Why We Bother

The lads and ladies down at Woking do have some bright ideas from time to time. OK, so their choice of football clubs is less than clever, but who are we to quibble? Anyway, these are the reasons why we bother here at Stevenage. And if this looks like something similar that you can find on a leading Cards website too, what can we say? Imitation etc…

In ‘borrowing’ this idea, we want to give Boro’ fans to reel back the years; to share all your favourite memories. And to find out why, indeed, you bother with it all. It’s a collection of all the great days, events and incidents that remind us what keeps us coming back. The best thing is you’re welcome to add to it. Just email and tell us what to include and we will.

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Let Us Begin…

• #stevenageforleaguefootball
• Ilias Chair and his worldies
• Dino down the touchline at Lincoln
• Ending Mansfield’s automatic promotion hopes to boost our own playoff ambitions
• The referee laughing at the “Ronnie Henry, he left cos you’re shit” at Luton Town
• The Luton crowd booing Ben Kennedy, just before he stuck it in the back of the net!
• Songs at Newport County
• Colney Heath’s number five having a total breakdown towards the Boro’ fans during the game
• The Stortford manager screaming “lino” at the linesman from a foot behind him
• Now Morais… NOW MORAIS
• Luke Freeman’s performance against Bradford City
• Last minute mentallers at Notts County for two consecutive seasons
• Jimmy Smith‘s goal against Preston North End
• #matchformitch – Stevenage XI 4-7 Mitchell Cole XI, 7 May 2013
• Sheffield United fans invading the pitch after their side beat Stevenage for the first time
• More people attending the 2-2 draw at Sheffield United than two Premier League games on the same day
• Trending worldwide on Twitter during the 2-2 draw at Sheffield United
• Michael Bostwick being named in Sport magazine’s League One Team of the Year, as well as Stevenage being named Surprise Package

Getting into our stride now

• 86 Creme Eggs at Tranmere Rovers
• Securing League One status despite losing 3-0 at Tranmere Rovers
• To still be in with a chance when everyone else has written us off
• Seeing how much the Spurs defeat hurt and meant to Mark Roberts
• Leading Tottenham Hotspur for 20-ish minutes at White Hart Lane
• Robin Shroot scoring a late equaliser against Huddersfield Town to make it 2-2, after being 2-0 down, and looking like he was about to cry with happiness
• “Sailing” to Charlton
• Jon Ashton casually casting Jermain Defoe aside
• Earning a replay against Tottenham Hotspur and being part of the FA Cup Sixth Round draw
• Doing a league double over Sheffield Wednesday
• Mark Roberts‘ Managerial Record: P3 W2 D1 L0 GS10 GC4

Memories. All the memories.

• #lawriefacts
• Jon Ashton’s Cruyff turns and hammering Colchester United in their own backyard.
• Boro’ Memories Day
• Beating Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic
• Graham Westley refusing to hug Chuds dressed as Hooky; Ebbsfleet fans busting a nut after we stole Hooky’s shirt (aka Hookygate)
• Winning the League Two playoffs after being 18th in January
• Having the best defence in the league in our first ever Football League campaign
• Westley coming over for a ‘chat’ with the whole JBT after losing to Canvey Island at home
• Both sets of fans singing ‘Steve Watson is a w****r’ together away at Farnborough
• Graham Westley having a bidding war with Emma for Moose’s shirt
• Dry-humping Sheffield Wednesday

No matter the ups or downs

• Taiwo Atieno being a warm up act
• Peter Winn actually decapitating the Southend player
• Alan Julian nearly decapitating a striker in each of our first League One home games
• Destroying ITV’s dreams of a MK Dons v AFC Wimbledon wankfest, before going on to smash Newcastle United
• Hearing John Sheridan bleat like a little bitch each time we play them
• Mousinho‘s erection at Old Trafford
• Accrington’s trenches
• Being told to be quiet by Sky Sports commentary box at Accrington, and David “Bumble” Lloyd getting some stick
• Ashley Bayes and Chris Beardsley‘s FA Cup video diary
• Ryan Lowe bleating on about long days

