It might feel strange to say now – but the 1995-96 GM Vauxhall Conference season was (for a time) our club’s highest water mark. Obviously, that landscape has shifted in the generation since the halcyon days of the mid-1990s. The game of football has changed massively, so too have our fortunes. But let’s cast our minds back all the same; going behind the numbers of a memorable campaign that saw Boro’ become the biggest fish in the small non-league pond.
1995-96 GM Vauxhall Conference: The background
Now, the attendance police are still very much active in League One. Fans of clubs who have been around the block for the best part of the century will seek cause to rib our fanbase for its relatively modest size. Only 35 years ago, however, we were still in the bottom division of the Isthmian League. The 1990-91 season, actually, remains a real record-breaker for us. That is by the by, mind you. The point is how far down the ladder we were at the time.
Our past high point as a young club had come in the mid-1980s, when we were promoted to Isthmian League Division One. But our stay lasted just two seasons before we tumbled back down. So, in came Paul Fairclough and up we went in 1991. Back in Division One, a new base on which to build – right? Well, Cloughie wasn’t done there. We passed straight through that division, then took just two attempts to conquer the Premier Division.
Suddenly, Boro’ were in the mix with some of the best non-league clubs in the land. Woking too. We overcame a rocky start to the 1994-95 season to give ourselves a reasonable footing in the Conference. And, after such a rapid rise, the trick now was to maintain that…
A volatile start to the new season
We didn’t just have a smashing gaffer at the helm. Our team was good. Seriously good. We’d Dessie, Smudge and Efe keeping the ball out of our net. Berry and Barrowcliff bossed things in the middle. And then we had Bazza, Corey, Venners, and Tony Lynch up top. We easily saw off Hitchin Town in the Herts Charity Cup to kick the season off in August. And then followed it up with three wins from three at the top of the league programme.
A 1-0 home defeat against Telford United at the end of August led us into September, where our 2-2 draw at Gateshead next kept our progress in check. Worse still was a 4-1 hammering away to Woking. If we were serious contenders, we weren’t making it known just yet. And an awkward goalless draw at home to Brook House in our first FA Cup assignment really did not help the confidence. August? Hit. Early September? Miss.
1995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference table – 19 September 1995
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
| 9 | Southport | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 16 | 14 | 2 | 12 |
| 10 | Halifax Town | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 11 | -3 | 12 |
| 11 | Stevenage Borough | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 11 |
| 12 | Bath City | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 11 | -2 | 11 |
| 13 | Northwich Victoria | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 10 | -2 | 11 |
A poor four… and then we soared
That said, we did start to find our groove in the league. A 1-1 home draw against Altrincham at the end of September was followed by four straight wins. And we started to score a good few goals in the process. All this led us up to our first-ever appearance in the FA Cup Round One schedule. Sadly, we were narrowly undone away to Hereford United; then a strong side at the top end of the old Division Three.
A 3-1 home defeat against Southport on our return to Conference duties the following week wouldn’t have improved our mood. We had been on the up, but were we really in the frame?
1995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference table – 17 November 1995
Games in hand, goals in abundance
Our first match of December saw reigning champions and league leaders Macclesfield Town (remember them?) come to town. Boro’ were imperious on the day; romping to a 4-0 victory in what probably counts as the forgotten 4-0 from that campaign. More on that later. Now, a person could be forgiven for thinking we could be onto something special here. Of course, it needed a strong run into Christmas and out the other side.
A draw and two wins would see us through the remainder of 1995.
1995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference table – 31 December 1995
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
| 1 | Macclesfield Town | 23 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 37 | 28 | 9 | 48 |
| 2 | Stevenage Borough | 19 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 51 | 24 | 27 | 40 |
| 3 | Woking | 19 | 13 | 1 | 5 | 38 | 22 | 16 | 40 |
| 4 | Hednesford Town | 20 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 37 | 20 | 17 | 38 |
| 5 | Kidderminster Harriers | 22 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 44 | 32 | 12 | 35 |
New year, new milestones?
