[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Stevenage
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday August 17th - 15:00 ko
at Kirklees Stadium

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN welcome STEVENAGE to the Kevin Nagle Arena on Saturday afternoon for an exciting, enthralling, exhilarating hour and a half of League One football.

Michael Duff and his merry men stand proud at the top of the table, with a place in the 2nd round of the EFL Cup secured after beating Morecambe on Tuesday night. The good ship Piss The League has set sail. Destination Championship.

Stevenage gave a Championship side a few scares on Tuesday down at Carrow Road, narrowly losing 4-3 to Norwich, with our ex Tractor Tyreece Simpson coming off the bench to no effect. He signed full time for them in the summer, not on loan and so will be available to score his first goal at the John Smith's Stadium.

It was Elliott List who scored thir goal last Saturday as they got off to a winning start at home to Shrewsbury. So this fixture is a top of the table, six pointer and what's more, for the first time in ages, I'm actually looking forward to going to this.

A brief history of Stevenage FC: formed in 1976 as Stevenage Borough, they joined the United Counties League and just kept on climbing the non league pyramid, reaching the Conference (now National League) by 1994. They would've gone up into the Fotball League in 1996, but after winning the Conference, they were denied because their ground didn't pass FL standards.

The Boro started playing their home games at King George V playing fields in the town, but this was only after plans tomove into Broadhall Way were scuppered. The club had been formed after Broadhall Way's previous occupants had gone bust and so instead of supporting a new football club, the local council sold the land to a local businessman, who dug a massive trench across the pitch to stop any games taking place.

They did eventually move in in 1980, but as just stated, it wasn't up to scratch. But by 2010, it was. And so by winning the Conference again that season, they were promoted to League Two. This was under the management of Graham Westley and following a rebranding, where they dropped the Borough to become known as just Stevenage FC, they went up again, via the Play Offs.

They'd finished 6th in League One and after beating Accrington Stanley 3-0 on aggregate, they then beat Torquay United 1-0 at Wembley with John Mousinho writing his name in Stevenage legend.

They almost went up in the next season, making it to the Play Offs again. They played Sheffiled Utd in the 2011 semis, unluckily losing 1-0 on aggregate, to a very late goal at Brammal Lane.

Stevenage didn't kick on from there though and suffered a relegation, sending them back down the snakes n ladders board all the way back to League Two. They did make the Play Offs again in League Two, but got beaten in the semis by Southend Utd.

They had a brief spell in the media headlights when they took on a celebrity manager, Teddy Sheringham, but that didn't last long, with Westley coming and going in between others and was by 2020, in his 4th spell as boss.

It was Steve Evans though who eventually got them back into League One, finishing as runners up to Leyton Orient at the end of the 2022/23 season. That season saw them have their most famous victory as well, winning at Villa Park against the might of the Premier League's Aston Villa. After being a goal down for most of the match, they equalised in the 88th minute through a Jamie Reid penalty, then won it in the 90th with Dean Campbell grabbing the winner.

Head to Head




Town lead the head to head with 1 win to Stevenage's 0, with 1 draw.

Only two games to report on then, which is one more than Morecambe the other night.

Danny Ward played in them both. He was a young man back then in the 2011/12 season. The first of them was played at our place in October and we won it 2-1. Gary Roberts scored just before half time, before Scott Laird equalised in the 67th minute. Not to worry though, nine minutes later, super Lee Novak scored the winner to give Lee Clark and his players the three points.

That's not the end of it though. Stevenage were awarded and missed a penalty in added on time and the two bosses, Clark and Graham Westley, who had been sniping at each other throughout the game, confronted each other at the final whistle. Mind the handbags, gentlemen.

There was a crowd of 12,890 in the Galpharm Stadium on a Saturday afternoon for this one, which was game number 37 in our famous unbeaten run.

A smaller crowd of 3,059 were at the Lamex Stadium on a Tuesday night for the return match, which was the second game for our new Head Coach, Simon Grayson. There was a new name in the home dugout as well. Gary Smith had taken over a month earlier. This game was played midweek because the Boro had an FA Cup game on the original date. They played Tottenham Hotspur at home in the fifth round and drew 0-0, before losing the replay 3-1, a week after they played us.

Our game was goal less at half time, but then ten minutes after the break we were two up through Wardy and Novak. However, Michael Bostwick and Robin Shroot scored goals late on to give us yet another draw. The unbeaten run had gone by this stage though.

Both clubs went on to reach the Play Offs that season. Stevenage finished 6th and we finished 4th. We played MK Dons and beat them 3-2 on aggregate. They played Sheffield United and lost out 1-0 on aggregate to a late goal in the 2nd leg at Bramall Lane.

So what's going on down Broadhall Way? Managed nowadays by Alex Revell, a much travelled striker in his playing days, now in his second spell as Boro boss.

His first spell started after Graham Westley (yes him again) resigned with the club 7 points adrift at the foot of League Two in February 2020. He lost his first two games, but then the season was ended prematurely due to the Covid outbreak. They were initially relegated, but got lucky at the demise of Macclesfield Town, whose points deductions meant the Boro received a reprieve.

They were still bottom of the table after 18 games of the next season, but Revell rallied them and they finished comfortably in 14th. The Board thanked him for this by sacking him early in the next season.

He wasn't unemployed for long though. Paul Tisdale got the job and brought him back to coach the youth team. When Steve Evans replaced Tisdale, he became his number two. He'd played under Evans earlier in his career at Rotherham.

Evans returned to Rotherham two matches before the end of last season and Revell took over once more, drawing 1-1 at Oxford and winning 2-1 at home to Cheltenham in those two last games.

At the end of the season, he was appointed in the full time role.

Stevenage in popular culture: The most exciting thing ever to happen to Stevenage was in the Swinging Sixties when the cult comedy film Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, starring Barry Evans and Judy Geeson, was filmed there. Here's a clip from that film.....