Foley Meir - McIntosh Arena

Foley Meir FC

McIntosh Arena

Whitcombe Road

Meir

Stoke-on-Trent 

ST3 6AU

Official Website

NWCFL Page

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Ground Number: 1146
Tuesday 31st January 2023
Foley Meir 2-2 Cammell Laird
North West Counties D1 South

FOLEY MEIR FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

Founded as Foley in 1947 by ex-servicemen, the club initially joined the Longton League Division Two. They were Alliance League Premier Champions in 1988. Information is scarce on the early years but in 1996, they joined the Midland League (1984 -2005 version) and won Division 2 at the first attempt. In 2005 the league merged with the Staffordshire County League to form the Staffordshire County Senior League. Foley were Premier Division champions in 2009 but results soon tailed off and in the next couple of years, they were relegated to Division 1. This was also around the time when they added the 'Meir' suffix to their name to represent their geographical location. After years of unremarkable seasons, the club were Division 1 champions in 2017. This was a remarkable turnaround of form and they finished as Premier Division runners-up to Wolstanton United the following season. They continued around the top reaches of the table and were indeed top when the season ended early in 2021. Last season, they finished 4th and this was good enough for them to be admitted into the North West Counties D1 South for the start of this season.

Foley Meir have not yet participated in either the FA Cup or FA Vase. They have had some cup success locally though. They won the Staffordshire Alliance League Division 1 Cup in 1989, the Staffordshire County League Charity Shield in 1993 and 1995 and the Staffordshire County League Cup in 1996. Also the Staffordshire FA Challenge Cup in 2007, the Staffordshire County Senior Presidents Trophy in 2017 and a couple of fair play and respect awards over the years. They are based in the area of Meir, or Meir Heath which has a population of around 4,500. Local rivals include the likes of Stone Old Alleynians (a step higher in the Midland Premier and Hanley Town (a couple of steps higher in the NPL D1 West).

MY VISIT

This game was decided on Saturday after I presented around eight options to Anwar & Colin last week. For once, there was a decent choice of games available and both of my regular hoppers were available. For that reason, we could go a bit further and eventually settled on Foley Meir as there was a backup close by at Hanley Town. It was back to the grim reality of a busy Sunday at work after a great day at Buckland on Saturday. At least I treated myself to a nice curry in the evening which lifted my spirits somewhat. Monday was another long day but it was another good evening. I got some much-needed exercise by walking up to Penn & Tylers Green for their Allied Counties League game. It was a really decent game and a local derby with Flackwell Heath triumphing 4-3.

The day of the game came and a late night previously meant that I didn't wait up until 8.30. I had breakfast, freshen up and got dressed before heading down town. I was a bit later than I'd have liked but at least I got my jobs done. The main one was replenishing my bank account with Colin's half of the hop costs. After initially asking to pay in instalments, he settled on paying the £260 in cash rather than using a bank transfer. At least it wasn't in £1 coins like he'd paid for petrol before. I also got my usual things from Lidl, including lunch from their bakery to save cooking when I got home. I was home by just before 2, meaning I had around an hour to kill before leaving at 2.50.

It was a reasonable journey over to pick Colin up from work and perfect timing as we both arrived at the same time. It was country roads over to Anwar with us getting to him at 3.50. It was then two and a half hours to our pre-match takeaway of Hamzas near the ground. I and Anwar had been there before Stone Old Alleynians and it had been excellent. This time I opted for a 12-inch chicken balti pizza for £6. This was pretty decent although I was jealous of Colin's curry deal he got. Therefore, I was already looking forward to the likes of Hanley Town so I could come back. We made our way to the ground, a few minutes away. It was down the most rutted and potholed road I've been down. We paid £5 to get in and £1 for the programme. It was a lovely homely ground and club and everyone was really friendly. One interesting point was that this was ground 333 for Colin. My 333rd was tonight's opponent Cammell Laird back in 2014.

Foley Meir finally got their first win since October on Saturday, beating local Rivals Abbey Hulton United 3-1. This was in stark contrast to the 12-0 thumping that they had suffered at Cheadle Town the game previous. They'd also suffered 1-0 at Stafford Town, 2-0 at Eccleshall and 5-2 to a Port Vale side in the County Cup. They also had a positive result at Maine Road, drawing 3-3. The hosts were 19th whilst the visitors were 12th. Cammell Laird had also been in poor form until Saturday when they won 3-2 at basement side Rocester. Prior to that, it had been a long line of defeats - 2-0 to Barnton, 2-1 at Wythenshawe Amateurs, 1-0 to Ashville and  3-2 at Sandbach. They'd also lost 3-0 to Stalybridge Celtic in a County Cup. Cammell Laird started slightly the better side but didn't create that much. It was the hosts who took the lead on 10 minutes. Tom Wakefield took a touch before finishing from just outside the six-yard box. They had another cleared off the line but the most notable incident was when tempers flared following a tackle. There was kicking and punching but the referee was sensible and just yellow-carded a few players. If the first half was Foley's, the second half belonged to Cammell Laird. They'd already put a shot narrowly wide when they were awarded a penalty on 48 minutes. Ryan Smith stepped up and converted the spot kick to level the scores. On 79 minutes, the visitors were awarded a free kick. It came to nothing but the hosts broke quickly. From this attack down the left, the ball was swept out to the right. It was crossed back in and Aiden Lloyd finished from close range. Two minutes after, Daniel Stephens equalised with a close-range crouching header. It was really end-to-end at the end of the game and both keepers made great blocks to prevent a late winner.

Foley Meir 1-1 CAMMELL LAIRD - penalty on 55 minutes pic.twitter.com/9AoidxUnGj

— ⚽Russell Cox💙 (@RussWWFC) January 31, 2023

It had been a decent game for the 45 in attendance, albeit a bit scrappy at times. I was glad out of the eight games that had been on offer, we had chosen the best one, as there were a couple of 0-0's. We left at 9.45 with Greatest Hits Radio providing the soundtrack as ever. It was a fairly decent journey home road-wise. There was a Toyota LJ15ODS driving like a right fool on the M40 South though. He was sat in the middle lane for miles, speeding up and slowing down from 40-80, must have seen them about 20 times with me sitting in the left lane mainly. Upon getting home, I looked on Twitter and discovered that the plate had already been mentioned for illegally parking in a taxi rank in London, albeit over five years ago. I dropped Anwar off at 12.15 and Colin off at 12.40. I got home ten minutes later and was asleep within an hour with work the next day.

THE GROUND 

THE MCINTOSH ARENA is a lovely homely ground with plenty of character. There's a fair bit of grass banking and two sides of the ground is not accessible to fans. There's a small stand with a capacity for around 150 seating and standing. The bar is nice, with decent-looking food and drink options at good prices. There's a fair bit of parking but the access road is a bit dodgy although it saves on speed bumps I guess. It's less than a mile from Meir, where amongst other things, a great takeaway called Hamza's is with a huge menu and great prices.