Good Game: The series looking at the amazing, utterly memorable, unbelievably dramatic and downright ludicrous games that involved Stevenage Borough over the years. But we’ll insist that we accept no blame for memories warped by time, age or alcohol consumption at the time. We’ll never refer to any games involving Macclesfield Town either – particularly any at Broadhall Way. Those sort of things never happened, dontcha know…
…well, except this one.
Stevenage Borough 4-0 Macclesfield Town
Broadhall Way, Stevenage — 02 December 1995 — GM Vauxhall Conference
One 4-0 win from the 1995-96 season is etched firmly into Boro’ folklore. But it wasn’t the only one that should get attention. Yeah, so trashing Woking indoors on Easter Monday is maybe the season-defining result; one that all-but confirmed we’d be going on to seal the title. And we know more or less how that one panned out. So, what’s this other 4-0 win we want to talk about. Well, it’s when we hosted Macclesfield Town earlier that campaign.
The background
The 1994-95 GM Vauxhall Conference season was Boro’s first at such a lofty level. For us, it was a tough start. Our opening day win away at Stafford Rangers was a bit of a false dawn; the next few weeks were very challenging and things were a little iffy for a while. But back came Cloughie’s men and we ended up finishing a respectable fifth. And we were “only” 13 point back from title winners Macclesfield Town.
As it goes, we actually took four points off the Silkmen that campaign. A 1-1 draw at home would be followed by a last day romp at Moss Rose; Boro’ running out 3-0 victors. So, that kinda gave us hope that we could really make our presence felt in the 1995-96 season. The Silkmen were still around too. Like we’d soon discover, their ground didn’t please the suits down at the Football League by December 1994. Down they stayed, then.
Stevenage Borough 4-0 Macclesfield Town: The rundown
As we just hinted, Boro’ came into the 1995-96 season with some momentum – and quite a bit of talent in the squad. The hope we could do something special was not misplaced. We had made a strong enough start. But our form had room for improvement. And we were to welcome the defending champions to Broadhall Way on Saturday 2 December. At this stage, we’d got through 15 league fixtures and were sitting in sixth position.
Now, take that with a fairly reasonable pinch of salt. Yes, we were sixth. And, yes, we trailed the Silkmen by 15 points; the Cheshire side leading the pack at this point. But our 15 games played was the joint lowest in the division. We had at least three or four fixtures in hand on most other teams – which leaps to an incredible SIX in hand on Macclesfield Town. Yeah, so points on the board is a big deal. But we were still very much in the frame for honours.
A nice big statement going into the festive period would be mighty helpful, though.
Stevenage Borough 4-0 Macclesfield Town: New stars are born…
It’d be a real tough ask. The Silkmen came into the game with an 11-match unbeaten run on their side. Mind you, our form was strong too. A 3-1 home reverse against Southport was the only blip in a run of six league games that had delivered five wins and 24 goals. The run was capped a week before hand with an incredible 8-0 victory at Runcorn. Not flawless, but ours was a side ready to take on the current kings.
The status quo was upended inside the first 10 minutes. Dave Venables, in particular, was in grand form and it was his good work that’d set up captain Steve Berry to give us the lead on nine minutes. It was the end of the scoring for the first half – but not the end of our chances. We had put on a formidable show of strength. The only problem was that we didn’t have the advantage to show for it.
The good news was that we’d show no let up in the second half on our part. A huge penalty shout was turned down as we sought to build up that advantage. Luckily, we didn’t need to wait too much longer; a 20-yard stunner from Tony Lynch adding our second on 65 minutes. Our third goal was a special effort too, this time by Efe Sodje. The defender strode out from the back, composed himself deliciously, and slotted home tidily. Now with 15 minutes left to go, our dominance was assured; the result a formality.
Of course, there was still time for Barry Hayles to get in on the act. And a fifth effort right at the end was so nearly achieved, but would have only been a second cherry on the icing.
Stevenage Borough 4-0 Macclesfield Town: And next…?
It’s hard to say this wasn’t a genuine marker in the title race. We’d soon make good on those games in hand and take control at the summit. The Silkmen stayed in the title race for quite a few more weeks to come – but would ultimately fall away; Woking becoming the main rival to our hopes. And we’d do unto them what we did to Macclesfield later on that season. What this all conspired to do was help crown us as the non-league side to beat in England.
We ain’t too sure of the impact of this result in the long run. The bottom line is that we’d fall short in our 1996-97 title defence; the Silkmen claiming a second championship in just a few seasons. And, well, *this* result at Broadhall Way had a lot to do with pushing the pendulum in their direction. It stung. From there, our fortunes diverged. Macclesfield went up, while we fell off the pace in the following seasons.
But, if only for one season during the mid-1990s, we were the team to beat. And we made it known with results like this one in December 1995…
With thanks to stevenagefootballarchive.com. Image credit unknown – please contact us for proper credit or removal.