All of the memories

• Jim Rosenthal running to the media and FA because Stevenage were better than Oxford United
• Watching Ben May miss a sitter, get injured, score a goal and then get injured again
• Having a 100 per cent record at Old Trafford
• Winning more trophies than Arsenal, Tottenham and Man City combined in the last few years
• Jon Ashton’s thumb…
• … Guy Madjo‘s run…
• … and Chris Beardsley’s shinpad
• The drinks break against Oxford has to be a contender. Brilliant of the Barmy Army to do the conga down, and coming back up waving bottles in the air singing “We’re not thirsty anymore”. Given how mental the Oxford fans/players were going already, it was absolutely priceless
• Thora organising a collection at Tamworth on a freezing February afternoon in 2010, purchasing the entire stock of chocolate bars at the tea bar and proceeding to wave said chocolate bars at Iyseden Christie whenever he was within view

Old habits and new ground(s)

• FIFA 11
• Chris Holroyd. Scores on debut, then a hattrick next game
• Watching a few builders in the MFI car park on a cherry picker swinging high-vis jackets around their heads when we scored against Stockport County
• Seeing Boro’ in the League Two section of the BBC website
• ‘Losing’ 3-2 at Mansfield Town but picking up three points
• The Grannies’ day out at Eastbourne Borough
• Joel Byrom from the halfway line against Crawley Town
• Matt Stanton, dressed as Santa, going full pelt into a 50-50 challenge with Rob Edwards on a beach ball in the Railway Bell at Kiddy. Rob coming out on top and Matt going arse over tit onto his back in front of a beer garden full of Boro’ and West Brom fans, with the West Brom fans breaking into a chant of she fell over
• Serenading the Crawley players with the Hokey Cokey

Why you bother is why we bother

• Dippers being thrown back INTO the ground at Weymouth. He only wanted a pint!
• The infamous Gents meet a Hen Party incident at York
• Two coach loads of Sunderland Lassies in fancy dress (in particular, Catwoman) at York
• Beating Luton Town at Kenilworth Road, celebrating like we’d “won the FA Cup” and was this the fault of ickle Stevenage?
• Reaching the playoff semi-final against Cambridge
• Mitchell Cole signing a new contract
• Winning the FA Trophy for the second time
• Having a 100% record at Wembley (before Barrow)
• Having a friend turn up at the clubhouse with all her belongings in 10 black bags and a suitcase. Then, being helped by some stewards and other fans to carry her stuff about a mile down the road. They didn’t even know the girl, yet they stopped to help… Fantastic!

What more do we have?

• Moro leaving.. although sad, fair play to him. Every one of his goals have been sweet
• Inflatables at Mansfield and Kettering winning 1-0
• Spiderman’s lap of the pitch and somersaults. Yeah, because that was Phil Wallace(!)
• Moro’ signing a new three-year deal
• Blocking the toilets at Kingfield
• Ball boy at Exeter
• The minibus ride to Halifax
• Moro putting the thumbs up in response to “is she fit” chants after being interviewed on Setanta
• Junior Lewis clean through on goal about to silence his critics from two yards out, only to cross the ball to no-one
• Clapping the Northwich players and Dino after they ended our playoff hopes
• Lighthouse and Pete wooing Peter Vincenti at Halifax with his songs

From 1980 to the present day

• Beating Ipswich 3-0 in a PSF and thinking we were good enough to win the Championship
• “Ukrainian Phil, you’re losing 2-0“
• Losing 3-2 to Halifax at home despite being 2-0 up at half time
• Peter Taylor moaning about the “longest interview” he’s ever done (all of 3 minutes 28 seconds or something)
• Young lad doing lap of honour with his team at half time when in front of the away stand gets a ball from 40 yards whack on his head
• Mitchell Cole telling the moaners on the East Terrace to f#$k off
• EEMPT (DWAH)
• Lighthouse on the dancefloor at the Torquay caravan park
• Thora’s header at Cambridge
• Having ex-England manager Peter Taylor taking control of the squad for six months
• Running through the fountains at Wembley

• Stealing the mascot’s giant ball at Northwich and playing headers with the home fans
• The Final Countdown at Forest Green… Stimmo: “It’s the Final Countdown?”
• Stimmo celebrating taking a 4-3 lead after trailing 3-0 at Forest Green Rovers by half-climbing the perimeter fence at the New Lawn
• The York 96; televised semi-naked conga and ten minutes of ‘The Final Countdown’
• Defeating Grays in the FA Trophy semi-final to get through to the final at the new Wembley
• George Boyd: The White Pele
• Braving the wind and rain at Weymouth to see a Boro’ victory; especially those who dared to do it topless
• Craig Dobson in the 94th minute to beat Woking in 2006-7!
• The Samba at the County Ground
• Female steward heading the ball against Crawley on Easter Monday 2006. Except she didn’t know much about it. Made Stampy laugh though!

