts from 1893, about how Accrington Stanley emerged as the leading senior club in the region.

They could attract Ex-England internationals to their ranks, were trophy winners as well as enjoying FA Cup runs -- they lost to First Division Bradford City in front of 16,000 in 1910.

But while all was rosy, the problems which were to hamper Stanley throughout their history kept returning to haunt them.

Even after they were invited to join the Football League and had success in their first season in 1921/22, the signs were there.

"Even at this very early stage the pattern familiar to many Stanley fans can be discerned; pre-season hope eroded by financial worries, undone by misfortune, undermined by ill-considered transfers and finally extinguished by a spate of releases which confirmed that some of the players had not been good enough in the first place."

Action pictures and team photos take the reader through the 1920s and 30s where initial success was often followed by a young talent being sold, low gates, poor income with appeals for more people to come through the turnstiles echoed throughout the decades.

Managers seemed to come and go and troubles continued in the late 1940s and early 50s - with the debts mounting and problems at Peel Park.

There were some good times under Walter Galbraith, a Scot, who recruited many of his countrymen to become 'what is seen by many as the greatest Stanley side.'

Up to 15,000 attended games at Peel Park and they just missed out on promotion from the Third Division (North) to the Second Division on a number of occasions.

There was FA Cup glory, in 1958 there is a ticket from an FA Cup tie where 50,000 fans watched Stanley take on Liverpool.

But, with ever changing team pictures in just a few years, it hints at the problems that were to come.

One man summed up the problems.

"My father..told me that Accrington Stanley was the best footballing side that had ever played in the Third Division. But we were never tough enough to win the league. But we'd some good days with Galbraith, the best day, in fact."

Galbraith left then crisis, appeals for supports, photos of people who has come and gone to reduce the wage bill, relegation to Division Four in 1959, and less spectators.

Stanley hit the national headlines when the Football League wrote to them about their financial position, they had a debt of £43,566 and in March 7 1961 they resigned from the league.

There is a photo of the last game at Peel Park against Rochdale in 1962 with just 2,700 scattered round the empty ground.

And then a story of a man who turned up a day later with £10,000 in his bag for Stanley - but it was too late.

Accrington Stanley's history doesn't stop there though. The next photo is hopeful- a team picture from 1964 as Stanley went back to the Lancashire Combination as an amateur club.

And the rise through the non-League is once again charted - with more financial problems, more managers, more chaos but also more trophies, a new ground and more good FA Cup runs.

I remember going to Turf Moor to watch them face Scunthorpe in 1993 but there was also the game against Crewe Alexandra in the Cup in 1992/93 at Ewood Park where the FA Cup run 'caught the imagination of the whole town.'

Faces are more familiar with the recent managers and players and current boss John Coleman is this season striving for a place in the Conference to get nearer where it all began in the 1920s.

Phil Whalley will be hoping he can add an extra chapter soon when Stanley achieve the ultimate: ' a place in the Football League should be Stanley's rightful target.'

THE book will be launched at noon at the Crown Ground and copies are available from the club shop (01254 383235).