Our 2013-4 League One campaign ended in something that no Boro’ side had gone through since the 1987-8 season – relegation. It’s never nice to get that sinking feeling. Of course, it won’t shock you to learn that some other teams have a lot more experience of going down than us. But that’s no consolation when it happens to you. And it especially doesn’t help if you’re still keeping the flame of survival alive right up to the very end.
2013-4 League One: The background
Boro’ were always going to top out at some point. After promotion to the Football League in 2010 (finally), we maintained our momentum; staging a second-half-of-season charge to get into – and win – the League One playoffs in 2011. Even when in the third tier, we didn’t quite feel ready to call it quits. It took a late Sheffield United winner to end our dreams of a third straight promotion in 2012; Boro’ going down in the semi-finals.
Yet, still we wanted to punch hard above our weight. The opening part of the 2012-3 season saw us hot on the tail of leaders Tranmere Rovers; a wonderful start to the campaign under Gary Smith daring us to believe once more. But then Smiffy took his finger off it, and we fell hard. Out he went and in came Graham Westley, keeping us clear of any potential relegation danger after a dramatic slump in form. The summer of 2013, then, a chance to regroup.
All change, please
GW took the summer as his opportunity to build a squad that he thought would be capable of maintaining our place in League One. Out went some of the least remarkable lads to ever grace the field in a Boro’ shirt (who was Andy Iro?). In came six new faces in time for the new season; Peter Hartley becoming the seventh arrival shortly after matchday one. Perhaps the most significant transfer activity was the departure of iconic captain Mark Roberts.
The writing on the wall early?
2013-4 League One table – 28 September 2013
Cup joy, league despair
It wasn’t all doom and gloom in the opening exchanges of the 2013-4 League One campaign. Mind you, a cause for optimism came in an entirely different competition. After defeating Ipswich Town in our Capital One Cup Round One tie, our reward was a trip to Everton. We even had the audacity to take the lead against our Premier League hosts. But they got on terms just before the break, before pouncing on a James Dunne error to win it in extra time.
We had some joy in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy too. By beating MK Dons and Leyton Orient, we made our way to a southern semi-final at Swindon Town. Unfortunately, we went down on penalties and the prospect of a Wembley appearance was snuffed out.
Back in the league, Boro’ delivered three wins in four in mid-to-late October. It raised hopes of a belated run of good form that’d get us out of the mire. Alas, it was a false dawn and the path to winter became a very dark and dismal one for us; yielding one win and two draws in nine games between 2 November and the end of 2013. The arrival of Francois Zoko gave our Goals For column a leg up. But the Goals Against column was also bulging ever larger.
2013-4 League One table – 29 December 2013
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
20 | Tranmere Rovers | 23 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 27 | 43 | -16 | 23 |
21 | Bristol City | 23 | 4 | 10 | 9 | 33 | 36 | -3 | 22 |
22 | Crewe Alexandra | 23 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 46 | -26 | 21 |
23 | Stevenage | 23 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 22 | 42 | -20 | 19 |
24 | Notts County | 24 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 27 | 38 | -11 | 18 |
Hope of unlikely salvation
Here’s a damning stat for you. Boro’ were the only team in the bottom four at the turn of the year to eventually be relegated. Yep – that’s right. Bristol City (who smashed us 4-1 in our last match of 2013), Crewe Alexandra and Notts County all survived. So, what stopped us from achieving that same escape? Well, January and February were rubbish months again for us for a start. That didn’t help.
In all, Boro’ played eight times across the first two months of 2014. We won three – but lost the rest. Maybe it was a lack of draws along the way that undermined any hope of staying up. After all, four out of those five defeats in January and February were by the single goal. For the entire season, we lost 26 in total – 15 of which were by one goal. In another universe, finding a way to draw just half of them could’ve made a difference.
2013-4 League One table – 25 February 2014
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
20 | Crewe Alexandra | 33 | 9 | 7 | 17 | 37 | 62 | -25 | 34 |
21 | Bristol City | 33 | 6 | 14 | 13 | 47 | 55 | -8 | 32 |
22 | Shrewsbury Town | 32 | 7 | 10 | 15 | 31 | 43 | -13 | 31 |
23 | Notts County | 33 | 9 | 3 | 21 | 42 | 55 | -13 | 30 |
24 | Stevenage | 31 | 8 | 4 | 19 | 29 | 50 | -21 | 28 |
A 1-0 home win over Crewe Alexandra on 25 February 2014 wasn’t enough to lift us off the foot of the 2013-4 League One table. Oh, yeah. We were no longer able to hold out in second bottom by this point. But what does stick out like a sore thumb is that we’d still got things in our own hands. A prolonged FA Cup adventure had built up a couple of games in hand. And a couple of (unlikely) wins would put survival back on the map.
The FA Cup run, by the way, saw us get to Round Four. For the second time in the same season, we met Everton. This time it was at home. And this time it wasn’t close…
The final and fatal collapse
The win against Crewe at the end of February saw us go into March on a bit of a wave. Maybe, after all, Boro’ had found that crucial form? We were unbeaten in the next five; winning two and drawing three. It was a run that got us off the bottom and into 21st – one point adrift of safety. It was a run that included a famous win at Bradford City; the one and only time we’ve managed it (to date).
