THE FA announcement that has implicated five players – four of whom were with Accrington Stanley at the time – in a betting probe that has rocked the football world. Here, we look back to the match in question.

SUCH was Accrington Stanley’s home form last season, a 2-0 defeat to Bury on the last day of the campaign did not necessarily stand out as an unusual result.

Having already lost 14 league games at the Fraser Eagle Stadium during 2007/08, a reverse against mid-table Bury was hardly akin to Manchester United slipping up against Morecambe.

Two first-half goals from Andy Bishop decided the May 3 fixture.

The first came from the penalty spot after a foul by Reds defender Phil Edwards, who has not been implicated by the FA in the betting probe, the second after striker Bishop had streaked clear and found the net after Stanley had kept a high defensive line.

It was a result that made no difference to Stanley’s final league position of 17th, but it immediately became shrouded in controversy.

That weekend, it became public that the FA were investigating suspicious betting patterns.

Stanley were informed a day before the game that betting had been suspended following a number of bets – almost all of them in the Liverpool area, where several of the Reds squad are based.

The FA changed the match officials at short notice as a precaution, even though there was never any suggestion that they may have been involved.

Stanley boss John Coleman and assistant Jimmy Bell always maintained that none of their coaching staff were involved.

The club, its staff and other players face no allegations.

“Anyone who thought we weren’t the better side either doesn’t know anything about football or needs their eyes checking,” said Coleman at the time.

“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the players. They gave 100 per cent on a difficult pitch.”

But bookmakers refused to pay out on bets and a full investigation was launched by the FA.

For months, all they would say was that the investigation was ‘ongoing’ but now they have announced that five players have been charged for placing bets on Bury to win the game – Peter Cavanagh, Robbie Williams, David Mannix, Jay Harris and Andy Mangan.

Of the five, only defenders Cavanagh and Williams remain at the club. Skipper Cavanagh played the full 90 minutes but Williams had not featured since January because of injury.

Harris, who played, and Mannix, who did not, were released in the summer and moved on to fellow League Two club Chester City.

Mangan was also not involved, having returned to Bury after a one-month loan with Stanley two months earlier. The striker, now at Forest Green Rovers in the Blue Square Premier, had also previously had a permanent spell with the Reds.

Leighton McGivern, a 59th-minute substitute for Stanley that day and a Waterloo Dock player in the Liverpool County FA Premier Division this season, was also charged a month ago in relation to his failure to provide the FA with information requested during the course of the investigation. He has denied the charge.

Another match, a Championship fixture between Norwich City and Derby County in October of this season, was also investigated by the FA because of irregular betting patterns in the Far East but all involved in the match were later cleared of any wrong-doing.

Most famously, a trio of Sheffield Wednesday players – Peter Swan, David Layne and Tony Kay – were found guilty of betting against their team in a match in 1963.

The trio were banned for life – even if that verdict was rescinded seven years later – and given jail terms for conspiracy to defraud, although Wednesday received no punishment.

In 1997, Bruce Grobbelaar, Hans Segers and John Fashanu were among those cleared of conspiracy to fix football matches in a high-profile court case.

What the FA verdict will be on this occasion remains unclear.

But, whatever happens, this whole affair has undoubtedly damaged Accrington Stanley’s image more than any normal defeat could possibly do.