On we go…

• Spunky singing Genesis on the terrace at Canvey Island and well, everywhere, really
• Scarborough fan in the away end at York saying “F***ing hell Rolo, you’ve only just finished a burger” as he opened up a family sized bag of Fruit Pastilles
• The old East Stand (shed)
• Chelsea thugs invading away stand at Hayes and running away onto the pitch!
• Kenny Webster‘s amazing own goal from at least 50 yards
• Line dancing on the steps to “I Feel Like a Woman” at Doncaster
• Jon Nurse letting about nine million kids into Broughie Audi TT and one of them spilling about a litre of Fanta over his drivers seat. Also, seeing Brough walk out of the BHS with one square of tissue to mop it up as if it’d be enough
• Half-time at York in 2005-6. Keepy-uppy’s and grumpy stewards. And Shane Gore dancing
• Recovering from 3-0 down in nine minutes at Scarborough

Goals, howlers and more

• Gary Crawshaw‘s goal at Hereford in 1997
• Waiting for an eternity (well, 10 minutes) for the Morecambe v Tamworth result to come through in the 2004-5 season because we didn’t know if we’d made the play-offs
• BoroGuide FC football
• Steve Watson crawling across the centre circle to rugby tackle someone
• Being 1-0 down in the 89th minute to Carlisle at BHW and winning 2-1
• Seeing Ant score against Gravesend, take off his shirt, run all the way round the pitch – only to see them equalise in injury time
• Julian’s save at Kingfield in 2004-5 when we won 2-1
• Jermaine Hunter
• “One Barnet Council, there’s only one Barnet Council”
• Grazioli equalising against Newcastle

League and cup, home and away

• Rain/Hail/Snow/gale force wind at Swindon
• Shilton snapping Bazza and the ref not sending him off at Leyton Orient
• Jason Soloman going in goal and trying to take a kick with his trousers round his ankles against Woking
• 4 day trek to Carlisle to win 2-1 in the snow
• Free soup at Carlisle
• Efe Sodje heading the ball from one box to the other
• Efe going on an amazing run from defence into Birmingham’s area, losing the ball and then running back 20 yards to make a superb tackle and set up another attack
• Taking 10,000 or whatever it was to Birmingham
• The procession of 54 SA coaches on the M1 to Brum
• Crawshaw’s lob from 45 yards in the FA Trophy semi final second leg against Woking
• Jude Stirling‘s throwing and ‘dolphin dance’
• Seeing Shearer and Barnes kick off at Broadhall Way
• The conga and ‘two-stepping’ at Burton
• Getting lost on the way to Folkestone
• Being the only team to beat Chester at the Deva the year they won the league
• Lighthouse and Burgers dancing to Girls Aloud at above game
• Dean Martin is one day coming back from Iceland
• Jon Brady‘s outburst at Big Mick!
• Tony Roberts, Rory Prendergast, Jamie Pitman, Chris Lane and Barry Jones
• Home to Boston in 2001-2. 2-0 down with 15 to go and winning 3-2 with goals in the 90th and 93rd minute. The look on the Boston fans’ faces was priceless…
• Macclesfield away as the last game of our first season in the Conference. They’d won the league already and we hammered them 3-0. There was a sea of red down one side of the ground, and ‘Paul Fairclough’s Red & White Army/Itchy Brown Jumper’ went on for half an hour

