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Stevenage away preview

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Stevenage away preview

Postby Sweden Stag » Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:41 am

After the deserved 1-1 draw at home to the current Newport County club last Friday, the Stags will head south the forthcoming weekend. And the opponents, Stevenage, know a bit of being reprieved from a relegation, just like the Stags were a little more than a half-century ago. Below are some facts.

If ever there were a side being lucky to be reprevied from relegation from the EFL League Two last season, it was the Stags’ next opponents, namely Stevenage. On the field, they were rock-bottom of League Two with just three wins out of 36, the lowest League Two wins tally at that stage for years. Ten points below Morecambe, and without the points deductions, fourteen below Macclesfield. In the end, several points deductions resulted in Macclesfield thrown out of League Two last August, and later also expelled from the National League. Under normal circumstances, Stevenage had not been playing in League Two this season, also considering the demise of Bury around the time of last season’s Stags home fixture against Stevenage, which then ended in a goal-less draw, just like the corresponding fixture at One Call earlier this season. And one Stevenage player last term, Kelland Watts, was later last season to play a couple of games for the Stags.

Writing about relegation reprevies within and just outside the EFL, the Stags became the first-ever EFL club to be reprieved from a relegation. Older Stags fans, also some within the previewer’s generation, may remember that this happened at the end of the 1967-68 Division Three campaign. On the field, the Stags finished in 21st position, only just above Grimsby Town on goal average, and three points below Tranmere Rovers under the two-point ruling. Then, Peterborough finishing ninth on the field, had had off-the-field issues which in the end resulted in demotion to the fourth level for Posh, and the Stags being reprieved. The following season, the Stags made FA Cup headlines………

The final home fixture of the 2018-19 season was one in which the Stags could and should have sealed automatic promotion (maybe on expense of one promoted team which eventually were expelled from League One and the EFL). Instead, Stevenage hit the winner in the last minute. And without the expulsion of Bury last season, Stevenage might have been relegated along with Macclesfield. When last season was cancelled, the Stags and Stevenage each had ten games left to play, and one of the games which never was played was the Stevenage v Stags game, due to have been played around Easter. Due to the cancellation, no preview could be done then. And the latest Stags visit to Stevenage around Christmas 2018 ended in a 3-1 victory for the Stags after a dominant display, especially in the second half. From the then Stags’ line-up, only Sweeney started against Newport. Benning started at Stevenage, while Law was an unused sub then (details checked courtesy of the Stagsnet match report of December 22, 2018)-

Maybe there were signs when it was revealed who was to ref that game in April 2009? Darren Drysdale, a ref who in preview history definitely has whistled cold and hot, and has reffed in two of three games Stevenage have won at Mansfield in preview history.

Two years ago, he was poor. But during the early Stags conf years in which the sides faced each other in two different campaigs, Drysdale reffed a game in September 2009. That season, Drysdale was demoted to the Conf after not refereeing in the latter half of the 2008-09 campaign (last game he reffed that campaign involved in fact Stevenage (FA Cup first round at Leicester on November 8, 2008). Details checked.

None of the four BSP clashes between the sides did finish with eleven players for one of the sides.

On September 12, 2009, the Stags were 2-0 up when Kyle Perry was red-carded deep into first-half injury-time. In the eighth (!) minute of that, then ex-Stag Chris Beardsley reduced the lead by scoring for Stevenage. And in the second, two goals from Stevenage ended the Stags' unbeaten home record under Dave Holdsworth, which was to be fifteen games spread over two seasons. But a player who was a Stag two seasons ago, Joel Byrom, played for Stevenage in that game and oversaw the Stevenage rise from the Conf to League One in successive seasons. Byrom returned to Stevenage and played against the Stags at One Call last campaign. He also played in Stevenage’s first-ever FL game, a 2-2 home draw against Macclesfield on August 7, 2010. Byrom and Paul Digby were two ex-Stags who played for Stevenage last season. But none of them are there now. Digby has this season played for Cambridge, while Byrom’s new club is AFC Farsley.

Beardsley was a few seasons ago in his third and final Stags spell. Meanwhile, Beardsley did have two spells at Stevenage as well, the first one starting in the 2009-10 season. Beardsley also played for Bristol Rovers in the final game of the 2013-14 campaign, when the Stags won 1-0 there sending Bristol Rovers out of the FL for one season.

The 1-1 draw at Stevenage in April 2018 is the only one between the sides at Stevenage. And the 2-1 defeat at One Call in October 2016 was to be Adam Murray’s final FL home fixture as Stags manager.

