LEADING football disciplinary expert Graham Bean believes Accrington Stanley have a strong case to argue against a Football League charge of fielding ineligible players.

The former FA Compliance Officer will represent the Reds at tomorrow's hearing, where the threat of a points deduction looms over the League Two strugglers after they were accused of fielding two ineligible players in three recent games.

Bean, the managing director of Football Factors - a company set up in 2003 to offer specialist disciplinary services to football professionals and clubs nationwide - has been successful in a number of previous cases, most recently Torquay United's FA charge over a registration issue.

"We represented Torquay United earlier this season when there was a potential points deduction," he said. "Torquay got a financial penalty."

And Bean believes that Stanley have even stronger grounds because their case is being heard by the Football League.

"Registration matters with the Football League are complex issues and there are always two sides to a story," he said.

"We think we've got a very strong case to mitigate the whole scenario.

"We're going there knowing that you potentially have serious consequences but we're confident that we have a strong case and they will listen to us.

"This is not, in our opinion, the major issue that it's made out to be.

"There are numerous precedents - I've got details of them all - where matters of a similar nature have occured and points haven't been deducted, and we'll go in armed with them all."

Stanley manager John Coleman is also in a positive frame of mind ahead of tomorrow's hearing.

"I'm very confident because we haven't tried to deceive anybody," he said.

"We haven't tried to play a player who would not have been allowed to play so I'm very confident that justice will win out."

Bean is a former employee of the Football Association, where, as their compliance officer, his job was to investigate any wrong-doings in the game.

He has represented a number of high profile clubs, including Manchester United, Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, when client Jerzy Dudek was alleged to have "failed to leave the field of play promptly and instead man-handled the referee" following his sending off in a reserve game.

The FA hearing went ahead, despite Bean's company providing evidence to the contrary of the charge, and the Disciplinary Commission took the unusual step of viewing the video evidence before even allowing the FA to present its case.

The Commission concluded that Dudek had no case to answer, placing the FA in a highly embarrassing position.

Bean's company has also represented Manchester United, and manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: "I was very pleased with the representation that I received from Football Factors."

As I understand it, should Stanley be unsuccessful in their case and be hit with a points deduction, they have two weeks to appeal against the decision, and that case will be heard by the FA.

That appeal will be dealt with quickly.