Stafford Rangers		12.8.17
THE RECORD			P	W	D	L	F	A
Home				49	26	9	14	95	56		
Away				45	18	13	14	65	56	
Overall				94	44	22	28	160	112
THE HISTORY
It’s a pleasure to welcome the Rangers to Alty for the 50th time this afternoon – we first met on this ground on December 13th, 1952 in a Cheshire County League match which our guests, who had moved from the Birmingham Combination, won 2-1. The clubs were regular opponents until the formation of the NPL in 1968, but within a year Stafford joined the new set-up as Cheshire League champions Skelmersdale United were unable to accept promotion owing to their amateur status, leaving the way clear for them as runners-up. The rivalry between Robins and Rangers remained keen over the next 26 years and was resumed in the mid-2000s, but we haven’t met since a Blue Square Premier game here on March 24th 2008 which the Robins won 2-0, Colin Little scoring both goals in front of 1135 spectators.  
THE MEMORIES
I first saw Alty play Stafford here on Saturday October 25th 1969, in our first ever NPL encounter, which coincidentally went the same way as our first Cheshire League meeting almost seventeen years earlier. The game remains in my memory due to the Alty debut of a diminutive Scottish goalkeeper by the name of Willie Mailey. It wasn’t his first game on this ground – just under a year earlier he alone had kept the rampant Robins at bay in an FA Cup 1st Round tie with Crewe Alexandra which attracted 6,597 fans to Moss Lane. Wayne Emmerson scored the only goal to give the Alex a totally undeserved win and Mailey was rightly given the accolade as “Monday’s Man” in the Manchester Evening News a couple of days later. He evidently had something of a falling-out with Crewe and was snapped up by Alty. If I shut my eyes I can still hear two sounds I will forever associate with him – one was the clang of studs on goalpost as he knocked the mud off his boots, and the other the insistent cry of “Push oot!”to his defence. A real character!
Among other memories – the late Ivan Crossley scoring one of his very rare goals for the Robins in a 5-2 win here in September 1975; a 4-1 win in the Trophy 4th Round in March 1985 which had the fans purring at the quality of Alty’s football; the bitter taste of a Sunday afternoon in late April 1991 when a defeat by the odd goal in three at Marston Road put the skids under the Robins’ challenge for the GMVC title, which eventually went to Barnet; and sheets of rain causing the abandonment after just 28 minutes of a game here on New Year’s Day 2005.

MARSTON ROAD

It’s almost ten years since I last made my way from Stafford Station, past the prison and on towards our guests’ stadium – quite a lengthy walk. My memory is of a substantial stand, rather along the lines of that at the old Drill Field ground of a certain club from the salt-mines, traditionally covered terracing opposite and I think at one end while the other was open to the elements – and I do have a clear memory of watching at least one game there with a snow-white pitch and an orange ball! The atmosphere could at times be quite lively and the rivalry was always keen. Whether I am able to retrace my steps next month will depend on the FA Cup progress of one or both of us!   Mike Garnett.