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Well, this is rather an unusual thread eh (and not just because I've had to prose my head out of my toilet cistern for 30 minutes)? After the joys of winning the previously predicted ‘humdinger’ of a game at home to Huddersfield Town on Saturday, a team that we have played on many an occasion over the years, we now turn to Tuesday night’s opponents and a first ever visit to the Lamex Stadium for an inaugural game against Stevenage Football Club (the team previously known as Stevenage Borough Football Club).
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Who Are You?
The Boro were founded in 1976 following the demise of the town's former club. Joining the United Counties League in 1980 they enjoyed success in their first year at senior status, winning both the United Counties League Division One title and the United Counties League Cup. Following three promotions in four seasons in the early 1990s, the club was promoted to the Conference National Division in 1994. Despite winning the league in the 1995–96 season, they were denied promotion to the Football League due to insufficient ground facilities.
However, Stevenage remained in the top tier of non-League for the following 14 seasons, before earning promotion to the Football League after winning the Conference Premier in the 2009–10 season.
That promotion prompted a rebranding of the club, dropping the word 'Borough' from its title in June 2010. In their first season in the Football League, Stevenage achieved promotion to League One via the play-offs with the club subsequently attaining their highest league position during the 2011–12 season, placing sixth in League One. Since then the club have yo-yo’d between the 3rd and 4th tiers, but this season threaten to surpass their previous highest finish, being somewhat the surprise package in League 1 this term.
Stevenage are managed by former City striker Alex Revell, who, after leaving the Bluebirds in 2016 went on to play for MK Dons, Northampton Town and finally Stevenage. For the record, Revell notched just 3 times in 30 games in a City shirt.
Revell was appointed following the shock departure of Evans to Rotherham United, initially as interim manager for the remaining two fixtures of the 2023-24 season, with this then being made permanent in May 2024. His win record in this stint shows a 39.2% win ratio from 79 games.
I honestly don’t think there is a single name in the Stevenage squad that I am very familiar with. Top scorer (with 6 goals from 14 games) is Jamie Reid, a former Mansfield & Torquay striker who is also now a Northern Ireland International. He has been with the Boro since 2021 and has amassed 46 goals in total from 169 league games.
Behind him in the scoring charts is midfielder Harvey White with 3 from 16. White is a former Spurs youngster who has had loan spells at both Portsmouth & Derby. He also leads the assist chart for Boro with 3.
He is joined as a regular in midfield by Chem Campbell, a former Welsh U-17 winger (1 cap) who most recently had loan spells at Reading & Wycombe after struggling to break through at Wolves.
The one name that was vaguely familiar was that of Charlie Goode, a former Brentford defender who signed for the Bees from Northampton for a decent sum but never really got going at the London club.
The regular shot stopper appears to be ex-Villa youngster Filip Marschall who joined the club at the start of this season.
First And Last
Quite simply there is no history to this fixture, so whoever triumphs (should a winner emerge) will be making history!!
Form
We head across to Stevenage knowing that they are incredibly strong at home, with Boro being 1 of only 2 teams with an unbeaten home record (Bolton being the other), with that record being built upon a very solid defensive base.
Overall they have conceded just 11 goals in the league across their 16 games. That record is out into even sharper focus when you take just their home form, where they have conceded just 2 goals in 7 home games. It’s fair to say our creative players are going to have to be bang on their game for us to unlock such a solid outfit.
Fingers crossed our defence will have a slightly easier time of it though, as Stevenage have just the 16th best attack in the division, having scored just 19 times in their 16 matches. Taking just their home record, their record drops them down to 17th best, though to be fair, 9 goals in 7 isn’t terrible.
If there is one glimmer of hope we can glean from the recent form, it’s that after a blistering start for the Hertfordshire club , they do seem to have begun to have a slight blip over the last 6 games, with them only picking up 1 win in that period, though if you try to take a positive spin on things, then they are also unbeaten in their last 3 having picked up a draw either side of that sole win which came at struggling Peterborough.
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On The Pitch
Will we see more tinkering following an excellent result on Saturday that saw us win 3 league games in a row, scoring 3 in each game?
To the best of my knowledge we avoided picking up any further injuries meaning we could see the same starting 11 take to the field again for a 2nd game in a row, however, personally I can’t see BBM sticking with things and instead envisage him deciding to rest a few weary legs after Saturday.
Predicted Starting 11
Trott
Bagan
Lawlor
Fish
Kpakio
Robertson
Wintle
Willock
Robinson
Davies
Salech
The Odds
If my brain is working correctly then we are once again slight favourites as far as the bookies are concerned. Personally I’m not so sure and would have thought a draw would be the most likely of outcomes, but hey, what do I know?
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C’mon The City!!!!
(Better late than never eh????).
