Boro bounce back to the top

Boro’s 3-1 victory over Mansfield has put the Hertfordshire club back at the summit of the Blue Square Premier. It was a hard-fought game, which at times threatened to boil over, but Stevenage kept their heads and in the end won the game. It was a superb response from the team after Saturday’s disappointing defeat away to Tamworth. The night got even better late on when news filtered through that Luton had done us a favour and beaten Oxford by 2 goals to 1 at Kenilworth Road.

“We played against a good side who are up there and we had them on the rack. I thought we governed the game for long periods. They certainly showed the right spirit and the right endeavour, but it’s just that little bit of luck at the moment, we seem to be getting balls spinning away, hitting posts and crossbars.” Holdsworth’s slightly biased view of Tuesday’s game

Tuesday night’s results put Stevenage 3 points clear at the top of the BSP on 63 points. Oxford are 2nd with 60, but do have 2 games in hand on the leaders. York City are 3rd on 59 points, but they also have a game in hand on Boro. Rushden’s recent good form has propelled them up into 4th position, while Luton are now 5th after that last gasp win against Oxford. It is certainly one of the more exciting title races in recent times. In the last few seasons, there always seems to have been a runaway winner, like Aldershot or Dagenham, but it could well go down to the last day of the season this time around.

Another factor in this season’s title race is the possible expulsion from the league of Chester City. The troubled club have just been suspended from the league for 7 days after failing to fulfil two of their fixtures and the future of the club is in severe doubt. If Chester do get expelled from the Conference, then Stevenage would lose their 6 points gained against them, while Oxford would lose 3 as they have only played them once. The team that would profit the most from the demise of Chester would be Luton Town, who only managed to pick up 2 points against them. That would mean they would be 4 points nearer to Boro at the top of the BSP.

It does seem a bit unfair that because of another club, Stevenage’s title chances will take a big knock. Stevenage did their job in both games and won the points, but because of Chester’s poor finances and mis-management, it is the Hertfordshire club that will suffer. What will it take for Boro to get promoted from this league? When we won the Conference in 1996 we were denied promotion because of the Broadhall Way ground, although it was perfectly ready for league football ahead of the following season. Now we have our best chance of promotion since then and it looks like it could be Chester City that ruin it this time.

In other news, the club have announced that the home fixture against Luton Town is to be made an all ticket fixture. It’s the first league fixture I can remember being made all ticket. The official website says that Stevenage have acted on Hertfordshire Police advice and have also moved the kick-off forward to 1pm. Luton will be given a 1,400 seated allocation which I’m sure they’ll fill. Stevenage will sell tickets initially to season ticket holders, if they wish to purchase more tickets and then move on to Supporters Association members and Flexi ticket holders.