Accrington Stanley

Arrived at the ground a couple of hours before kick off and parked on the main road close to the away end entrance and walked the two minutes to The Crown Pub to meet up with friends. Very friendly away fans pub with wheelchair access to the side. Midweek they only serve pies but at weekends they usually have a decent food outlet in the car park.

Although this is my first review on Stanley, it is in fact my third visit.

Entree to the ground is simple, flat and effortless made easy by the very helpful and friendly stewards. Away wheelchair fans are seated near the corner flag amid their own fans in the seating area behind, to the side and standing supporters to the left on the terracing.

Although in the corner the view is ok other than fans walking in front of you but it’s not too bad. However, as you are advised to stay within the designated pen, those of a smaller stature can struggle to see over the inappropriately highted bars that make up the bay. My friend hutched her wheelchair forward enough to negate this blocking of her view down the touchline without managing to obstruct the main thoroughfare. In my view this is an inappropriate place for the wheelchairs to be and could be easily solved. (I’ll write to Stanley directly on this matter).

The stewards stand near the entrance point and very politely move to one side as soon as the ball is placed at the corner flag without being asked to move which is great as they definitely intend not to be in the way.

Access to the toilets, catering & bar area is at the rear of the stand which is flat and easy to traverse. The toilet is what I always say, “A run of the mill disabled football toilet, just about ticking enough boxes”. That said, they do not use a radar key system and I was made aware of at least two supporters who seemed to get locked inside. (Could be an iffy lock), again I will write to Stanley on this matter. The soap dispenser was empty when we used it but a word with the nearest steward resolved this issue as by the end of the game it had been replenished. The toilet is not Stoma friendly but is large enough for the required adaptations to turn it into one without any real expense.

I cannot praise their friendly stewards enough as they were constantly smiling and were all on point to ensure the day went smoothly (well done Stanley).

Exit from the ground is busy yet easy which is the result of a very wide pathway to the coaches and side road that leads up to the main road where the car was parked. At this you are at the mercy of the familiar football traffic scenario, “lets all get outta here”.

All in all a great little club to visit and one you can visit with confidence both as a wheelchair user and ambulant supporter due to the easy access, parking, facilities and stewards. A couple of suggestions I’m going to write to them about making it even better for disabled away fans but as I say “all in all a great club to visit”.

I am a powerchair user and my husband is a white cane user. We attended as away fans, travelling to the game in an accessible minibus that is part of our Club’s official away travel. This was our second visit to the Wham Stadium, the previous one being in 2019 after which we provided a detailed review of the provisions for away fans. On this occasion for reasons that we will become clear we sat (from choice) at the home end, so cannot give an update on our previous review other than to say from what we saw it appeared that the provisions for away fans were unchanged, apart from one new development, which highly impressed all the away fans and is not something that usually forms part of our stadium reviews, but which we are thrilled to write about to recommend to all, particularly as it is not mentioned in the details at the beginning of this page and it is fab, Coley’s the Supporters’ Bar.

Arrival and Parking
Unlike on our last visit, our minibus was parked in the small well surfaced car park that you reach by turning left as you approach the stadium and following the road to the end, which puts you directly in front of the entrance to Coley’s Supporters’ Bar.

Coley’s Supporters’ Bar
This is a new, large fully accessible bar that welcomes both home and away fans before and after games (opens at 12.30). Dropped kerb from the car par park and gentle slope to double doors. Your match ticket is checked at the door by friendly staff. There are some high tables but also standard height ones on the left with room for wheelchair users to sit at. When my husband went to the bar, they offered to carry our drinks back to the table without him asking (very impressed). Drinks served in disposable glasses, not aware of any food being sold in the bar. When we entered at 1 pm it was empty but it got very full the nearer we got to KO. There are numerous TV screens including one the size of a cinema screen on the left hand wall which were showing live sport. Accessible toilet on the left immediately in front of the gents. As one of our fans said, toilets were hotel standard. The wonderfulness of Coley’s was the talk of the afternoon amongst the visiting fans. All credit to Accy for this facility. We even got a visit from their CEO wishing us a good afternoon (as long as we didn’t win!). Will definitely be heading for Coley’s on our next visit. Staff were keen to let away fans know that they could get to the away end straight from the bar without needing to go out and down the road (although this route was not step free.)

