Stevenage 1-0 Barrow
7th August 2021
When performing my customary, and generally very cursory, pre-match research for this one, I was startled to discover season 2021/22 will actually be Stevenage FC's twelfth consecutive in the Football League. I can distinctly recall the club being promoted to League Two, but would never had guessed it to be twelve years ago. Where does the friggin' time go?
I do remember, though, being disappointed that the club chose to drop the Borough suffix, for it seemed to offer a touch of unique character to the club name.
That debut season (2010/11) in League Two had been a remarkably successful one, with the club attaining promotion at the first time of asking, via the play-offs. And a subsequent 6th place in League One the following term - finishing above the likes of Bournemouth and Brentford, in the process - saw Stevenage threaten consecutive promotions. But a late goal by Chris Porter at Bramall Lane ended fanciful ambitions in that direction.
Stevenage found life a deal tougher in League One over the next couple of years, and were eventually relegated in 2013.
Thereafter the club generally found a comfortable mid-table niche for itself, although it took the dissolution of Bury FC in 2019, to prevent the Stevenage falling out of the Football League, following the COVID foreshortened season.
Last season (2020/21) was also a bit of a rollercoaster.
A frankly woeful first half to the campaign saw the club fall to foot of the table following a draw at Chesterfield on Boxing Day. But a pair of home wins either side of New Year kick-started a run of just three defeats in 22 matches. A deal of these were draws certainly, but the points gleaned were more enough to hoik the club out of harm's way.
Stevenage FC eventually finished the season in a moderately respectable 15th place.
And I was rather pleased they had. For I had yet to visit the LAMEX Stadium, and did not particularly wish to do so with the club playing in the National Leagues.
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| The one was taken from the car park across the A602 from the LAMEX Stadium. It was free, but looked like one of those car parks where missing the last 5 minutes of the match would be a good plan. |
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| The LAMEX Stadium - Stevenage FC |
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| Pretty non-descript external facade to the North Terracing. |
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| Now, coming across this sight parked behind the North Terrace gave me a bit of a jolt. I knew I had bought a ticket for Stevenage v Barrow - but had I turned up on the wrong day?? |
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| Nope - definitely Barrow. I can only assume Barrow FC borrow their (sort of) neighbour's bus, when it is not otherwise required. |
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| The LAMEX Stadium, Stevenage FC. |
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| Panorama of LAMEX Stadium, Stevenage. |
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| Stevenage captain Scott Cuthbert has made a solid career for himself in the lower tiers of the EFL since leaving Caledonia to join Swindon over a decade ago. He earlier had captained Scotland at a World Cup - albeit the Under-20 version. |
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| Respective team captains Scott Cuthbert and Mark Ellis. |
That being said, this afternoon's match is not one which will live long in the memory of many of 2,536 souls who attended. Most certainly not by myself - although missing the only goal of the match, because I had chosen to wait until the half-time break was almost over before going for my coffee, was Nobody's Fault But Mine.
Watching Jake REEVES 46th minute goal back on YouTube, I can acknowledge it was a rather smart finish. But I was more impressed by the way Jamie Reed's acceleration and trickery took Barrow full-back Kgosi Nthle not only to the cleaners, but back again.
My other abiding memory of the match is the sheer number of bookings - referee James Oldham at one point looking as if he was going for the whole set. There were, in fact, ten yellow cards dished out, if I counted correctly. And I could not recall any which were undeserved.
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| Gable atop the North Terrace roof... |
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| ...filled with video bods. |
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| I really liked Barrow's Josh Kay. Much of the his side's creative play came through him. |
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| Same haircut. Same gel? |
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| Stevenage v Barrow - August 2021 |
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| Stevenage v Barrow - August 2021 |
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| I think this is Joe Grayson enjoying getting to know Stevenage's Elliot Osborne. |
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| Coffee Time (or time to miss the only goal of the match Time). |
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| Panorama of LAMEX Stadium, Stevenage. |
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| Jake Reeves (is this?) with Rameao Hutton |
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| Stevenage v Barrow - August 2021 |
This was not the first time I had been to Stevenage, for 42 years earlier (almost to the day) I had alighted at Stevenage Station on my way to attend Led Zeppelin's second Knebworth performance in 1979.
My recollections, such as they are, of that weekend are here:
So, before the Stevenage match I made my way to Knebworth House, to see if I recognised anything at all from the day.
Well, the answer was, pretty much nothing. Back in 1979, we must have arrived at the site along Old Knebworth Lane, but who knows? I am sure had we passed by The Church of St Mary and St Thomas, I would have remembered seeing it. I know that the house itself was hidden behind tall wooden fencing, so I didn't expect that to kindle any memories.
But given I spent most of that weekend in a state of advanced sleep deprivation, it is perhaps not surprising that anything beyond the music itself is but a fuzzy purple haze.
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| This, so a noticeboard assured me, is the Festival Site. I have no reason to doubt this. |
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| Would this pair of trees been present in 1979? |
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| This was an intriguing stone in the churchyard of The Church of St Mary and St Thomas. Google was no help. |
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| Knebworth House. |
The remaining pics below were all taken inside the gardens, to which there definitely would have been no access back in 1979. The dinosaurs are tacky as hell, but the carving below I found both inexpressively beautiful and, at the same time, vaguely sinister. As if somehow, a young girl a hundred years ago had been magically turned into wood for some moral transgression.
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| Knebworth House. |
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