Barrow Preview

Next up for Stevenage is the longest trip of the season and hopefully, like last season, the venue where Boro win their first 3 points of the season. The start of the season has been a bit of an anti-climax compared with the way we ended the last campaign. At the moment, two poor performances have yielded just two points against newly promoted opposition and a lot more was expected when the fixtures were announced. However, Boro have proved difficult to break down and although they aren’t functioning that well going forward yet, I’m confident that we will see a much better team in a couple of games time.

Barrow have had a mixed first week in the Blue Square Premier. After taking advantage of a managerless Cambridge at the Abbey Stadium on the opening day, they were hammered in their first home game against Altrincham. Dave Bayliss, who is the joint manager at Holker Street along with Darren Sheridan, is calling for calm at Barrow after the team came in for some criticism after the Alty game. Bayliss has told the BBC that he is using the feeling of disappointment after the Altrincham game as motivation to beat Stevenage on Saturday. It sounds like we’ll be coming up against a side with something to prove.

The victory over Cambridge on the first day of the season was an impressive result considering the visitors had to play with 10 men for over 40 mins.  Goals from Carlos Logan and Jason Walker sealed the three points for the Bluebirds against the beaten play-off finalists. The 3-0 defeat against Altrincham will have certainly brought the team back to earth, but I don’t know how Barrow will react. They will either play Boro with the tails between their legs and of course that will work to our advantage, but they could also come out all guns blazing and could be too strong and physical for Graham Westley’s side.

Stevenage will be more or less full strength. Joel Byrom returns to contention after his 1 game ban following the sending off he received on the opening day. Stacy Long will be looking to win his starting place back too after appearing as a substitute at Hayes & Yeading on Tuesday night. There are some doubts over Ronnie Henry’s fitness and after being given the run by Dale Binns the other night he could be replaced by Lawrie Wilson at right back. Barrow have a dangerous attack led well by Jason Walker who has been interesting Championship side Doncaster Rovers in recent weeks. Carlos Logan is also another striker that Mark Roberts and co will have to keep an eye on. Ex Cambridge captain Phil Bolland also now plays his football up at Barrow.

I think Boro will actually win on Saturday. Although we haven’t started well, I think we’ll have enough to see off Barrow and record our first win. At the moment some questions are being raised on the forum about the team, but if we win on Saturday we’ll be probably in the top 8 again so it’s still early days. Barrow were comfortably seen off both home and away last season and although they possess a strong physical challenge, I think Westley’s side will be up for the challenge and put in a much better performance than what we have seen in the opening two games.

Stevenage Squad

Ashley Bayes, Chris Day, Lawrie Wilson, Scott Laird, Ronnie Henry, Jon Ashton, Mark Roberts, Mark Albrighton, Eddie Odhiambo, Michael Bostwick, Stacy Long, Peter Vincenti, David Bridges, Darren Murphy, Andy Drury, Joel Byrom, Mitchell Cole, Yemi Odubade, Lee Boylan, Charlie Griffin, Chris Beardsley

Prediction: Barrow 1-2 Boro