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Stevenage Saturday preview

Postby Sweden Stag » Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:03 pm

After the very frustrating and disappointing home defeat against Leyton Orient on Tuesday night, the Stags are at headquarters again. This time, it will be against a side which have yet to score this season, Stevenage. But they scored an own-goal which was enough to be beaten by Bradford City at Stevenage home soil last Tuesday night.

Last season’s home fixture was one in which the Stags could and should have sealed automatic promotion (maybe on expense of one promoted team which have yet to play a League One fixture, more than enough printed). Instead, Stevenage hit the winner in the last minute.

Maybe there were signs when it was revealed who was to ref that game last April? Darren Drysdale, a ref who in preview history definitely has whistled cold and hot, and has reffed in two of three games Stevenage have won at Mansfield in preview history.

Last April, he was poor. But during the early Stags conf years in which the sides faced each other in two different campaigs, Drysdale reffed a game in September 2009. That season, Drysdale was demoted to the Conf after not refereeing in the latter half of the 2008-09 campaign (last game he reffed that campaign involved in fact Stevenage (FA Cup first round at Leicester on November 8, 2008). Details checked.

None of the four BSP clashes between the sides did finish with eleven players for one of the sides.

On September 12, 2009, the Stags were 2-0 up when Kyle Perry was red-carded deep into first-half injury-time. In the eighth (!) minute of that, then ex-Stag Chris Beardsley reduced the lead by scoring for Stevenage. And in the second, two goals from Stevenage ended the Stags' unbeaten home record under Dave Holdsworth, which was to be fifteen games spread over two seasons. But a player who was a Stag two seasons ago, Joel Byrom, played for Stevenage in that game and oversaw the Stevenage rise from the Conf to League One in successive seasons. Byrom has now returned to Stevenage and played in both fixtures against the Stags last campaign. He also played in Stevenage’s first-ever FL game, a 2-2 home draw against Macclesfield on August 7, 2010. Byrom is now one of already 23 players used by Stevenage this season after playing in the above-mentioned defeat against Bradford City. Another ex-Stag now on Stevenage books is Paul Digby, but he has yet to feature this term.

Beardsley was a few seasons ago in his third and final Stags spell. Meanwhile, Beardsley did have two spells at Stevenage as well, the first one starting in the 2009-10 season. Beardsley also played for Bristol Rovers in the final game of the 2013-14 campaign, when the Stags won 1-0 there sending Bristol Rovers out of the FL for one season.

The 1-1 draw at Stevenage in April 2018 is so far the only one between the sides. And the 2-1 defeat at One Call in October 2016 was to be Adam Murray’s final FL home fixture as Stags manager.

This season is Stevenage's tenth in the FL. In their first-ever campaign, Stevenage reached the League Two playoff final, then beat Torquay, becoming just another side to go straight through the basement league following promotion to the FL. Others who have made it from the BSP /now National League/ to current League one in successive seasons during the last two decades include Doncaster, Exeter, Macclesfield, Crawley and Wycombe.

In Stevenage's first League One season, they reached the playoff semifinals finishing the League campaign in sixth place. Since then, they slid down the table to eventually relegation in 2013-14. But that did not distract from reaching the FA Cup fourth round and a bumper home fixture against Everton. But two other sides which have played in the current PL did fail to win at Stevenage in recent seasons. Newcastle were kayoed in a third round game on January 8, 2011, but Tottenham needed a replay to go through the following campaign.

For a run-down on current and previous Stevenage clubs, see earlier previews, i.e. the one on the last fixture at One Call between the sides.

The Stags have scored in all previous home fixtures against Stevenage and have netted in all bar one on the road, unbeaten in the last four.

Although the Stags before the 2008-09 season never had faced any Stevenage side before, there had been some player traffic between the sides. By the time of the February 9 2010 BSP preview, Jamie Campbell, Lee Howarth, Richard Pacquette, Gary Mills and Michael Brough were mentioned. A check on players during the update of more recent previews revealed a few more players that had played for the Stevenage before joining the Stags. One of those is the much-travelled Jefferson Louis, figuring in many previews during the last decade. Two years before netting the 90th minute winner at Wycombe in front of the previewer, Louis played 18 games, six of those as sub, scoring on six occasions, for Stevenage during the 2005-06 season. A few seasons earlier, Michael Blackwood played a few years at Broadhall way aka Lamex Stadium. Simon Heslop came, just like Luke Jones, to the Stags from Stevenage during the close-season of 2013-14. One Stags loanee in goal in 2014-15, Adam Smith from Leicester, was on loan at Stevenage the previous season without playing. A little more than a decade earlier, Scott Eustace was on the Stevenage books without playing in the BSP aka Vanarama League.

Total list of players having played for both sides: Chris Beardsley, Michael Blackwood, Michael Brough, Joel Byrom, Jamie Campbell, Iyseden Christie, Craig Dobson, Luke Foster, Simon Heslop, Pat Hoban, Lee Howarth, Johnny Hunt, Luke Jones, Jefferson Louis, Junior Mendes, Gary Mills, Aaron O’Connor, Richard Pacquette, Peter Vincenti, Tyler Walker, Sam Wedgbury.

League stats:

Home: P 7, W 4, D 0, L 3, GF 10, GA 9
Away: P 7, W 3, D 1, L 3, GF 10, GA 11

Season Home Date Away Date

2008-09 2-1 2009-04-26 2-3 2008-10-07 BSP
2009-10 2-3 2009-09-12 1-3 2010-02-09 BSP
2014-15 1-0 2015-02-07 0-3 2014-09-27 League Two
2015-16 2-1 2016-01-09 2-0 2015-09-29 League Two
2016-17 1-2 2016-10-29 1-0 2017-04-22 League Two
2017-18 1-0 2017-11-18 1-1 2018-04-10 League Two
2018-19 1-2 2019-04-27 3-1 2018-12-22 League Two

Expect a reaction after Tuesday night’s second half horror show on Saturday. Come on Mansfield!
Stockholm, July 4, 2008, 15.00 GMT. Good news came, K.H. gone. March 1, 2012. Ground purchased.
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