Football Season Guide

Accrington Stanley won over many neutrals with their performances last season, having looked to play attacking football at every opportunity. Unfortunately for John Coleman and his men, it was an approach that only really worked well for them early in the season. They displayed play-off form in the opening two months of the season, but dropped off after that and were dragged into the battle against the drop. The points they accumulated early in the season were enough for them to stay up, but they now face a new campaign, with no point tally to use as a fallback. Stanley could probably do with some fresh blood due to their lack of momentum, but have signed only three players so far in Joe Pritchard, Zaine Francis-Angol and Colby Bishop, none of who are established League One players. On the other side, they have seen several players leave. Most of these men were rotation players, although Dan Barlaser, who returned to parent club Newcastle, played a rather large role last season. Stanley's starting eleven will not be particularly different than last time around, but they definitely have a far smaller squad and will probably need additional loans in order to deal with the hectic League One schedule. Given that they have not really strengthened and that they have been poor in the last six-plus months, they will certainly be seen as one of the main candidates to go down.