Lucky, lucky Stevenage…
Now I don’t claim to be an expert about World Religions. But I do know that the Talmud – the Jewish Holy Book – tells us that a man called Moses once went up Mount Sinai and came down again with two Tablets. No – not a Tablet and a Notebook or iPhone or Laptop: the Talmud is very specific. On these were written – in stone – Ten Commandments. And the first of these is that there is only one god, a belief otherwise known as Monotheism (and not Stereotheism, whose records may well be already be found in your own collection.) As I say, I don’t claim to be an expert about World Religions but I do know that not all of these believe in Monotheism. Hinduism, for instance, has a god for just about everything you can think of. For example, there is not just one God of Good Luck – there are two: Shree Ganesh (a male one) and a goddess too in the form of Asvayujau. Ganesh is often visualised as an elephant in human form which explains the current Stevenage club badge as shown on the title page.
So let’s get out the joss sticks and wind the clock back to lucky Thirteenth of March 2020. This turned out to be the final day of last season, brought to a premature end by the ravages of COVID-19. What was the situation which Morecambe’s opponents today – Stevenage – found themselves in then?
They had played thirty-six games and had accumulated a truly pathetic twenty-two points. Their form was ten League Two matches played; ten League Two matches lost. Club hero and well-known Bentley cars enthusiast Graham Westley had come and gone having worked his particular brand of magic: fifteen games played; two won (one of which was a League Trophy game); three drawn and a quite phenomenal ten lost. At the very point that the Coronavirus pandemic put an end to proceedings, Stevenage found themselves rock bottom of the table. They had lost twenty and drawn thirteen of their 36 league games and won just three. Conversely, their nearest rival for relegation to the National League – Macclesfield Town – had won seven and drawn fifteen of theirs, which made them theoretically in possession of 36 points, a whole fourteen points better-off than Borough although admittedly having played one game more. So what hope did Stevenage have? What were their chances of staying in an EFL which – as we all know – is superbly well regulated by people who all have the concepts of fairness and responsibility firmly ensconced in their minds. None whatsoever, surely.
But if it turns out that there actually is a Hindu god of Incompetence and Dodgy Dealings, the EFL would probably be its greatest adherent. And so it was to come that – as the club were in the process of removing the final letter from `Lamex’ in their stadium name to more properly reflect the quality of the product to be witnessed there – that particular god performed a miracle. Well – actually three miracles…
Dark forces had already ensured that the owner of one of the Football League’s founder members – Bury – had passed the EFL’s own very `Fit and Proper’ test with flying colours. The fact that he is on record as admitting that he couldn’t find the town on a map prior to his acquisition of its club for a whole One English Pound did not ring any alarm bells at EFL HQ apparently. Nor was their own failure to properly vet his acquisition of the club allowed to get in the way of the crisis this development was to directly lead to. Instead, it was easier for the EFL to unceremoniously kick Bury out of the League altogether. Nothing to do with us, mate – we’re just the regulators…
So – one miracle performed and the number of clubs to be relegated at the end of the season reduced to just one – there were just two more to go. The Silkmen .found themselves in a scarily similar situation to the Shakers, with another owner who used the club in ways not sanctioned by the EFL’s own rules. They should have removed him – or vetoed his acquisition of the club in the first place in exactly the same way they should have acted as far as Bury were concerned. But they didn’t – instead, it was more expedient for the EFL to accuse the club of breaking its own rules instead – and ignore all the other inconvenient issues about proper regulation of the game which again pointed lots of accusing fingers at themselves. So Macc were fined thirteen points. Even so, they were still safe from relegation. Until Ganesh performed his final miracle on the eleventh of August 2020 – and took just enough extra points from them to make sure that Stevenage – against all the odds and any sense of fairness or justice – stayed in League Two.
