Club History

Club History


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.