White Stars

Madeley White Star  5  Cheadle Town Reserves  1

Staffordshire County Senior League – Division Two

Some clubs deserve success, and the reason they deserve success is they try and do everything right.

Madeley White Star fall into that category, as the tale I’m about tell will explain.

Upon looking at the make-up and the locations of the Staffordshire County Senior League this season, I only needed to visit two new grounds. One was City of Stoke, and the other was indeed Madeley.

They have just moved into the league this season, and with an opening game of the campaign at their High School location, it seemed as good a chance as any to get a visit in nice and early. You see, Madeley have an active and informative Twitter account, so in the run up to the game we were kept fully informed of proceedings.

The journey was a straightforward one on a lovely Summers day, taking me along the A50, past Stoke City’s ground, who were entertaining the Rams today, and then down to Whitmore, before heading up the backroads to Keele.

The road from Whitmore to Keele goes via the Keele Service Station and that was a road I’ve wandered up and down on a few occasions. When I was at Keele Univesity, we used to go out on a Friday night to the Students Union (the SHAG as it was known – Students Having A Good Time!), and then carry on drinking back in our rooms until the sun came up, then we would go to the services to get breakfast. Happy days and all that!

Anyway, Keele has changed an awful lot since I was tax dodging, the old Hawthorns Hall of Residence has now gone and been replaced with housing, while the campus itself is huge, certainly compared to what it was.

Madeley is just past Keele, and the High School is easily found on the left hand side. Signs took you to the sports centre, where plenty of car parking is available. The club had put signs on the doors giving directions for both player and spectators alike, and it was just outside these doors that I encountered a club official who was helpful and welcoming in equal measures.

The club had done their first ever programme, and that was guaranteed to pull a good number of the fraternity to the game. So I nabbed one of those from him, and was given directions to the nearby Working Mens Club for some pre match refreshments.

I bumped into a lad called Ian from Buxton who has gone from hooligan to hopper as he’s got older. I know a few lads who’ve made this step change, and funnily enough, most of them seem to be Manchester City fans. Great company though as we had a pint and swapped stories.

Back at the ground before the game, a large number of the great and the good were in attendance, with the furthest distance being travelled appeared to be Ramsgate, where the gentleman known as ‘one shirt’ resides. Why has he got that name? Take a guess….

The club official I’d met earlier was now manning the refreshment facilities, available for a donation, while the pitch itself was in great nick despite a couple of days of heavy rain. They’d fully roped the pitch, while on the dugout side, the bests views were to be had from the grass bank.

I would estimate the crowd to be 40-50, with at least half of them members of the FT reading travelling community. Now then, the game, it turned out to be a comfortable 5-1 win for the homesters, with the hugely impressive Kieran Brown netting four of them.

Brown is a quality player, holding on to him will be key for Madeley, and if they can do that I’ll stick my neck out now and say they’ll probably win the league.

A cracking day out at a wonderful club, with good company and a great performance to boot. What more could you want?

I wish Madeley White Star well, and would urge you to pay them a visit. Because they do it right.