“THE pinnacle of my career and one of the best days of my life” - that is what promotion to League One means to Accrington Stanley midfielder Sean McConville.

The 29-year-old was one of five players who thought they had done it in 2016, only to miss out on the final day by one goal.

That disappointment has driven them ever since but McConville feels it was fate that they had to wait two years.

He said: “Two years ago it was one of the biggest disappointments of my career. Al the five players that were involved, we’ve spoken about it before and I think that’s what’s made us strive to get us over the line this year.

“And it does make it sweeter. I think Andy Holt (chairman) commented that we weren’t ready to go up two years ago. Maybe he’s right, maybe it’s fate.”

Before the 2016 season had ended, Stanley were already resigned to losing star men Matt Crooks and Josh Windass – among others - and McConville reckons that would have had damaging effect on life in League One.

“I believe in fate and maybe it’s fate, what we’ve achieved and with the players on longer contracts – if you think about the year we missed out we would have lost 10 players the following season, and to go into League One like that is going to be tough. In my eyes you get relegated. But with lads on longer contracts now it’s the right time to go up and I think we’ll be good in League One.”

Stanley have been outstanding in League Two all season, but notably since the turn of the year. Since a 3-1 defeat at Carlisle on Boxing Day they have lost only once, and go into Saturday’s game at Wycombe on a 14-game unbeaten run including 12 wins.

“I think the older lads deserve credit because we made the younger lads believe it could happen. We’ve played in this league long enough to know if you get on a run of results you can quite easily get promoted, and that’s what we’ve found,” said McConville, who claimed an assist in Tuesday night’s decisive win over Yeovil when Billy Kee headed in the midfielder’s corner for his opening goal in the 2-0 triumph.

McConville was pleased to be able to celebrate the success on home soil too.

“To do it in front of these fans who have stuck with us was fantastic,” said the playmaker, who is in his second spell with the club which experienced a close shave with HMRC and a winding up order threat in his first.

“I’ve been at the club through some dark times when we nearly folded after that tax bill,” he added. “It was tough. To come to the first of every month and wonder if you’re going to get paid or not is not nice.

“That seems like a long time ago, but that doesn’t happen now. I think we get paid two days early. That’s how good it is! Fortunately now we’ve got an owner who is not only a good man, he’s looking after the club with the club’s best interests at heart and I think we can go a long way with Andy Holt at the helm.

“Those dark times are in the past, we’ve got to look to the fu-ture now. It’s a good club to be at.”