Yes, the Silkmen still topped the pile as dawn broke on 1996. And, yeah, Woking still hadn’t lost indoors. Boro’, however, had four games in hand and an eight-point gap to make up on the summit. Chunky goal difference and Goals For columns were also to our advantage. The opening few games of the new year would be interesting – if only to see if we could make a dent in that gap at the top.
After beating Slough Town on New Year’s Day, we travelled to Macclesfield Town – where the sides couldn’t be separated. This 0-0 draw was probably creditable enough. But another 0-0 draw the next week at home to Farnborough was not so good. Still, we were still unbeaten in 1996 – and we’d go on to win the next three Conference games that came our way. That little trio saw us alternate between FA Trophy duties too, with two victories there.
Most importantly – our points haul in 1996 so far had pulled us seriously close at the top of the table. And we were opening up our own gap on those following behind…
1995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference table – 16 February 1996
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
| 1 | Macclesfield Town | 27 | 17 | 4 | 6 | 44 | 31 | 13 | 55 |
| 2 | Stevenage Borough | 25 | 16 | 6 | 3 | 63 | 26 | 37 | 54 |
| 3 | Woking | 25 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 54 | 34 | 20 | 49 |
| 4 | Hednesford Town | 25 | 15 | 3 | 7 | 46 | 26 | 20 | 48 |
| 5 | Kidderminster Harriers | 28 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 54 | 41 | 13 | 47 |
Keeping the title race in our own hands
February into March is a good time to see what teams are about. Can they kick on towards a slice of glory? Or are they able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps to avoid the drop? It was fortunately the former we were concerned about in spring 1996. OK, so we were held by Gateshead at home on 17 February – but from that we then picked up 15 points from 15; five wins from five that culminated in a 4-1 demolition of Kidderminster Harriers indoors.
An honourable mention too for a 5-2 win at Stalybridge and a 6-2 win at Slough.
In that run, there was also progress in the FA Trophy. Could a famous non-league double be on the cards? The quarter final draw set us up nicely enough with a tie away to Hyde United. Off the back of that Kiddy win, the form favoured our fortunes. But a shock 3-2 loss put paid to any hopes of a Wembley appearance.
We then followed that up with a less-than-assured run going into the Easter weekend. Away to a strong Hednesford Town side, we came unstuck 2-1. A second straight away game in the league saw us pick up the points against Altrincham. But a third successive away fixture saw us drop more points at Morecambe. By this point, it’s important to note that we had risen to the top. So, things were very much in our own hands. We just needed to stick it out.
It was by this point too that our main rivals were no longer reigning champions Macclesfield Town. Instead, breathing down our necks, and waiting for a slip up, were a certain team from Surrey. It set things up for a titanic title showdown at Broadhall Way on Easter Monday…
1995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference table – 07 April 1996
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
| 1 | Stevenage Borough | 33 | 22 | 7 | 4 | 86 | 36 | 50 | 73 |
| 2 | Woking | 34 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 71 | 42 | 29 | 69 |
| 3 | Hednesford Town | 37 | 21 | 5 | 11 | 64 | 41 | 23 | 68 |
| 4 | Macclesfield Town | 33 | 20 | 6 | 7 | 56 | 35 | 21 | 66 |
| 5 | Kidderminster Harriers | 36 | 18 | 7 | 11 | 71 | 53 | 18 | 61 |
Kicking on towards glory
Now, a quick scan of the league table going into that Easter Monday showdown with Woking may have you thinking “what were we so worried about?”. Four points clear and one game in hand? What a luxury! Well, there was still enough football to be played to be nervy. A defeat against the Cards – who were still unbeaten at home – would have cut that gap to one point. As we’d learn the following season, these sort of games can also affect your momentum.
At no point, however, were Boro’ going to make life easy for the Cards. Indeed, the absolute statement of statements that we made in crushing them by four goals is the stuff of legend.
