Monday Round-up

Stevenage kick off their reserve season in the Football Combination East on Wednesday night with a home fixture against Wycombe Wanderers who we drew with in pre-season. Boro are expected to name a mix of first team players and some players from the newly formed “School of Excellence”. Some names expected to feature are Peter Vincenti, Iyseden Christie and Craig Westcarr. Kick off is at 7pm and entry prices are still priced at £5 (adults) and £2 (concessions).

There will be four ”squad” players that won’t be playing in the reserve game on Wednesday due to moving out on loan. Both Scott Balderson and Zak Burke will get valuable first team experience in the Conference South at Bognor Regis Town as will Jack Bradshaw who has joined Maidenhead United. George Brinkman has also moved out on loan, joining nearby Arlesey Town. It will be interesting to see how Balderson and Burke perform at that level. The Conference South is still quite a step down from the Blue Square Premier, but is a good enough level for the youngsters to be tested and get used to first team football.

On the injury front, Mitchell Cole is back in training this week, there by giving him a realistic chance of playing at Ebbsfleet on Saturday although John Martin and David Bridges are still out. Bridges has a broken foot and is unlikely to return until at least late September. Martin is more short term and could be back to face Crawley on Bank Holiday Monday.

Elsewhere in the Blue Square Premier, our next opponents Ebbsfleet got their season up and running with an impressive 2-0 win over Torquay United at Plainmoor. Goals from Luke Moore and John Akinde gave the Kent side the 3 points. They thoroughly deserved their win and it could of been even more if Stacy Long had finished better late on. Ebbsfleet could be a surprise package this season as long as the “MyFC” doesn’t interfere too much on the playing side of things.

Lastly, here is a page which shows what Broadhall Way looked like as it was being re-developed during the mid-nineties. The page also shows the Buildbase Stand being built in 2001.