It stinks. Gigg Lane is empty and the Bury we once all knew no longer exists. Macclesfield were expelled from the National League on October 12th and now face an uncertain future in the lowest tier of English football. Ironically, they were booted out the very next day after EFL Chairman Rick Parry – without a shred of hubris – announced a potential £250 million deal with some Premiership clubs to help all grassroots football. Well done Sir Rick (as he no doubt will be in due course) – what a star! (Let’s draw a veil over the fact that – fairly typically – nothing came of this and move swiftly on…) Well – he’s a star at Stevenage Football Club at least because without his stewardship of the EFL, they would be where they amply deserve to be: out of the EFL altogether. Furthermore, both Bury and Macclesfield would almost certainly still be in it.
In many world religions, there is often a concept of penance as atonement for sins committed. Nobody could accuse Stevenage of being culpable for their escape from a well-deserved fate: that lies almost exclusively with the English Football League. They have just been extraordinarily lucky. To be fair to them, the club has been an example to many others in being pro-active in supporting vulnerable members of the local community to cope with the realities of the pandemic. Right at the outset, Chairman Phil Wallace announced:
“We have already been delighted to receive offers from fans who want to help. This ‘wartime spirit’ is what we are all about and we know everyone in the town will look to support the vulnerable through this pandemic. Make no mistake, (without) a vaccine, this virus is going to create havoc, especially with the elderly so it’s right they are isolated. There are some brilliant local external agencies and groups on social networks already, so the Club and Stevenage FC Foundation will work with these as well. We want to encourage participation from those of us that are able to help, large and small companies alike.”
During the ensuing 21 weeks, the club has utilised one hundred volunteers to deliver 15000 free sandwiches to 120 households across the town; delivered over four hundred prescriptions to vulnerable residents and made over 500 phone calls to individuals deemed by the club to be at risk. Mr Wallace has been awarded the British Empire Medal subsequently for his role in organising this effort. Both he and his club must be saluted for this – but it does not alter the fact that they should have achieved all these things as a National League club, not as a member of the EFL.
In that competition, they have the Indian Sign over today’s opponents: in what Morecambe fans will see as distinctly unlucky thirteen previous meetings, Borough have only lost once and won eight times. Since their reprieve earlier in the year though, Alex Revell’s side have not improved markedly upon their hopeless display of last season. From eleven games, they have garnered only seven points – ten less than today’s opponents – and lay twelve places lower than them in the League Two table in twenty-first position. They have lost three and drawn two of their last five league games and have won only one league match all season, way back in September. Last weekend, as Morecambe were to win at Maldon & Tiptree, Stevenage were drawing 2-2 after 120 minutes at home against National League South club Concord Rangers of Canvey Island in the FA Cup. They finally staggered over the line against a team from two divisions below them only on penalties. On form, then, today’s should be a routine win for the Shrimps. But would it be?
Alex Revell named recently-returned former Stevenage favourite Tom Pett in his starting line-up. Aramide Oteh – on-loan from QPR – was also given a relatively rare start for the visitors. Before the game, the Stevenage boss stated his intention today thus:
“They are a counter-attacking side and they like to soak up the pressure and get after you and it has worked well for them this year. They have signed experienced players, they are well organised and obviously they have had a real good start to the season so we know it is going to be tough and we know we have to go out there and put in a top performance to go and get something, so that is what we have been working on all week and the players will be ready to go there and do that.”
For the home team, both Liam McAlinden and Alex Kenyon were unavailable due to COVID isolation. Derek Adams preferred Toumani Diagouraga to John O’Sullivan in his first eleven today and Kelvin Mellor also started after an injury scare in Essex last Saturday.
