Marked for Phoenix Patterson
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
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Mansfield Town, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jacob Kelly could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.92
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.92, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Match16 Sep 2026
Stevenage win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 103th minute. Mansfield Town will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alfie Thornett is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alfie Whiteman 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.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Edward Cook
At 14 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Barnsley, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Stevenage
0‑3 against Wigan Athletic, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Stevenage
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Stevenage are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Stevenage cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Harvey White, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Carl Piergianni 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Stevenage are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 51. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfie Whiteman, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
7.16, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Stevenage had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market7 Sep 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 Louis Thompson.
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
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
Port Vale pay $910.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Stevenage training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Phoenix Patterson 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A masterclass from Dan Kemp
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Stevenage
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lewis Freestone, and the manager let it.