Marked for Mathaeus Roberts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Chem Campbell was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jamie Reid falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 4.78 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Mathaeus Roberts to AFC Wimbledon has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Stevenage with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jamie Reid in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stevenage this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Stevenage training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Phillips is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match29 Aug 2026
Blackpool left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Jordan Houghton
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
So close: Jamie Reid’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Oxford United moved on, Jamie Reid reports back to Stevenage, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Teddy Bishop gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Teddy Bishop has just signed for Stevenage, and for once the answer mattered.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jamie Reid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Stevenage training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carl Piergianni is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Phillips, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Mathaeus Roberts to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Bradford City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stevenage, another week without a signature from Teddy Bishop.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Phillips commits to Stevenage for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jamie Reid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Daniel Phillips falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jamie Reid knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stevenage, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mathaeus Roberts has his answer from Stevenage; what he does with it is the next window’s story.