It’s been a busy last few days off the pitch at Stevenage. On Monday, Boro found out that the prize for knocking out Dover Athletic in the last round is another home tie, this time against Workington of the Blue Square North. Workington beat AFC Wimbledon in the last round to reach the last 8. Below is the full draw for the FA Trophy Quarter Finals;

Stevenage v Workington AFC
Cambridge/Salisbury v Guiseley/Tamworth
Barrow/Gateshead v York City
Oxford v Kidderminster

So what do we know about Workington?

Well the answer is not much. They are a part time club currently 15th in the BSN table, level on points with Northwich Victoria who are 13th. Looking through their squad, they don’t have any players that Boro fans will recognise. Some may know their manager Darren Edmondson, who played for Carlisle, York & Chester in his playing career before moving into management. They were founded in 1884 and have had some famous managers in their time. Tommy Cassidy and Bill Shankly managed Workington at some point during their careers.

Nonetheless, Boro will be very confident of beating Workington and progressing to the last 4 of the FA Trophy for the second consecutive season. GW will not be taking anything for granted though. Workington have knocked out both Rushden and AFC Wimbledon so far this season and will be well up for making the current holders the 3rd victims of their superb Trophy run so far. Amazingly, all of the ‘bigger’ sides left in the Trophy were drawn apart with Cambridge, Oxford, York and ourselves all facing different opposition.

Away from the Trophy and 3 of Boro’s fixtures have been re-arranged. The trip to Wrexham will now be played on a Wednesday night on the 24th February. The original fixture was postponed due to a frozen pitch. As a result of Boro’s progress in the FA Trophy, games against Altrincham and Oxford have also had to be postponed. The Altrincham game is now on the 14th April with a 7.45pm kick off, while the Oxford game is now to be played on the 30th March. The Oxford game is bound to draw a big crowd, even on a Tuesday night, so expect some news from the club in the next few weeks about possible ticket sales.

Lastly, Graham Westley has won the Manager of the Month award for January. Funnily enough, Boro only played 2 league games in the month, but it was the month where the club overtook Oxford at the top of the Blue Square Premier and beat both Vauxhall Motors and Dover to progress into the quarter finals of the FA Trophy. Here’s hoping the usual curse of the award fails to materialise in February!