Search: ' Stevenage'

Spurs’ late bid for the Olympic Stadium was a flawed one but it forced Mat Snow to assess what he really feels about the club he supports 

When the Spurs board first floated the notion that, rather than expand and upgrade White Hart Lane, the club would move to the Olympic Stadium seven miles away in Stratford, I didn’t take it seriously. Nor did many other Spurs fans I know. We all figured that the board were proposing this Plan B to bluff the local council and other official bodies which were, so we heard, attaching ever more strings and dangling hefty price tags from the necessary permissions to redevelop as the board wanted. But very quickly Plan B turned into a real bid and, right then and there, every single Spurs fan was put on the spot.

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Kevin Borras recounts the moment that AFC Wimbledon were drawn against MK Dons in the FA Cup second round

I’m a season-ticket holder and a shareholder at AFC Wimbledon. Day zero for us was May 28, 2002, when the FA, in their infinite wisdom, declared that to deny Wimbledon FC the opportunity to move to Milton Keynes and “keep the club alive” would not have been in the wider interests of football. So, the potential of playing the club that we all refer to as Franchise FC in the second round of the FA Cup was the very embodiment of mixed emotions.

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Seb White looks back over the season where Gary Johnson’s insatiable Yeovil Town strolled to succes

The long-term significance
In the summer of 2002 the Football League finally approved an extra promotion/relegation place between the top tier of non-League football and Division Three. In 1987 the controversial election process had been replaced with one promotion and relegation spot between the two. Strict ground regulations saw three clubs in the mid-1990s being denied promotion, this and the increasing good fortune of non-League sides in the FA Cup saw a clamour for change.
 The decision to increase movement between the divisions has been vindicated with all the teams that finished in the top six this season now members of the Football League. Three other sides – Barnet, Stevenage Borough and Burton Albion – have also made the step up. The extra promotion place has also done those relegated from the Football League a favour with Shrewsbury Town, Carlisle Utd, Exeter City and Torquay Utd all returning via the play-offs.

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Dave Jennings witnesses a feisty encounter between two favourites for promotion from League Two who have struggled in the early stages of the season

At the start of this season, Bradford City and Gillingham were among the bookies’ favourites to win promotion from League Two. With six weeks of the season gone, both teams still looked to be in with a fair chance of leaving the division, but now the bottom exit into the Blue Square Premier seemed the more likely escape route for both clubs. City had managed just four points and one win from their opening half-dozen League Two games. The team were even booed off the Valley Parade pitch after that solitary victory – a 1-0 success against Stevenage achieved thanks to a penalty and a lot of frantic defending. Bantams manager Peter Taylor complained bitterly about the booing, but readily admitted that the better team on the day had lost.

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A cautionary tale of foiled ambition, financial crisis and battles with several authorities. Gary Andrews explains where it all went wrong

Plenty of non-League clubs have gone from play-off contenders to penniless relegation fodder in recent years, but Grays Athletic are one of the most extreme cases. Four years ago they came close to promotion to the Football League with one of the best Conference teams of the past decade. But what followed was a mix of managerial instability, stadium issues and, ultimately, near-extinction.

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