The Hindu weather gods have not been smiling on Lancashire in recent times. But they allowed the game to start under dry, bright skies. The home team started like a house on fire, attacking on their left with Aaron Wildig, Kelvin Mellor and Nathaniel KP Knight-Percival looking like they all meant business early on. Nothing was to come of it though and as the game grew older, the visitors showed that they were able and willing to play effectively on the break at times. Just ten minutes had been played when KP was shown a yellow card after a cynical foul which broke-up a Borough counter-attack on the halfway line. Play soon went to the opposite end of the field and Sam Lavelle headed back Wildig’s corner from the right at the far stick only to see KP fail to redeem himself with a weak effort which Jamie Cumming gathered easily. There was a warning for the home side after a quarter of an hour when the impressive Danny Newton was played-in by Aramide Oteh only for the QPR loanee to be ruled offside by referee Tom Nield. A minute later, Borough looked as if they might be in again only for the linesman to again raise his flag to end any further progress for the visitors. Toumani Diagouraga tried his luck with a shot from distance after 23 minutes which Cumming held easily enough. But disaster struck with almost half an hour on the clock. For reasons only he could explain, Kelvin Mellor fouled Tom Pett in the home penalty area. It was an obvious but wholly needless offence – Pett wasn’t going anywhere. Oteh took the spot-kick and although Jake Turner went the right way, the ball squirmed under his body and agonisingly over the line to put the visitors one goal to the good: the first goal they have scored in the league since September.
From here on in, Stevenage basically invited Morecambe to break them down, wasting time at every conceivable opportunity and challenging the hosts to have the wit to outsmart them. Even the rain gods joined in – as the ball went over the Shrimps’ goal line, thin cold sleet started to sweep across the ground in a gale blowing into Borough’s faces during the first half. Cumming was the busier of the goalkeepers but in front of him Skipper Scott Cuthbert organised his troops well and the nearest Morecambe came to equalising was when Sam Lavelle’s excellent header from a corner was blocked brilliantly on the Stevenage goal-line by the combined efforts of two away defenders.
During the second period, the wind whistled constantly and the rain was not only relentless but increasingly heavy and the match ended in a proper downpour. Morecambe huffed and puffed but rarely looked like blowing Stevenage’s house down. Unusually, Carlos Mendes-Gomes was virtually anonymous today and Adam Phillips also had a poor game by his high standards in the Morecambe midfield. There were a few half-chances for both teams before Derek Adams shook things up towards the end. He sent on forwards Cole Stockton and Freddie Pryce and the latter was instrumental in setting-up Morecambe’s equaliser with just ten minutes left. He lobbed the ball cleverly from the left flank forward to Jordan Slew, who opened his account for the Shrimps with his first – a headed – goal for the club. And that was it: the game ended in a pretty dreary one-all goal.
This is a game that Morecambe should have won. They had nearly all the possession against a side that were clearly carrying-out their Manager’s pre-match game-plan to a tee. Today, it worked in the sense that at least Stevenage didn’t lose. But a stupid mistake and lack of the guile to open-up a team which you suspect would have folded if sustained pressure was applied to them meant that the Shrimps effectively threw-away two precious points. Despite this, they remain on the fringe of the play-offs in tenth position in League Two. The point for Stevenage arrived just in time. With Southend surprising everyone with a win at Walsall and Mansfield improving under Nigel Clough’s new stewardship by winning at Forest Green, Borough found themselves in a more precarious position at the end of the game than they were at the beginning. Only Scunthorpe – who won at Oldham this afternoon and have played a whole three games fewer than them – lie between Stevenage and rock bottom of the EFL, where the Shrimpers are now only three points adrift of them. Sound familiar? Keep lighting those candles to Ganesh, Stevenage fans – it looks as if you are going to need them…
Morecambe: 1 Jake Turner; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 3 Stephen Hendrie; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival (Y); 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes(Y); 7 Jordan Slew; 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 10 Aaron Wildig; 20 Adam Phillips (9 Cole Stockton 72’); 24 Yann Songo’o (23 Freddie Price 67’).
Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 6 Harry Davis; 21 Ryan Cooney; 16 John O’Sullivan; 18 Ben Pringle;.
Stevenage: 1 Jamie Cumming; 3 Ben Coker; 4 Romain Vincelot; 5 Scott Cuthbert (C); 7 Charlie Carter; 11 Danny Newton; 12 Remeao Hutton (Y); 19 Arthur Read; 24 Ross Marshall; 26 Tom Pett (22 Marcus Dinanga 86’); 28 Aramide Oteh (Y) (17 Elliott List 82’).
Subs not used: 13 Billy Johnson; 6 Luke Prosser; 10 Tyrone Marsh; 16 Arthur Iontton; 20 Femi Akinwande.
Ref: Tom Nield.
