Stevenage FC are a football club from the designated new town thirty miles north of London in the county of Hertfordshire. The current club were formed in 1976 to take over as the senior football club in the town, after a couple of earlier clubs had some limited success until fincial problems got the better of them.
The first team in the town as also called Stevenage FC and were formed in 1894. In 1899 they took on the name of Stevenage Town FC. The club were members of the Herts County League until it disbanded. They joined the Delphian League in 1951 and five years later they merged with Stevenage Rangers FC to become Stevenage FC. In 1961 they reverted to Stevenage Town and two years later the club moved to their new ground at Broadhall Way as the town expanded.
In 1963 Town joined the Southern League after turning semi professional. Unfortunately it proved a step too far and the club were disbanded in 1968. A new club Stevenage Athletic FC took their place, starting in the Metropolitan League and then the Southern League in 1971. The club resigned from the league in August 1976.
A new club was once again required to represent the town so a new Stevenage FC was set up. It wasn't until 1980 that senior league football returned to the town as the United Counties League was entered with a revamped council owned Broadhall Way as the home ground, after the club had played junior football at the King George V Playing Fields on a roped off pitch. The club was titled Stevenage Borough FC.
In 1984 after a period of success Boro were promoted to the Isthmian League. They won one promotion but were soon relegated, when in 1990 Paul Fairclough took over as manager and transformed the club. Two titles were won in consecutive seasons so Borough found themselves in the leagues' Premier Division. That title was lifted in 1994 and with it entry to the Football Conference.
In 1996 The Boro won the Confeence, but were denied promotion into the Football League as Broadhall Way was deemed to be not up to the required standard. The following season they reached the FA Cup Third Round but lost at St Andrews to Birmingham City, after the game had been switched from Broadhall Way. The next season Boro went one better and reached Round Four. A temporary stand was erected to satisfy the FA as Newcastle United escaped with a 1-1 draw in a game that attracted plenty of fire because of pre match comments from both clubs. United won the replay in controversial circumstances.
Despite two great cup runs the Chairman Victor Green announced that the club was in financial troubles and that he was prepared to close it down, which led to Fairclough moving on. Phil Wallace, a successful businessman in the food industry completed a 90% purchase of Stevenage Borough in 1999. He gradually rebuilt the clubs' finances and the previously rocky relationship with the local council.
Boro reached the 2002 FA Trophy Final at Villa Park, but lost out to Yeovil Town. Wallace provided a brand new training ground as well as Broadhall Way being gradually rebuilt. The following season Graham Westley came in as manager and helped to improve the teams league form. In 2005 Boro got all the way to the Conference Play Off Final, but were denied their cherished League place once again by Carlisle United in the Britannia Stadium show down.
Westley moved on at the end of the following season to be replaced by Mark Stimpson. Boro became the first team to win a competitive final at the new Wembley, when they came from two goals down to defeat Kidderminster Harriers 3-2 in the 2007 FA Trophy Final with Steve Morison as one of the star players. Stimpson resigned during the next season and then Peter Taylor had an unsuccessful spell as boss.
Graham Westley returned in 2008 and Boro won another FA Trophy in 2009 against York City at Wembley as well as missing out in the play off semi finals against Cambridge United. The following season was the one where Boro finally achieved their dream as they won the Conference and promotion with two games to go into the Football League.
On the 1st June 2010, the club announced it would be named as Stevenage FC as it entered the League. In their first season they reached the FA Fourth Round after avenging some much awaited revenge by defeating Newcastle United 3-1 at Broadhall Way. Even better was to come as The Boro, as they were still nicknamed, were promoted after winning the Old Trafford Play Off Final defeating Torquay United by one goal to nil.
Westley moved on to Preston North End in January 2012 to be replaced by Gary Smith. However, the fortunes of both men were not good as both ended up being dismissed, with Westley returning to the Broadhall Way hot seat in March 2013 for a third spell in the job.
Stevenage FC will compete in the Football League One in the 2013-14 season.
My visits
Stevenage Borough 0 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 6th November 1999) Football Conference (att: 1,743)
I had moved down to London the previous Spring and was keen to get to as many Scarborough away games as possible. I had every Saturday off when cricket wasn't taking place at Lord's so it gave me plenty of scope. Steve Walker was living near Oxford so I managed to talk him into a day out in pastures new.
I had to meet him off his train at Paddington as he couldn't find his way to Kings Cross on the tube! We were soon on our way on the short journey north where we went to our first pub on what was to prove a bit of a marathon session. I can't remember its name, but it was as desperate as its surroundings, so we decided to get a taxi to the ground and use the clubhouse. A crazy man drove us to the ground through a pretty soulless town to be honest, and told us about how he knew some gangsters in the news of late. The clubhouse was a massive improvement, even though it was busy. It had its own bookies and the locals were friendly enough.
Broadhall Way seemed a decent ground. The away end was a reasonable sized open terrace. The Main Stand was a single tiered covered stand on the left along the full length of the pitch. The East Terrace opposite also ran the full length of the pitch with a nice gable on the centre of the roof. The far North Terrace looked pretty shallow, with a roof from the penalty area to the Main Stand.
