Right, I’m a Watford fan ( who are crap at the moment) but live in Hertford so follow Hertford Town, non-league ( and we’re crap at the moment), and have started going over past 3 seasons to watch Stevenage ( who are crap at the moment), as it’s a cheap train trip and a reasonable cheap day of footie , ( mind you Stevenage town centre is that crap at the moment both McDonald’s and ‘spoons have pulled out!!)…. But, being reasonably new to league 2, what’s all the ‘hate' against Stevenage? And I think I’ve spotted the common denominator here…me! Perhaps if I followed my other retirees and hunkered down to bowls, the results might rebound!
Maybe from the Graham Westley days and not being a traditional league club. Although been in it for a while. But this time they might not be so lucky.
I think most of it is due to Westleys time there, and the awful football they played. Maybe being saved at the last minute when Macc where thrown out didnt' help much, and then there is the tinpot element of a non-league set up and support. But mainly, its the Westley thing.
Fascinating, but do you have an alternative link so I can have a read? I'm obviously not clicking a Guardian link..
It's definitely Westley who's most responsible for the hate folk have got Stevenage. All the skullduggery got on people's nerves, one time in league someone at Stevenage very carelessly left the frost covers off one corner of the pitch and a match we were going into in good form was postponed. Ourselves and Stevenage were going for a playoff place and when the match was rearranged we'd had injuries to key players and fallen away a bit, Stevenage won. I've never been but apparently the stewards are awful, then there's the reprieve when Bury were expelled and Macc deducted points three months after the season ended, though I still don't think there'd be anywhere near as many people hoping they go down this season had it not been for Westley (though arguably they'd never have got into the league in the first place without him).
Would never click a link to the Graun. I'd need to shower 10 times a day for the next week to feel clean again. Thanks for the link, having read it I do recall the outrage now at the time!
Thanks people…. Westley, (now Evans), dire people. But most clubs go through the odd areshole turntable of management in this modern money driven game… The nice guys have all failed though? Still, don’t go every week, but I miss my Watford away games now all the riffraff snag the tickets, so will maybe have to wander off into the wilds of ( if, hopefully, Evans does get their act together) league 2 grounds with The Borough next season . ⚽️
You might be alright next season if we go down - won’t be so many glamorous trips away ! Would there be a fear about Stevenage’s future if they go down - aren’t there some financial issues ?
Stevenage Borough were a fine football club, top tier traditional non-league, think Hertfordshire's answer to Yeovil, always seemingly on the brink of league football but never quite making it. Then they undid everything and employed Westley. Have a look at how the man departed Farnborough FC, including the incredibly shady goings on of moving an FA Cup tie against Arsenal to Highbury, promptly pocketing the cash, removing his part funding and quitting. Farnborough ended up being liquidated. Who were the only club willing to employ him afterwards? Stevenage. No surprise the club willing to employ him on 4 different occasions would be willing to employ another of footballs dodgy characters in Steve Evans. I take it his even more odious assistant Paul Raynor has also joined him. My advice to lendal would be to avoid Stevenage and start groundhopping the plethora of teams in Hertfordshire all playing at decent levels in non-league.
The fear would be the small crowds get smaller but being competitive in a division has got to be better than turning up every year hoping there are 2 teams worse than us. I think we are OK on the financial side, Wallace isn't a speculate to accumulate kind of bloke, its just whether he wants to stay when we go down. I know a few lads who have had enough of the lack of ambition on the field, if you go down at least go down fighting but a fair few of them look bored, we know how they feel . I would just like to see some excitement back at Stevenage rather than trying to earn a 0-0 because the point might keep us up.
Graham Westley IS Stevenage, he's managed them three or four times I think, and being a small club means they fit quite neatly in his shadow. At least half of their time as a league club must have been with him as manager, and even after he leaves, they end up managed by someone out of the Westley school of management and continue the shithousery. I'd kind of miss them if they did drop though... we beat them in the Conference play-off final in 2005, managed by Westley but they weren't far behind us in getting up into League One, then we were relegated with them to League Two in 2014 so I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out we'd played more games against them in the 21st century than anyone else. Even Westley became kinda endearing after a while, because he always referenced that playoff final and after playing us so often he seemed to have a little bit of a crush on us.
