Stevenage Remembered

Only in Newcastle could the drawing of a league two side in the third round of the FA Cup draw an audible groan from a packed pub of the club’s supporters. Though the groans that accompanied the draw in a packed Players Bar after a 1-1 draw against Chelsea, were not of fear but of recognition- even when Newcastle had finally seen the back of Stevanage in a replay in 1997, there was the lingering suspicion that that wasn’t quite the end of the chapter.

It was different in 1997, otherworldly. Fifteenth in the Vauxhall Conference back then, manager Paul Fairclough described the draw itself as “a dream come true,” so one can only imagine that when he labelled the tied first game “fantastic” he was underplaying it. You need not make similar leaps of imagination to deduce that Kenny Dalglish was not telling the entire story when declaring that “[his] players were delighted” with the draw.

By which point, the story was already well advanced. It began almost the moment the draw was made, Stevenage out first, and their chairman Victor Green contacting Newcastle to sound out the prospect of staging the game at St. James’ Park- a common practise given the much larger capacities of the league grounds and the fact that in the cup, clubs share ticket receipts. However, Stevenage suddenly felt this option undesirable when Sky got in touch with the offer to screen the game, only on the condition it was staged at Broadhill Way. Newcastle seemed hesitant.

Keith 'Razor' who contributes to the Stevenage fanzine The Boradhall Way claims there is still some bitterness over Newcastle's apparant protests at the venue: "there was a definite feeling that, as the Premier League club, Newcastle were throwing their weight around," he said.

The narrative of the tie had been decided, Newcastle suddenly looked like spoilsports when carrying out the perfectly reasonable safety checks must clubs conduct before playing a fixture at a new ground, Stevenage and Green in particular happy to encourage the view they were being disrespectful. What was largely forgotten was Kenny Dalglish’s own history- he had been Liverpool manager on the day of the Hillsborough disaster- which surely validated any concerns he was harbouring about supporter safety. As ever with Dalglish, though, he done himself few favours- wishing “they lose their next ten games” at the end of a scrappy replay ended the tie on a particularly sour note.