The Stevenage Post
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Both of them Liam Gibbs's — 8.32
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Cardiff City tell Stevenage: Alex Robertson is not for sale
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Matt Phillips yet — 7.83
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The paperwork begins on Matheus França
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stevenage have done the hard part with Crystal Palace, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
No thanks: Ellery Balcombe rejects the move
Stevenage had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Brentford, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Real improvement from Jack Taylor at Stevenage
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jack Taylor is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The decline has begun for Matt Phillips
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Stevenage is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
One of their own: Alex Matos
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Dominic Hyam
“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.
In brief
- Match Liam Gibbs sends Stevenage past Bradford City
- Squad A row about effort at Stevenage
- Squad Words exchanged at Stevenage