Next up for us was a home game versus playoff-chasing MK Dons. Yet, hopes were high that we could maintain our good form.
2013-4 League One table – 15 March 2014
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
20 | Carlisle United | 36 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 38 | 57 | -19 | 38 |
21 | Stevenage | 36 | 10 | 7 | 19 | 37 | 55 | -18 | 37 |
22 | Crewe Alexandra | 37 | 9 | 10 | 18 | 42 | 69 | -27 | 37 |
23 | Shrewsbury Town | 36 | 7 | 13 | 16 | 34 | 47 | -13 | 34 |
24 | Notts County | 37 | 9 | 4 | 24 | 45 | 67 | -22 | 31 |
It’s also deeply annoying to note that we were six points ahead of Notts County with a game in hand at this stage. And they ended up surviving.
Anyway, Boro’ put in a good shift against the Dons and held a two-goal lead going into the last 10. The injury-forced substitution of Dean Parrett around the hour mark could be seen as an omen in hindsight. The visitors started to come back into it as the game entered the final stages. And then? The killer blow. Three goals in the final 10 turned a win into a defeat; hope into despair. It was perhaps the moment we were relegated.
We just didn’t know it yet.
The ‘relief’ of relegation?
The Dons disaster was a line in the sand. The next time that Boro’ won a match would come after relegation was confirmed. We scraped a grim two points from the next six outings, while others around us – quite simply – did much better. It meant that, come Easter Monday, Boro’ welcomed Bristol City to the Lamex knowing that anything other than a win would spell relegation.
It’s also worth noting that all four defeats in that period were by a single goal. Again.
2013-4 League One table – 18 April 2014
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
20 | Crewe Alexandra | 43 | 12 | 10 | 21 | 52 | 79 | -27 | 46 |
21 | Carlisle United | 42 | 11 | 11 | 20 | 42 | 68 | -26 | 44 |
22 | Notts County | 43 | 13 | 4 | 26 | 60 | 76 | -16 | 43 |
23 | Shrewsbury Town | 43 | 9 | 14 | 20 | 39 | 55 | -16 | 41 |
24 | Stevenage | 43 | 10 | 9 | 24 | 42 | 65 | -23 | 39 |
Based on the form guide, we were dead in the water anyway. So, in some ways, the 3-1 home defeat against the Robins was academic. Our three-year stay in the third tier of English football was ending in damp, meek fashion. And GW didn’t exactly do much to help the collective mood when he claimed to be “relieved” that it had been confirmed. The work – his work – that had gone into getting to that level had been undone.
What happened next?
With our fate now sealed, we overcame Walsall at home the following week. Siri, show us the definition of “too little, too late”. Then, a comfortable loss at already-promoted Brentford brought the curtain down on the 2013-4 League One campaign. It was easily the worst Boro’ campaign in memory up until that point. Well, it returned the highest number of league defeats and goals conceded if nothing else.
Final 2013-4 League One table
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
20 | Notts County | 46 | 15 | 5 | 26 | 64 | 77 | -13 | 50 |
21 | Tranmere Rovers | 46 | 12 | 11 | 23 | 52 | 79 | -27 | 47 |
22 | Carlisle United | 46 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 43 | 76 | -33 | 45 |
23 | Shrewsbury Town | 46 | 9 | 15 | 22 | 44 | 65 | -21 | 42 |
24 | Stevenage | 46 | 11 | 9 | 26 | 46 | 72 | -26 | 42 |
To be fair, Boro’ weren’t worst across all metrics come the end of the season. Our win count went into double figures, unlike Shrewsbury Town. Six sides above us conceded more than us. And our goal difference was only the joint third-worst. But these stats – much like average attendances and the like – count for sod all in the bigger picture. It all came down to points and we didn’t get enough of them. By far.
To be fair, Boro’ did regroup over the summer. GW worked his transfer magic yet again to build a squad that surprised a few during the 2014-5 League Two season; qualifying for the playoffs and a chance to make an instant return to League One. Sadly, we’d fall short after a hotly-contested semi-final with Southend United. GW was then ousted in favour of the Teddy Sheringham experiment in summer 2015. And the rest is history.
It was the closest we’d come to League One until Steve Evans guided us to automatic promotion in 2023. Let’s hope the 2023-4 season is not a repeat showing 10 years on.
2013-4 Stats…
- Goals For: 64 (46 league and 18 cup)
- Goals Against: 85 (72 league and 13 cup)
- Most Appearances: Luke Freeman (54)
- Top Goalscorer: Francois Zoko (16 from 40)
- Biggest attendance: 22,730 vs Everton (A), 28 August 2013
- Players Used: 39 (plus two unused subs)
- Points Per Game: 0.91
- Average Attendance: 2,964
Season Details: 2013-4 League One details
With thanks to the Stevenage Football Archive