Three days to go until the big kick off and TheSilkWeb.com has had a chat with one of Stevenage's biggest fans. Lets have a look at what he has to say.
Welcome to the Football League Stevenage. Its been a long time in coming. How does it feel?
It feels great. It's been a long time in coming, but now it's finally here it doesn't feel real. As you will know we won the league back in 1996, but were denied promotion due to our ground not being up to scratch. We felt a bit hard done by back then. We then failed to replicate our success the following year and some "Northern" side went up instead. After plenty of near misses, It's taken 14 years to get to the Football League, but we're ready and really looking forward to it.
How has your pre season gone?
Fairly mixed. It started well enough with wins over Yeovil and Histon, but a poor performance led to a draw against Chelmsford. It got better again when we held Norwich and beat Millwall, but we lost against Watford, even though we played some good stuff. Another win followed against Corby before we were beat against Newport County in a fiesty encounter. Our pre-season concluded with a comfortable win against Hitchin. Overall it's gone ok, but we haven't learnt much that we didn't know before.
Bought any new players or is it still the core squad from the Conference winning side last season?
5 have come in while 4 have gone out. Only Drury and Cole have left that we wanted to stay on. Albrighton and Odhiambo were allowed to find first team football elsewhere. 4 of the 5 new signings (Charles, Foster, Sinclair and Winn) played non-league football last season, so we have stuck to what we know. John Mousinho has joined us from Wycombe after rejecting a new contract at Adams Park.
Broadhall Way was packed to the rafters the last time we visited in a league game. Are you expecting the same?
I don't think it will be exactly like 1997, well at least I hope not! There will be a bigger crowd than normal down to the fact it is our first league game ever etc, but I don't imagine Macclesfield will bring down the numbers they did back then. I'm expecting about 4000-5000.
Have you made any changes to the ground since 1997?
Yeah, you'll be pleased to read that you will be under cover in our 1,400 all seated away stand. The new stand replaced the former uncovered terrace back in 2001. There is now a roof on the East Terrace, but other than that it is similar to what you visited back in 1997.
Any players on your side we need to look out for?
Peter Winn has looked sharp in pre-season. He's a new signing, so he's a bit of an unknown quantity, but he looks good. You'll notice Yemi Odubade because of his sheer pace. I think our key player will be Michael Bostwick. He's been coveted by Championship/League 1 clubs, but signed a new contract in the summer. He'll be a big player for us this season.
Are Stevenage out for revenge or are you more concerned that its the first game of the season?
No, I don't think revenge will even come into it. A lot of time has past since those days and the majority of our support won't even remember that game in 1997. Our team will just be focused on getting the job done on Saturday.
Honestly... how do you think Stevenage will do this season?
I honestly think it can go either way. We can continue on from last year and push for promotion, like Exeter and Hereford have done in the past or struggle initially before finding our feet and ending up mid-table. We won't get relegated, I'm pretty sure of that. I'd settle for anything above 14th.
Prediction for the game?
I'm going for a 1-1 draw. We don't concede many, but we also don't start well either.
And finally... I remember you had an annoying (to Macc fans) PA bloke in 97. Is he still there? The look on his face when Steve Wood hit that free kick - priceless.
We still have Andy Green as our PA announcer and he was there when you last visited in 1997. He may not be there for the opening day though as throughout pre-season we had someone else in charge of the mike, so you may be in luck?