Having missed out on promotion to the Football League fourteen years previously because of ground grading rules, Stevenage Borough will be heading for League Two having clinched the Blue Square Premier title last weekend. Their 2-0 victory at Aggborough, the home of Kidderminster Harriers, means that the Hertfordshire club can look forward to their first ever taste of Football League action next season.
Borough have had a fantastic season and fully deserve promotion to the upper echelons and the honour of being crowned Blue Square Premier champions. Fighting from the front, they boast the firepower of non-league scoring sensations Charlie Griffin and Tim Sills.
Both of these men have had previous Football League experience. In Griffin’s case, he’ll be anxious to replicate his scoring feats further down the pyramid on the bigger stage, having had previous moves to Swindon and Wycombe that didn’t quite work out.
With inspirational captain and 2008-2009 ‘Supporters Player of the Year’ Mark Roberts keeping attackers at bay alongside fellow lynchpin Jon Ashton, Borough fans will be looking to consolidate next season.
Indeed, the omens look good. Teams promoted from the Blue Square Premier tend to fare well or at least cement their League status. In recent years, Aldershot and Dagenham and Redbridge have both found their feet in League Two and are now challenging for play-off positions. Burton Albion were promoted last season and have enjoyed a period of consolidation in what has been their first ever experience of life in the Football League too.
Perhaps Stevenage should aspire to follow the examples set by Yeovil Town and Carlisle United, two sides with differing histories who managed to achieve great successes after promotion to the League. Yeovil had long had a reputation as a fantastic giant-killing side in the Cup however they had never gained promotion to the Football League.
That was until 2003 when the Glovers became Conference champions. Under the stewardship of Gary Johnson, their success wasn’t to end there. In their first League season they finished eighth and won through to the third round of the FA Cup where they were beaten 2-0 at home by Liverpool. In the 2004-2005 season though, they were promoted again, this time to League One as they finished champions of the fourth tier.
Carlisle United achieved similar success. Having flirted with relegation to the officially titled Conference National for years, the Cumbrians finally succumbed in the 2003-2004 season where they lost eighteen of their twenty-one opening games of the season. Despite a spirited second-half to the campaign, manager Paul Simpson couldn’t stop the inevitable drop.
The team did not dwell on their misfortune for too long, winning the Conference at the first attempt. Similar to Yeovil, they built quickly upon their success and in only their first season back in the League, they earned promotion to League One, cinching another title in the process.
Arguably, promotion to the Football League perhaps does not hold the lustre of yesteryear. Once the professional Holy Grail for all non-league footballers to strive for, many clubs in the Blue Square Premier now operate under the paid ranks of professionalism. There are also now two promotion spots, not just the one and many non-league sides have grounds up to League standards, once a huge stumbling block to promotion.
For the fans though, being in the League does matter. Stevenage chairman Phil Wallace told BBC Three Counties Radio that he was “Really proud and so pleased for all the fans. You have to be here to see what it means to all the fans. That is what you go into football for in the first place.”
The fans echoed his sentiments. The Stevenage fan site fcboro.co.uk beamed,” It will be great to be one of the 92. It will be great to be playing in the Carling Cup and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy as well as entering the FA Cup at the 1st round stage.”
Stevenage’s trips to Morecambe, Stockport and Macclesfield aren’t just the reward of one season of successful toil. They’re symbolic of years of attempting to enter the elite. In essence, as Borough fans sample the delights of Burton’s Pirelli Stadium next season, they can look across at the opposition fans and say “we’re here too now. We’ve arrived.”
By William Geldart
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