Not done yet…

• Michael Brough’s 93-minutes-on-the-clock strike at Hereford during the 2004-5 season
• Free sausage sarnies at the Forge
• The duck walk at Aylesbury
• Andy Green saying ‘Welcome to Broadhall Way’ in front of 10,000 Boro’ supporters at Birmingham
• There was the moment during a tediously boring end of season game during those times when there was nothing to play for when a Tesco bag caught the eye of one wag in the South Stand. It was drifting perilously towards the opposition goal line, but then blew away – only to come back again. Soon, we were all singing “There’s only one paper bag” and to everyone’s delight the wind suddenly drove it into the back of the net! Can’t remember the game but their goalie played along and tried to save it!
• Cyril the Squirrel
• Robbie Mutchell getting the 100th goal of the season
• Traffic on the way home from Swansea, and the Gummi-Bear war
• Bonjour Alan Paris
• Des Gallagher admitting he wore his wifes knickers
• Barry Hayles
• Paul Fairclough‘s itchy brown jumper
• Brady’s cross and Dino’s goal against Hereford in the playoff semi-final
• Lionel Perez
• Love-rat Jamie March‘s reaction to being released played his heart out in his final game then burst into tears
• Steve Butler‘s gentlemanly act of stopping the ball on the line to allow Carlo to claim the goal and the golden boot
• Stuart Beevor scoring a hat-trick before half-time (against Hayes). Game was abandoned at HT because of snow
• Liam George being shit
• Kirk Jackson’s two-goal debut against Dover in the FA Trophy
• Bomb scare at Cheltenham away

More coming…

• Graz’s goal against Swindon; keeper blasted it forward, wind brought it all the way back to the edge of the box for him to score
• Any of Barry Hayles’ goals when he picked it up on the corner flag and did the rest himself
• Tony Lynch, about three seconds after being named Man of the Match, hitting the floodlight with a shot
• Balls Kenny! Stevenage like theirs bouncy…
• Tears from Robbie Mutchell in his final game
• The Lee Harvey/Carl Alford partnership
• Black Monday for Woking
• Alford nicking Efe’s bandana
• Spending three hours making a “Spirit Of ’96” banner for the Britannia Stadium
• Knowing it was the end of Wayne Turner at Kettering
• Little kids running around shouting “Sagapo Boro” and waving Chilean flags at pre-season friendlies
• Mook’s “Prendergast Scorecards”
• Danny Hockton scoring twice at Kingfield in a 2-0 win
• Billy Turley inciting the crowd at Nene Park
• Crying at Swansea knowing the boys played their hearts out
• Seeing a 9-man Boro’ claw back from 3-1 down to 3-3 at Boston
• Realising a Boro’ dream and beating Hitchin in a league game
• Hearing the opposition moan about our long ball game, only for Rob McComb to run from inside our own half, beat four defenders and then slot the ball home
• Sodje sliding in at the far post vs Woking
• Dave Venables scoring from a corner kick; the only one I have ever seen!

Still more…

• Dave Venables walking like The Penguin from Batman!
• The transformation of the ground
• Seeing three Sodje brothers playing for Boro’, Efe (Peter), Sam and Akpo
• Dennis Wise’s agent (Eric Hall?) managing Boro’ for a half, as well as featuring in Four Four Two
• Travelling back from Hyde United on the coach and getting everyone playing eye-spy!
• Taking too much food to away games and never eating it all!
• Making loads of really good mates over the years
• Flying to Liverpool for a Southport game and boing-ing down the runway
• Dipstick’s diagrams going to camp site in Telford for the Shrewsbury game, which had us driving off a bridge
• The Chairman wanting to camp out for the victorious Boro’ players returning from Hereford after getting to the 2004-5 Conference playoff final!
• Getting the last ticket to the away game at Newcastle and out-singing the Geordies
• Ruud Gullit playing at Boro’ when at Chelsea
• Dean Wordsworth and a shot on goal at Woking that went out for a throw-in to them
• Darran Hay asking Smudger why a game against Hitchin didn’t go to extra time when we won 2-1. Who said footballers were thick?
• Taking more than the 950 allocated tickets at Ru$hden, with fans having to sit on each others’ laps
• Smudger having Alan Shearer in his pocket
• Two packets of crisps and a Mars Bar; Giuliano Grazioli!
• Giuliano Grazioli scoring at home to Newcastle; Gary Crawshaw scoring at St James’ Park
• Away to Sharpness in the FA Vase, where Ricky Marshall hit a horse in the next field with a shot
• Four slopes in one pitch at Saffron Walden