In January, Matt Bruce described the progress of the Football League’s New Town clubs as ‘faltering’ since joining the 92, but this past week may go down as the one in which their vanguard arrived for real. As Milton Keynes Dons and Stevenage confirmed their play-off berths in League 1, a nail reducing victory at Accrington saw Crawley Town finally confirm a spot in English football’s Tier Three for next season. While the creation of the new towns of England is a narrative particular to a time and a place, the trio are far from alone – if ageing extras from the film Gregory’s…
All posts tagged Stevenage
The PFA Awards: Stuff and Nonsense?
Once upon a time, the PFA Awards were the undisputed measure of a season’s most valuable players. Voted for by the Professionals themselves, the response to their announcement was one of awed hush and consent – how could mere onlookers presume to know better than those involved in the rough and tumble of the actual sport? But the saccharin, sentimental and simply silly award of the 2009 Players’ Player award to Ryan Giggs changed all that. In one fell swoop, footballers were shown to be as susceptible to a bit of old fashioned press lobbying as the rest of us….
Reserving Judgement on Graham Westley
Following Saturday’s defeat at Preston North End, Huddersfield manager Simon Grayson remarked that his charges had made the home side look like Real Madrid and if these comments were largely a criticism of his own team, the more paranoid among North End fans might view them as another set of cast aspersions on the character of Mr. Graham Westley. For the current Madrid crop, stewarded as they are by an elegantly greying, right of centre taskmaster, are not above the underhand – and so it is with Westley. Unmentioned in the recent Sound of Football podcast devoted to footballing chicanery…
The Monday Profile: Graham Westley
It was only a matter of time before Graham Westley’s achievements at Stevenage piqued the interest of more firmly established members of the Football League. And the club that tempted him from Broadhall Way could hardly be more established. Following the confirmation of Westley’s appointment as Preston manager last Friday, much scepticism was expressed among the Football League Twitterati regarding the suitability of club for man, suggesting perhaps that he would have done better to wait for an offer from the league above that in which he continues to ply his trade. However, for anyone who has followed his career, there was no doubt that the chance to lead a club with…
The Thursday Preview: MK Dons Vs. Stevenage
A friend of mine has a huge collection of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight and within those pages, coverage devoted to institutions of which the organ actually approves is limited. Similarly, any word cloud representing The Daily Mail from 1997 onwards would probably throw up the term ‘Blair’ most commonly and copies of fanzines such as Red Issue spend an inordinate amount of time fixating on Liverpool and Manchester City.As a nation of contrarians, we British are often defined by the other – that which we are not. I once tried to pin down a respected academic on his own political…
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