OUR LATEST ARTICLES

The BoroGuide Opinion
The 2007 FA Trophy Final: One of Boro's greatest-ever cup matches?

Boro’ Cup Matches

Give us a break from league action and we come to life. Well, sometimes. Here are five of the best cup matches that Boro’ have been involved in. Now, don’t go all funny on us if the five we’ve gone for don’t match up with your thinking. This is Boro’ …

Keep reading

Part of Cloughie's efforts to reshape Boro's squad for the 1998-9 campaign, Rodney McAree joined in September 1998. But he didn't hang around...

Rodney McAree

Newcastle aside, there ain’t too much about the 1997-8 campaign we’d look back on with love. Cloughie got to work rebuilding the Boro’ squad during summer 1998. New faces for the 1998-9 season included Carl Alford, Lee Howarth and Dominic Naylor. But the start of the season didn’t put an end …

Keep reading

The 1993-4 campaign saw us romp to yet another title – and this programme from the last day of the season helped to get the party underway

Harrow Borough (1994)

The 1993-4 campaign saw us romp to yet another title – and this programme from the last day of the season helped to get the party underway. Harrow Borough were in town (with a face that’d become familiar). Going into this game, Boro’ had already claimed the title after Enfield …

Keep reading

No fans in the stands 'til 2021 and no relegation for the current season – but still no decisions set in stone from the Football League just yet

No Fans, No Relegation, No Decisions (Yet)…

No fans in the stands ’til the New Year and no relegation for the current season – but still no decisions set in stone from the Football League just yet. This ain’t just us having a beer and taking the lead (though we are available). It’s the word to emerge …

Keep reading

The First Team – New To BBC Two

Need something fresh – and potentially exciting – to watch on the telly? The First Team is a brand-new sitcom coming to BBC Two in late May. It tracks the off-pitch (mis)adventures of three young ballers and their struggles with the other leading figures at their club. For a start, there’s mercurial Italian gaffer Cesare, an eccentric American chairman and resident hard-man Petey Brooks. Oh, the ineffectual coach Chris Booth isn’t helping things either.

 

The First Team: Who’s In It?

Taking centre stage are Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Jack McMullen and Jake Short as the three players. The First Team will also star Paulo Sassenelli (Cesare), Will Arnett (the American chairman), Theo Barklem Biggs (Petey Brooks) and Chris Geere (Chris Booth).

But that’s not all the talent on show.

The cast also includes Tamla Kari (The Inbetweeners, The Musketeers); Vadhir Derbez (How To Be A Latin Lover); Phil Wang (8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster); Neil Fitzmaurice (Peep Show, Mount Pleasant); and Yetunde Oduwole (Enterprice).

Who’s behind The First Team?

The First Team is an original series that will comprise six 30-minute episodes – to begin with. It is produced by Fudge Park, while award-winning pairing Iain Morris and Damon Beesley take the writing credits. It’s the duo’s first series as co-writers since achieving a smash hit with The Inbetweeners – both the telly series and the feature fillums.

Who else is involved? Well, the series’ executive producers are Emmy Award®-winning producer Tom Werner (Roseanne, That ‘70s Show) and Caroline Leddy (Inbetweeners, Derry Girls). Sam Pinnell (Flowers, Derry Girls, Motherland) is the producer.

If it matters to you, Controller of BBC Comedy Shane Allen and Controller of BBC Two Patrick Holland commissioned this. Gregor Sharp is the BBC Commissioning Editor.

“You haven’t explained it well enough and I want to know more!”

Fine. Here’s the official trailer (if you can’t see it above)…

Our first-ever season in senior football was a belter. But why did we put out a programme for the final league match if it was an away fixture?

Ford Sports (1981)

Our first-ever season in senior football was a belter. But why did we put out a programme for the final league match if it was an away fixture? Oh, as if we’d keep you waiting on the answer. The fact is that we switched this “away” match at Ford Sports …

Keep reading

Michael Bostwick. Unassuming, but certainly not underrated. And we're sure that all Boro' fans speak highly of both the man and the player...