Readiness of Club Staff to Respond Positively to Special Requests
We had arranged to meet in Coley’s a home fan that had been a school friend of my husband’s who we had been in contact with on Zoom during lockdown but who had not met in person for 39 years, so it was all a bit special. Unbeknown to us, their husband had arranged for the 4 of us to sit together in the home stand, in front of Coley’s for as he said it was daft to sit apart after 39 years, the stewards readily made this possible, all the home fans were very friendly towards us and didn’t mind us sitting with them. Whilst I couldn’t get in my chair into the home stand directly from the bar, I didn’t have to go far out of the door and round to the left to have a door opened for me which gave me flat access.

All 4 of us had a thoroughly special afternoon, thank you Accy for making this so. The one thing that would have just been the icing on the cake would have been a headset commentary for my husband and his school mate, as they were school mates due to both attending a school for visually impaired children!

I am a powerchair user and my husband is severely visually impaired. This was our first visit to the Wham Stadium as away fans travelling in an accessible minibus that is part of our home Club’s official away transport.

Getting into the Stadium
The Stadium is half-way down a steep residential street. Our minibus was allowed to park on the road next to the entrance. Whilst the stewards were friendly, they were not proactive, we had to ask where to go, to be allowed in and where to go once we were allowed in. Tops have to be removed from drinks bottles but an exception was granted to a fan who required drinks for medical reasons. To find the away wheelchair area you take the right-hand entrance and once through the gates at the turnstiles you follow the tarmac round to enter the stand down the long side of the pitch. Temperature warning: a steward told me it is always cold and it was an overcoat colder than the weather we had left at home, despite it only being August!

Away Wheelchair Area
From reading earlier reviews on LPF, I was expecting to have to sit with the home fans. I was therefore very pleased to find an obviously new seated stand for away fans with four wheelchair spaces at pitch level with adjacent carer seats and a good amount of space around. Well done Accrington. The only downside is that there is a two-tier barrier around the pitch, the upper level of which is right across the viewing line of wheelchair users and their carers but not anyone else in the stand as all the other seats are higher. I got round this as my chair has a seat riser but otherwise it would be a pain. Undercover but when it rained the wind, meant we got wet. Take warm waterproofs!

Accessible Loo
Just round the corner from the wheelchair viewing area in the back of the stand. New, large, spotless with hot water, handwash and working hand drier. Radar key not required. I think putting the handle up locks the door but unclear, strange low-level lock which I could not work.

Refreshments
All reports I heard were positive both in respect of quality and price. Pie and pint for £5. We were tempted and enjoyed a hot dog and sausage roll for £4 in total. Bar and refreshments in the back of the away stand.

Headset Commentary for VI Fans
We did not enquire as LPF website said this was not available and we could not find anything on Accrington’s own website to contradict this.

Would we go again
Having been once and experienced it, we would happily go again.

We ordered our tickets direct from Accrington & booked a car park space.

Arriving at the ground everything was the same as our last visit, still helpful & friendly staff & stewards.

Sat among the Accrington wheelchair fans at pitchside & although it was torrential rain we didnt get wet.

I won’t go into details again as nothing has changed from my last review

Arrived at Accrington around 90 minutes before kick-off. The car park had no disabled spaces and was not compatible for wheelchairs, the ground was fairly loose gravel, it should be tarmaced. Access to the social club was good, the club are extremley friendly. Inside the ground the wheelchairs are among the home supporters, the view is okay. The ground being very basic and probably the worst in the league does an adequate job in making it as comfortable as possible for wheelchair users.

we arrived at Accrington early as requested when we booked a car parking space. There was a bit of confusion about parking & ended up in what looked like a players/staff car park & when I asked the steward again when we were going to get boxed in, he said we would be better in the other car park, so we moved. The steward told us where to park backed up against a wall, so I got the wheelchair from the back of the car first. Then a man came across and removed a cone & advised us it would be better to park there, so we moved again, this man was very helpful, told us where to buy tickets, where the disabled toilets were and we would be welcome in their club to get warm & watch tv.We later found out he was Robert Houseman so we would like to give him special thanks.

We had a meat & potato pie each and a cup of real tea with milk & sugar from the easily accessible tea bar, and the accessible toilets were by the entrance.

The view was good although we were sitting pitchside infront of the Accrington supporters. Another York wheelchair supporter was sold the wrong ticket by York, and Robert again sorted this out for him so he was able to sit with us. The stewards were very helpful and friendly too.