Marked for Matt Phillips
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
12 matches without a win, and then this, against Cardiff City. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Stevenage
Hugo Magallanes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jamie Reid’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Stevenage.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Stevenage training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamie Reid 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Match27 Oct 2026
A goal on 85 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matt Phillips slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Matt Phillips is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Stevenage
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Stevenage are no longer polite ones.
Match24 Oct 2026
5 matches without a goal for Stevenage
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hugo Magallanes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market26 Oct 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Stevenage signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad26 Oct 2026
No place for Tibet Durakçay in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stevenage are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” John Clark chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Dan Sweeney gets it from the manager
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Leyton Orient will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
9 matches without a win for Stevenage
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Stevenage are no longer polite ones.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for Stevenage
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dan Sweeney and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” John Clark after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jovan Malcolm has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
No hiding place for Dan Kemp
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dan Kemp, and the manager let it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Stevenage?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Northampton Town? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stevenage can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Jamie Reid ran the middle of the pitch — 6.62
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.62, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hugo Magallanes 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Freddie Woodman, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jack Taylor commits to Stevenage for another 4 years.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Stevenage close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Liam Gibbs 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Stevenage training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Magallanes 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Stevenage asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Stevenage will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market7 Sep 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Stevenage signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Matt Phillips makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Michael Mellon asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ty Barnett arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ty Barnett has, at Stevenage, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Stevenage asked and Sheffield United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
Stevenage hit back inside 1 minutes
Burton Albion held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Stevenage answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Maritimo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ty Barnett commits to Stevenage for another 4 years.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Stevenage training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Magallanes 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” John Clark chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Maeson King would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Maeson King is living that version at Stevenage, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market24 Aug 2026
Norwich City pay $260.0K, 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kaelan Casey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
8 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Maeson King is 20, and Stevenage have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Matt Phillips yet — 8.11
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Aug 2026
Stevenage say no — this time
The offer from Luton Town for Carl Piergianni was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rotherham United have kept their man, and Stevenage go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stevenage have done the hard part with Liverpool, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match15 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Stevenage and Doncaster Rovers in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Stevenage
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matt Phillips and Stevenage agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Norwich City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Nick Oyekunle is in the works
Stevenage have made the call to Southampton. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market3 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 Mathaeus Roberts.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Chem Campbell 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dan Sweeney has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Stevenage that is a harder question to answer.