Monday morning saw Stevenage drawn a home tie against Ebbsfleet United in the 1st round proper of this season’s FA Trophy. Boro may be the current holders of the FA Trophy, but questions are being seriously raised whether it’s worth the club trying to win it again this year. Boro have won the Trophy in two of the last 3 seasons and were the first team to win a final at the newly rebuilt Wembley Stadium. With the club currently in 2nd place in the Blue Square Premier table, 5 points away from leaders Oxford United, the Cup competitions do seem to be less of a priority this season as the club looks to win promotion to the football league at the 16th attempt.

In the FA Cup, Stevenage progressed to the 1st round before they were knocked out by Port Vale after a replay. Boro had beaten Conference South side Chelmsford in the qualifying round thanks to a late Peter Vincenti winner. In all 3 games that we played in the Cup, we fielded a strong side. Obviously a club like ourselves can’t be considered as serious contenders for the FA Cup, but it’s well known that the Cup can help boost the finances of a small non league club due to the prize money and possible TV revenue a Cup tie can attract. The FA Trophy is similar is some aspects, although the TV coverage is not like the FA Cup, the prize money is still quite substantial at this level.

There are obviously arguements for and against a run in the Trophy this season. If Boro were to go the whole way again this season without any replays, that would create another 6 games on top of the first round tie against Ebbsfleet in a couple of weeks time. As we know from last season’s experience, these games usually take the place of any Blue Sqaure Premier fixtures that were previously scheduled and the league fixtures get re-arranged for a midweek later in the season. Going out of the Trophy early would allow Boro’s fixture list not to get congested. There would just be the league to focus on and the squad would have time to rest and recover in between games.

However, the run in the Trophy obviously didn’t harm Boro’s pursuit of a play-off spot last season as Graham Westley’s side finished the 2008/2009 campaign as the form side in the division. If anything, Westley’s side carried their winning momentum from the league into the Trophy and progression into the final built confidence going into the last few weeks as the club pushed for that play-off place. Confidence plays a very important part in football, especially at this level and I think that Boro’s run in the Trophy last season helped them finish in the play-offs.

The previous season, Peter Taylor’s Stevenage were knocked out of the FA Trophy at the first attempt by Dorchester. Boro were the holders that season as well having won the final the previous May against Kidderminster. Taylor obviously thought it was a distraction from the league and wanted out of it as soon as possible, but it didn’t help the team at all, in fact his team went backwards after their early exit going down from 2nd in the league to 6th, and outside the play-off places.

In my opinion, I think Boro could go all the way again in the Trophy this season, if they take it seriously. At the moment I think ourselves and Oxford are probably the best teams in non league football and it will take a lot for another team to knock us out. There are other teams like Luton, Rushden, York and Cambridge that will also be confident of going far in the competition.

Although I understand the idea of keeping the ‘winning feeling’ going by progressing in the Trophy, I think we would benefit more in the league by going out early from all competitions and just concentrating on the Conference. I think we have a really good chance of promotion with this team and keeping them fit and focused will help us towards the end of the season when the games come thick and fast. I would much rather win promotion to the football league than have another trip to Wembley. Winning the Trophy last season was great, but the real prize was lost a few days before that when the team collpased at the Abbey Stadium. Hopefully this season will be different.