ACCRINGTON management duo John Coleman and Jimmy Bell celebrate the 10th anniversary of their arrival at the club today.

On May 12, 1999, few knew that the two men striding into the Crown Ground were to oversee one of the club’s most remarkable eras.

Stanley had just been relegated to the UniBond First Division and had shown few signs of even getting close to a return to the Football League, which they had exited when the club so famously went bust in 1962.

The Reds had gone through nine managers in two seasons, with Wayne Harrison resigning because of work commitments.

There was every chance that Coleman, surprisingly sacked by Ashton United weeks earlier, would simply be another statistic.

Coleman, who had masterminded an FA Trophy win over Stanley a year earlier, was appointed on a non-contract basis after meeting chairman Eric Whalley at the Tickled Trout pub outside Preston. He immediately brought in Bell, one of his Ashton players, as assistant.

Whalley said of Coleman at the time: “We have appointed somebody who we believe is the most up-and-coming manager and think he is going to get us promotion in the first year.”

Get them promotion he did and what followed was the proverbial meteoric rise, passing through the UniBond Premier Division and the Conference, and resulting in an incredible return to the Football League.

Quite simply, Stanley have never looked back.

l Keep an eye out for a special celebration of Coleman and Bell’s decade in charge in the Lancashire Telegraph this summer.