We thought we could get away with saying there was a cautious air of optimism surrounding Stevenage FC at the start of the 2022-3 campaign. And we’d be proved right. Steve Evans had come in as manager during the second half of the previous campaign. His first job? To ensure we were still a League Two team in time for this season. That he did. But quite what happened to build on that was beyond many wildest dreams. It’s not as if you need us to tell you how successful our 2022-3 ended up being.
After a promising pre-season campaign, it was time to see what we were all about in the real stuff. And we’d quickly get into our stride; a promising start to the campaign putting us in an encouraging league position as things unfolded. By Christmas, we were in with a real shout of promotion. Our 3-0 home win against leaders Leyton Orient in January even had us down as title contenders. And, while our form did stutter, we were able to see it through to secure automatic promotion; going up to League One.
But, wait! What about the cups? Boro’ had a pretty good time of it in both the Carabao Cup and Papa John’s Trophy. Yet, it’d be the FA Cup where the biggest memories were made; off to Villa Park for our Round Three tie against Premier League opposition, and coming home with the win. The only downer, if we had to call one, was the ridiculous situation in spring 2023 when we were going through goalkeepers at a rate of knots due to injury. Still, it couldn’t take the shine off what was our most memorable seasons in a good while.
