Football Season Guide

Stevenage came close to achieving the unthinkable task of winning three consecutive promotions last season, as they finished sixth and were only stopped by Sheffield United in the semi-finals of the Play-Offs. The previous season didn't really see the Boro suffering the aftershocks of Graham Westley's departure, as his successor Gary Smith was happy to stick with Westley's ideas, while the mass exodus of players that the fans feared never happened. However, a small club with big results will always end up being raided for their best players sooner or later, and this is what happened to the Boro over the summer: key midfielder Michael Bostwick left to join Peterborough, John Mousinho and Scott Laird were tempted to Preston by Westley, while the highly rated duo of Chris Beardsley and Lawrie Wilson also left the club, with the former failing to agree a new contract, and the latter joining Charlton. The board were not willing to look at the side descending into mediocrity, and Smith was given money to spend, signing a number of players proven on this level, with James Dunne and Filipe Morais being the pick of the lot. Overall, it seems that Stevenage have a squad of similar quality as they did last season, but the major question is whether their last season's finish was a case of overachieving? The answer to that question is almost certainly "yes", but we'll need to wait and see before we know for sure. What is certain at the moment is that the Boro should be expected to be much less physical than they were last season, as several of the summer signings are players capable of "playing football", that are not really adjusted to Westley's long ball tactics.