HISTORY OF STONE OLD ALLEYNIANS FOOTBALL CLUB

Stone Old Alleynians Football Club was founded in 1962 by Dave Bonnet, a teacher at and former pupil of Alleynes Grammar School, Stone. The Club received a donation from the Old Alleynians Society to purchase shirts and pay League Fees etc.
They entered the Stafford Amateur League [later to become the Mid Staffs League] Division IV and due to the terrible winter of 1963 league fixtures were not completed and there was no promotion or relegation.

In 1964 they were runners up and promoted. They also reached the final of the Staffs FA Presidents Cup, losing to Division I Champions Kingston YC at Stafford Rangers.
The following season they came third in Division III and were promoted to Division II.
Season 1965-66 saw the Club win its first silverware by becoming champions of Division II. Honours became harder in Division I and the only other notable success was defeating local rivals Stone St Michaels in the Final of the Stone Charity Cup in 1969.

The 1970’s were the golden years starting in season 1971-72. That season they became Division I Champions by 2 points, winning their last 6 games. Between 1972 and 1979, Stone Old Alleynians were Division I Champions 3 times and Borough [Div I] Cup winners once and runners up twice. They also won the Stafford Pageant Cup twice and were runners up twice. Another success was the Stone Charity Cup, winning it 3 times and beaten finalists once.

The Old Alleynians joined the North Staffs Alliance League in 1980 with a second team entering the Mid Staffs League Division II, of which they became champions. In season 1981-82 third place was achieved in the North Staffs Alliance League and beaten finalists in the League Cup. The Uttoxeter Cup was also a good venture, being runners up in seasons 1981-82 and 1983-84. The second team also won the Mid Staffs Div II Cup and were runners up in the Pageant Cup in season 1983-84.

Having been relegated to Division I in the Staffs Alliance when the league was split into 2 divisions, a Premier and Div I, they came back in 1988, by being Division I runners up.
Seasons 1992 to 1995 saw the Old Boys with teams in the Staffs County League and the Staffs Alliance, the club having to change the second team name to Alleynians FC due to Alliance League rules.

With the demise of the Alliance League, the first team were in the Staffs County and the second in the Leycetts Leagues between 1995 and 1999. The second team was then dropped with the firsts continuing in the Staffs County, the only success being beaten finalists in the Bourne Sports Trophy in 2005.

The club entered Division II of the West Midland League, with a second team in Division II of the County League in 2007. The First Team reached the final of the Staffs FA Challenge Cup but were beaten by Kidsgrove Athletic at the end of the 2009/10 season. They were promoted to the West Midland League Division 1 the same season.

In the season 2014/15 the first team were runners up in WMRL Div 1 and promoted to the Premier Division. They also had success in the JW Hunt Cup where they lost the final, at Molyneux, after leading for over an hour to Tividale [who were 3 levels above them in the pyramid] after extra time and defeated a couple of higher level teams to reach the semi-final of the Staffs FA Vase losing to WMRL Premier Div champions Sporting Khalsa, by the only goal.

Stone Old Alleynians were moved to the NWCFL for the 2018-19 season as part of the FA's reorganisation of non-league football. This inaugural season in the Step 6 league saw the Old Boys competing throughout the season towards the top of the league, eventually finishing in third place and just missing out on promotion. In the Staffs Senior Cup, the team progressed through to a quarter-final tie against Stoke City U23 in front of a record crowd of 280, unluckily losing 1-0 to an Oliver Shenton goal.

The 2019-20 season saw the team challenging for the top three in the NWCFL Div1 (South) throughout the year until the season was brought to a premature close due to the pandemic. At the time the Old Boys were on course for promotion until the decision was made to declare the competition null and void. This season saw our first ever appearance in the FA Cup, losing 4-1 at Worcester City in the Extra Preliminary Round. The 2020-21 league season was also affected by the pandemic and was a very stop-start affair. The season never really got going with only six games played before it was curtailed. In the FA Cup we had a home tie against Tividale Utd but we lost 4-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw. We got through to the 2nd round of the FA Vase before we lost 3-2 to Long Eaton Utd.

Stone Old Alleynians were promoted to the “Step 5” Midlands League (Premier Division) in the 2021-22 season, based on the combination of the previous two years’ results. The club held their own in the league, finishing a very creditable 10th place. Alleynians played in four rounds of the FA Cup, finally losing 3-1 to Leamington of the National League North in the 2nd Qualifying round of the competition. The Old Boys also battled their way through to the final of the Staffs FA Senior Challenge Cup, beating higher step teams Hednesford Town, Kidsgrove Athletic and Leek Town on the way to the final, where they played Stafford Rangers at Burton Albion’s ground. Unfortunately, after taking the lead, the team lost 3-1 to Rangers but they put in a fine performance against a side playing at two levels above the Old Boys.

The club celebrated 60 years since their formation in 2022 with players from the very first Old Boys team in attendance.

The club now looks forward to the next 60 years of football. The highlight of the 2022-23 season was playing 5 games in the FA Cup. The club got through the first two preliminary rounds after replays but then lost 1-0 to Chasetown in the next round. It did earn the club quite a bit of money. We finished 13th in the league, well clear of the bottom of the table and hope to do better in 2023-24.

The 2023-24 season began with an FA Cup tie at Atherstone Town but unfortunately for Alleynians the match was on the same day as Player-Manager Luke Askey’s wedding. With most of the players attending the wedding, the team lost the game 3-0. This set the scene for a rather disappointing season in the league with the club finishing 4th from bottom, although well clear of relegation. The highlight of the season was the Staffs Senior Cup Quarter Final where we eventually lost very unluckily 3-2 to Stoke City U23. We had been leading 2-1 with only 8 minutes to go before Stoke managed to pull it back and win the game.

The 2024-25 season saw Stone Old Alleynians moving from their home of four years at Kings Park in Meir Heath to groundshare with “Step 4” team Newcastle Town. With more modern facilities and surroundings the team managed to make some progress in the FA Cup and finished in a creditable 9th place in the Midland Football League Premier Division with 45 points.

CLUB HONOURS
STAFFORD AMATEUR LEAGUE / MID STAFFS LEAGUE
Div 1: Champions 1972; 1975; 1979
Div 2: Champions 1966; 1981
Div 3: Runners-up 1979 Div 4: Runners-up 1964
Borough Cup: Winners 1979; Runners-up 1973; 1976
Div 2 Cup: Winners 1984
Pageant Cup: Winners 1975; 1976; Runners-up: 1974; 1979; 1984
Secretary of the Year: 1984 - Dave Mardling

STAFFS ALLIANCE LEAGUE
League Cup: Runners-up 1982
Annual 5-a-side Winners: 1987 Monica Shield: Runners-up 1994

STONE CHARITY CUP
Winners 1969; 1972; 1974; 1975 Runners-up 1973

UTTOXETER CHARITY CUP
Runners-up 1982; 1984

STAFFS AMATEUR CUP (Southern Area)
Runners-up 1964

STAFFS COUNTY SENIOR LEAGUE LEYCETTS LEAGUE
Secretary of the Year 2006 - Trevor Horne Secretary of the Year 1996 - Graham Moss

BOURNE SPORTS TROPHY
Runners-up 2005

STAFFS FA CHALLENGE CUP
Runners-up 2010

WEST MIDLAND REGIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION 1
Runners-up 2015

JW HUNT CUP
Runners-up 2015

FA CUP
Qualified for the first time in 2019-20
Reached 2nd Qualifying Rd 2021-22

MIDLAND FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Promoted to Premier League 2021

STAFFS FA SENIOR CHALLENGE CUP Finalists 2022

Stone Old Alleynians FC

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