Scarborough had a reasonable team, as did Stevenage who had the better of the game if truth be told. However, it turned out to be one of those away games that I love so much, where your team is under the cosh but gradually get into it and end up winning.
Matty Russell got a chance in the second half at our end and buried it to send the hundred or so away fans into ecstasy. The team defended heroically for the rest of the game, so we could go back into the clubhouse with silly grins on our faces.
The locals took it better than I would have done as we chatted, before we got a taxi back to the station. Steve did a great line in wind ups with the lady driver as he initially made out what a lovely place Stevenage was. Amazingly, the lady agreed. I could only guess that she didn't travel far! We went to the entertainment centre in search of a better bar, but found none apart from a plastic establishment in a bowling alley.
We headed back to the station and ended up on a train without a toilet which stopped everywhere. The guard kindly advised us to quickly jump out at the next station and go on the end of the platform, while he held the train up! We got back to Kings Cross and headed for Paddington for a few more beers, including a couple in the Fountains Abbey before Steve headed off and I went back to Willesden.
Stevenage Borough 1 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 19th August 2000) Football Conference (att: 2,032)
I headed up to this game with Simon from Gillingham and Liz on a stunning summers day. My parents were staying in London for a few days, so I had to be relatively sensible on the sauce pre match! Scarborough FC were in a real state financially. John Russell had stepped down as Chairman but was still around the club. No-one expected him to pitch up on the front seat of the team coach after the problems he had caused, yet was still denying.
I met a few mates who were down for the match including Carl from Malton. We were wondering if this was going to be the clubs last ever away game. A high court hearing was due the following Friday after that weeks home game with Morecambe. We were not very happy with things, but we were determined to support the players, many of whom were losing out financially.
Some fans were talking of setting up an Independent Supporters Trust to run the club. This was the first time I'd ever heard of such a scheme. Some of the tales I was told about people in high positions making personal gain from the club didn't help my mood. Some others wandering around saying it was all lies and good people were running it. The team looked a bit of a state as some of their socks didn't match perfectly, which was extremely embarrassing.
Somehow Boro put in a brilliant performance, and we went berserk when Steve Brodie scored our goal. A draw was the least we deserved, simply on courage alone.
I headed straight back to the station, my voice resigned to a whisper, so I could meet my Mum and Dad in The Sir John Oldcastle at Farringdon for tea and a few drinks.
Stevenage Borough 2 Scarborough 2 (Saturday 11th October 2003) Football Conference (att: 1,776)
I headed to this game with Dave Cammish with the promise of a decent away ground to come. We had a quick pint in the Standard Bearer, a Wetherspoons pub in the new shopping mall, before heading by taxi to Broadhall Way.
The ground and clubhouse lived up to its billing and soon we were sat comfortably watching the afternoon's racing. I got off to a cracking start as I got a winner! After a couple of pints we went into the ground, where we were located in the new single tiered covered seated stand purely for away fans.
The game was decent enough. Stevenage went one up with a penalty before Lloyd Blackman levelled after fifty four minutes on one of his few appearances for the club. The home side created plenty of pressure, but Boro defended stoutly. Stevenage's forward Anthony Elding was getting plenty of stick as his team attacked out end for his attempted theatrics in his coloured boots.
He hardly endeared himself when Stevenage scored with just twelve minutes to go with his celebrations in front of us. It wouldn't have been so bad if he had scored the goal! However, we were about to have the last laugh. Chris Senior came off the bench with nine minutes to go and then scored an equaliser with just three minutes to go. It's fair to say we celebrated long and hard and gave Elding our thoughts!
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| The new stand at Broadhall Way Picture taken from The Guardian online |
Stevenage Borough 1 Scarborough 0 (Saturday 19th February 2005) Football Conference (att: 1,728)
Karl Theobald had come down from Scarborough for the weekend, which I had off work. We were going to our annual visit to the Masters Snooker at Wembley Conference Centre of the Friday evening to kick off our fun.
We met up on Saturday morning to reflect on the fine performance the previous evening where we'd seen Ronnie O'Sullivan destroy Ding Junhui. Simon Keane was also joining us and as we boarded the train north Karl revealed his full naivety to us. He said he went, paper under his arm, to Starbucks to relax with a nice big coffee. Not realising the parlance in such establishments, he ordered a double espresso only to be given something he said he could balance on his thumb nail.
Karl was always full value and we'd told him all about Stevenage, but even he was shocked how bad the town centre was. He was shaking his head in disbelief when he say boards on lamp stands where people were requested to put their discarded chewing gum. Some of the clientele in Mall's two pubs didn't do an awful lot for the towns tourist drive either.
In the clubhouse a group of Seadog supporting Dutchmen joined us. They had flown over on the cheap by courtesy of Eastjet. They really had enjoyed the day out thus far!
The least said about the game the better. Boro were awful and Stevenage not much better. It was freezing cold and our team did little to warm us. To round off a bad ninety minutes the only goal was scored by a former Seadog favourite Darryn Stamp. It was so bad, even some of our loyalist fans were heard to boo.
It was a relief to get back to London for beers with our mate Colm in Cricklewood.
The photos of Broadhall Way where the match is in progress were taken at the match in November 1999. The first two photos of the ground are from 1983 before major works took place.
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