Rovers, who handed two full debuts to Teddy Sharman-Lowe and Jordan Gibson, started the brighter of the two sides but the contest quickly became flat. Owen Bailey nodded over from a corner in a rare chance before both sides proceeded to cancel each other out. With the game petering out, it was Rovers who awoke from their slumber to go in front.
Luke Molyneux broke the deadlock just before half-time with a composed, slotted finish inside the box after a smart pullback from Jamie Sterry. Accrington came out the blocks quickly upon the restart and Tyler Walton silenced the Eco-Power with a header from close-range barely a minute after the restart. Molyneux almost doubled his own tally with a cheeky chip that just cleared the right-hand post shortly after but he didn't have to wait too long for another goal.
He let rip from distance with a long-range beauty. And it was soon 3-1 when Gibson curled home a beautiful effort. The home fans were in fine voice by now and it got even louder when sub Billy Sharp wrapped up proceedings with the fourth goal late on to add gloss to the victory.
Rovers are joint-top on day one, with Gillingham also recording a 4-1 win. Here's how we rated the Rovers players. Handling was good but other than the odd claim, he had precious little to do.
Showed sharpness when coming off his line at times. Photo: Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD Was beaten to the ball by Walton as Stanley pulled level just after the break. Will be disappointed with that but did provide a fine assist for Molyneux's opener.
Photo: Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD Skipper won a monster amount of headers and generally kept things calm at the back. Photo: Andrew Roe/AHPIX LTD Picked up where he left off last season. Hard in the tackle and won his fair share aerially, hardly giving any change to Stanley's forward Mooney.
Photo: Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD.