This season is Stevenage's eleventh in the EFL. In their first-ever campaign, Stevenage reached the League Two playoff final, then beat Torquay, becoming just another side to go straight through the basement league following promotion to the FL. Others who have made it from the BSP /now National League/ to current League one in successive seasons during the last two decades include Doncaster, Exeter, Macclesfield, Crawley and Wycombe.

In Stevenage's first League One season, they reached the playoff semifinals finishing the League campaign in sixth place. Since then, they slid down the table to eventually relegation in 2013-14. But that did not distract from reaching the FA Cup fourth round and a bumper home fixture against Everton. But two other sides which have played in the current PL did fail to win at Stevenage in recent seasons. Newcastle were kayoed in a third round game on January 8, 2011, but Tottenham needed a replay to go through the following campaign.

This season has been a contrasting one for Stevenage. Early on, they played eleven games without winning, and before their away defeat to Salford last Saturday, they had played twelve games unbeaten, six wins and six draws, mainly low-scoring ones. And a pointer this year was maybe Stevenage’s injury-time winner at Grimsby earlier this year. Stevenage have also played ten goal-less draws this term, compared to five for the Stags.

A brief run-down on current and previous Stevenage clubs is seen below.

Stevenage Town were elected to the Southern League way back in 1963-64 and played two seasons in the Southern League Premier before folding due to financial problems.

In 1970-71, Stevenage Athletic were elected to the Southern League Division One. And after finishing rock-bottom in the 1975-76 season, Stevenage Athletic went into liquidation days before the start of the 1976-77 campaign and therefore were expelled from the League in which they were due to play.

The current Stevenage club was formed in 1976 following the demise of Stevenage Athletic. And oddly enough, Stevenage and Macclesfield were two clubs which were denied entry into the EFL after winning the current National League. The third one was Kidderminster. Those who in the mid-nineties were reprieved from the trapdoor were Northampton, Exeter and Torquay in successive seasons. Think Stevenage are the only club ever which have been denied entry to the EFL and also been reprevied from relegation from the EFL.

Although the Stags before the 2008-09 season never had faced any Stevenage side before, there had been some player traffic between the sides. By the time of the February 9 2010 BSP preview, Jamie Campbell, Lee Howarth, Richard Pacquette, Gary Mills and Michael Brough were mentioned. A check on players during the update of more recent previews revealed a few more players that had played for the Stevenage before joining the Stags. One of those is the much-travelled Jefferson Louis, figuring in many previews during the last decade. Two years before netting the 90th minute winner at Wycombe in front of the previewer, Louis played 18 games, six of those as sub, scoring on six occasions, for Stevenage during the 2005-06 season. A few seasons earlier, Michael Blackwood played a few years at Broadhall way aka Lamex Stadium. Simon Heslop came, just like Luke Jones, to the Stags from Stevenage during the close-season of 2013-14. One Stags loanee in goal in 2014-15, Adam Smith from Leicester, was on loan at Stevenage the previous season without playing. A little more than a decade earlier, Scott Eustace was on the Stevenage books without playing in the BSP aka Vanarama League.

Total list of players having played for both sides: Chris Beardsley, Michael Blackwood, Michael Brough, Joel Byrom, Jamie Campbell, Iyseden Christie, Paul Digby, Craig Dobson, Luke Foster, Simon Heslop, Pat Hoban, Lee Howarth, Johnny Hunt, Luke Jones, Jefferson Louis, Junior Mendes, Gary Mills, Aaron O’Connor, Richard Pacquette, Peter Vincenti, Tyler Walker, Kelland Watts, Sam Wedgbury.

League stats:

Home: P 9, W 4, D 2, L 3, GF 10, GA 9
Away: P 7, W 3, D 1, L 3, GF 10, GA 11

Season Home Date Away Date

2008-09 2-1 2009-04-26 2-3 2008-10-07 BSP
2009-10 2-3 2009-09-12 1-3 2010-02-09 BSP
2014-15 1-0 2015-02-07 0-3 2014-09-27 League Two
2015-16 2-1 2016-01-09 2-0 2015-09-29 League Two
2016-17 1-2 2016-10-29 1-0 2017-04-22 League Two
2017-18 1-0 2017-11-18 1-1 2018-04-10 League Two
2018-19 1-2 2019-04-27 3-1 2018-12-22 League Two
2019-20 0-0 2019-08-24 away not played League Two
2020-21 0-0 2020-10-10 at One Call League Two

About time for the Stags to get back on the winning trail. Come on Mansfield!
Stockholm, July 4, 2008, 15.00 GMT. Good news came, K.H. gone. March 1, 2012. Ground purchased.
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