Michael Bostwick

Michael Bostwick. Unassuming, but certainly not underrated. And we’re sure that all Boro’ fans speak highly of both the man and the player. Mark Poplett – or Sev as you might also know him – is here to tell us why Bozzie has a special place in his heart. And …

Keep reading

Right about now, we should be looking back on the end of the (regular) 2019-20 League Two season. But, for obvious reasons, we aren't...

And That Should Be That. But It Isn’t…

Right about now, we should be looking back on the end of the (regular) 2019-20 League Two season – and knowing whether we’d be staying up or not. For those who still know which day of the week it is, this weekend just gone would’ve taken us to Carlisle. Would …

Keep reading

FIFA 20 Verdict: Carlisle United v Stevenage [25 Apr 2020]

Carlisle United (A)

It should be our final match of the season – and it is still sorta is if we’re using the FIFA 20 Verdict as the official way to decide it all. Of course, we say “still” as if this was the case in the first place. The EFL never said no to our suggestion, just remember that. And, well, we still have the small matter of two matches we’re yet to run through the Verdict. Could all be Hamilton Academical when it all comes to a head over the summer. But we’ll still do this.

Just in case it – and the points – are needed.

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: Carlisle United v Boro’

(Can’t see the video? Go to YouTube instead)

Even from the supreme comfort of the arse-groove we’ve moulded into our armchair over the past six weeks, the idea of trekking north to Carlisle is bringing us out in a cold sweat. It could also be the bright idea of taking up running when we’re clearly in no state to. This is something that we’d ask of the lads, however, so the least we can do is bend over and turn the PS4 on. It also lets us reach our tinnie too. Multi-tasking.

Based on the wild guess that a win is what we need to pull off a great escape, it makes a good deal of sense to go attacking here. Two up top, dontcha know? It’s been a long time since we felt confident enough to do that. And at half time, we were laughing; two up and looking comfortable.But maybe we should’ve pulled back on the attacking mode. With 20 left on the clock, we were rocked by two Carlisle goals that (to be fair) they deserved.

Still, we dug deep to regain the lead with eight to go. After learning our lesson, we shifted mood and sat back a bit. Yeah. Good one – ‘cos Carlisle also dug deep; Anderton digging one out from the edge of the area in stoppage time. How costly might that one be?

Carlisle United – 3 (Scougall 70, 73; Anderton 90+2)
Stevenage – 0 (Newton 28; CMS 48, 82)

Team (4-4-2): 
Farman — James-Wildin, Nugent, Cuthbert, Leesley — Kenners, Carter, Dabo, List — CMS, Newton

Subs:
Bastien, Digby, Soares (Dabo 74), TVC, Lakin (Newton 84), Kemp (List 63), Parkhouse

Bookings:
James-Wildin, List, Dabo, Cuthbert

Boro’ MOM:
CMS – 9.2 / 10

Difficulty:
Legendary

 

FIFA 20 Verdict: League Two Table (as it stands)

  • 22 – Stevenage         45   -20   38
  • 23 – Macclesfield Town 37   -15   33
  • 24 – Morecambe         37   -25   33

Results:

Morecambe (A) – 0-0; Scunthorpe United (H) – 3-2; Walsall (H) – 2-3; Oldham Athletic (A) – 4-0; Mansfield Town (H) – 3-2; Macclesfield Town (A) – 1-1; Cheltenham Town (H) – 0-0; Carlisle United (A) – 3-3

Fixtures:

Newport County (H), Swindon Town (H)

As we did do a FIFA 20 Verdict for Newport at home before Covid-19 got its hands on the fixture list, we’ve put it back in place; updating the table accordingly.

Stay indoors. Save lives. Let our FIFA 20 Verdict protect our League Two status.

You can't beat a matchday programme. Behind every one is a unique tale of our exploits. From the 2004-5 campaign, this one is no exception.

Leigh RMI (2005)

You can’t beat a matchday programme. Behind every one is a unique tale of our exploits. From the 2004-5 Nationwide Conference campaign, this one is no exception. Leigh RMI were coming to town for what was the last match of the (normal) season. And, yeah, this end-of-season clash seems as …

Keep reading