Wrexham first up
Posted by sgmboro on 02/07/2008
A trip to Wales awaits Boro fans in early August after the Blue Square 2008/2009 fixtures were announced today. Stevenage will travel to recently relegated Wrexham before playing their first game back at Broadhall Way against newly promoted Eastbourne Borough. The first Saturday home game is, like last season, against Weymouth. Games against Ebbsfleet and Crawley follow before the month concludes with the longest trip of the season up to Cumbria to face Barrow.
Boro will be happy with their first 6 fixtures as on paper they are all winnable. The obvious difficult one out of them all is Wrexham, but considering they have just been relegated and have a very different squad to last season I can see us at least getting a point there or even winning which could set us up nicely. In recent seasons we have not started well away from home, but have bounced back in the next game. This again could happen this season. Boro’s first home game, again like last season, is against newly promoted opposition.
September sees the first real “derby” of the season as we travel up to Rockingham Road to play Kettering Town. The game is on a Tuesday night so should generate a good atmosphere. We also have tricky games at home to Burton and away to Forest Green in the month as well. A trip to Torquay is the highlight of October’s fixtures as well as Mansfield Town’s first visit to Broadhall Way the following Tuesday. The first Woking game of the season is at the beginning of November, surprisingly on a Saturday afternoon.
Boro’s toughest month arguably is December where they face trips to Lewes and Oxford as well as Grays at home before Rushden on Boxing Day followed by Cambridge at the Trade Recruitment on the 28th and then Nene Park to play Rushden again on New Year’s Day. If Boro are to seriously push for promotion this season then points will need to be picked up in this period. After the double header with the Diamonds, Boro have a reasonably comfortable month with Lewes, Barrow and Kettering at home and trips to Salisbury and York.
A trip to Weymouth is on Valentine’s Day while at the end of February, Woking visit Hertfordshire on a Tuesday night. March could be a crucial month at Broadhall Way with both Cambridge and Oxford visiting, while points will be expected when Boro go away to Northwich and Histon. The last month of the season is another tough one. They begin the month away at Kidderminster before a home game against Trophy winners Ebbsfleet. Easter Monday sees Boro travel to West Sussex to face Steve Evans’ Crawley before the last home game against Torquay United. Stevenage finish the season similarly to how it they started it with an away trip to a recently relegated Mansfield on the 25th April 2009.
Overall, I’m quite happy with the way the fixtures have panned out. The opening games are comfortable after Wrexham and could see us towards the top of the table early on. The Christmas period, as always will be vital especially as we face potential promotion rivals in Rushden and Cambridge within a matter of days. The run in could also be tricky, but hopefully this season we will have enough points in the bag and a more settled side to not be under the same sort of pressure as last season. As for the long trips, so far they all seem to be on a Saturday which is a good thing, a lot depends on what Setanta want to do of course. Wrexham and Barrow will be nice to get out of the way as well while the weather is still reasonably good.
Only the 37 days to go!