It meant we were now seven points clear of the Cards with a game in hand. Hednesford, in a break-out season for them, were technically in the mix. But with so many more games ticked off their list, it was unlikely we’d see them shake things up at the very top. But what we shall also mention is that the nerves weren’t quite suppressed. The following week, we welcomed Stalybridge Celtic to town – and had to fight back from two down to salvage a point.
Thankfully, it was just a blip. Boro’ roared back with three straight wins to cement our place at the top of the table. Mind you, we still came into the penultimate weekend of the season with a job to do. Two home fixtures – Saturday and Monday – gave us the chance to seal the deal. And that we duly did, although not in the style we had probably hoped. A 1-1 draw with Morecambe proved enough on the Saturday in the end; Woking failing to win elsewhere.
The upside was that we got one final outing at home in which we could celebrate our status as the country’s best non-league team. We edged past bottom team Dagenham & Redbridge to bring our home schedule to a close; leaving one last task. Robbie Mutchell duly delivered on the final day. His goal in a 2-2 draw down at Farnborough took us to a century of goals for the season. And, in doing so, bookmarked a remarkable chapter in the history of our club
191995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference table – 5 May 1996
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
| 1 | Stevenage Borough | 42 | 27 | 10 | 5 | 101 | 44 | 57 | 91 |
| 2 | Woking | 42 | 25 | 8 | 9 | 83 | 54 | 29 | 83 |
| 3 | Hednesford Town | 42 | 23 | 7 | 12 | 71 | 46 | 25 | 76 |
| 4 | Macclesfield Town | 42 | 22 | 9 | 11 | 66 | 49 | 17 | 75 |
| 5 | Gateshead | 42 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 58 | 46 | 12 | 67 |
What happened next?
Oh lordy, do we have time for that?
Back in the day, it was a requirement that clubs had to suit Football League stadium criteria long before they knew if they had to. No grace periods, no ability to do any upgrades during the summer. If your stadium wasn’t ready by the end of the preceding year (or something), it wouldn’t be good news. Before us, Kiddy and Macclesfield had been barred entry up into the Football League for that reason. It was unjust. But it was a fate that we’d suffer from.
We had a chairman, however, in Victor Green who was up for the fight. And Boro’ decided to start legal action. The argument was about a restraint of trade or something. Anyway, it was to be a victory for the stuffy suits at the Football League. And it all got a bit grim too, with a fine imposed on the club for alleged attempts to get Torquay to pay an “incentive” for us to win the league. If Woking had, for example, the Gulls would not have been repreived.
Let’s move on.
Boro’ were forced to start again in the Conference for the 1996-97 season. We’d managed to keep the bulk of the squad together. And, for the most part, our title defence was not a bad effort. In the end, however, things somewhat imploded. Again, we had a great FA Cup run. It was also a season in which we made the semi finals of the FA Trophy. But we guess it caught up with us. Macclesfield won the title and Woking put us out of the FAT.
The squad would then break apart, with our hottest talent earning moves upwards. We had reached a limit in summer 1997; our league form in 1997-98 far from the heights achieved in the past two seasons. It’d take us 14 long years to clinch the Conference title again. Still, we had shown that we could do it. Boro’ perhaps deserved a bit of a rest after such a climb up the pyramid. And, in doing so, we had shown ourselves to be a force to be reckoned with.
Viva the Spirit of ’96!
1995-96 Stats…
- Goals For: 130 (101 league and 29 cup)
- Goals Against: 60 (44 league and 16 cup)
- Most Appearances: Mark Smith – 50 (50 starts and 0 subs)
- Top Goalscorer: Barry Hayles – 34
- Biggest attendance: 3,976 vs Woking, 08 April 1996
- Players Used: 34
- Points Per Game: 2.17
- Average Attendance: 1,700
Season Details: 1995-6 GM Vauxhall Conference
With thanks to the Stevenage Football Archive
