1999-00

The moral of the 1999-00 story is that a football season is a marathon, not a sprint. And going too hard too soon can get you pretty much nowhere. For Stevenage Borough, this season was a bit ‘meh’ in the end. There’s little to shout about and, equally, little to moan about. Unless you count the cup competitions. Yeah, don’t look there.

It all started with a bang bigger than The Big Bang Theory; six damn good wins out of six under Dickie Hill. For some reason, however, we let the rot get in and set in. We matched our points tally from the opening six games after that, sure. In about three times as many games, mind. It’s no shock it was to cost Hill his job. In all that, too, came exits at the first hurdles of the FA Cup (Bath City) and FA Trophy (Yeovil Town).

All the while, we were pottering around the mid-section of the Conference table with nothing to play for after the turn of the year.

So, out went Hill. And it was the first test for chairman Phil Wallace, who himself was new to the club in summer 1999; saving the club from closure. That’s by the by. Phil’s first new managerial was the experienced Steve Wignall. All well and good, but for Wignall’s highly itchy feet. After eight games, he’d naffed off to Doncaster.

Charmed, Steve.