Accrington Stanley 3 Altrincham 1
Accrington Stanley won the Unibond Premier League with a 3-1 victory over Altrincham at the Crown Ground.
With the game kicking off ten minutes late due to crowd congestion, Stanley always knew their destiny was in their hands. The scoreline at Ashton against second placed Barrow was constantly announced over the loud speaker system in the ground.
And when the full time result came through that Barrow had only managed a 2-2 draw then Stanley knew a point would be good enough to clinch the title.
They did better than that and took all three, an 80th minute header bundled over the line by defender Steve Halford and another late goal from striker Lutel James put the icing on the cake and set the scene for a promotion party.
The visitors almost took the lead in the 8th minute when Ian Craney beat three Stanley players before hitting the side netting with a shot.
Accrington then began to get their footing in the match and ex Liverpool man Mike Marsh hit the frame of the crossbar with a fierce drive on 20 minutes.
Then Paul Mullin hit the base of the post with a low shot on the half-hour and you sensed it might just be one of those days.
But just as the mass ranks of home supporters were on their way for a half time pint a penalty was awarded in first half stoppage time for a foul on Andy Proctor. James stepped up and converted the spot kick in the bottom left hand corner to give the Reds a one-nil lead at the interval.
The home side dominated the second half but the Robins earned themselves a penalty in the 67th minute when a trip in the box on an Altrincham player resulted in the referee once again pointing to the spot. Local boy Barry Shuttleworth who was released by Stanley earlier this season made no mistake hitting his shot in the bottom right hand corner, although Stanley keeper Jamie Speare almost got a hand to it.
When the result filtered through from Ashton the last ten minutes were really meaningless but to their credit Stanley still wrapped up the game with the goals from Halford and James.
At the full time whistle the majority of fans in the 2,262 crowd invaded the pitch and celebrated the club's resurgence under the leadership of manager John Coleman. Stanley will be playing Nationwide Conference football next season, which is one step down from the Football League. That's where the club was 41 years ago before being kicked out with mounting debts.
The Championship trophy was already at the stadium in anticipation that Stanley would clinch the title in front of their passionate following. Club captain Peter Cavanagh held aloft the silver trophy which the club and its many fans had been dreaming about since the season kicked off in August.
After the emotional scenes had died down boss Coleman was asked what his plans would be to celebrate the championship victory "I will make a cup of coffee, put my slippers on and watch Match of the Day.
"And if you believe that you will believe anything" he said with a huge smile on his face.