REVELL-UTION FOR SAVED STEVENAGE
UNTIL three weeks ago, Stevenage did not know if they could call themselves a Football League club. The prospect then of raising the 2020-21 season curtain in the Carabao Cup, celebrating the first goal of this campaign, seemed fanciful.
But when Macclesfield were handed a points deduction over late payment of wages and were relegated to non-league, Stevenage were spared. Here, 175 days later, they showed intent not to waste their second chance, even if they suffered a penalty shootout defeat.
For chairman Phil Wallace, Saturday’s return was positive, but how long that positivity lasts across League One and Two is another matter. The Government furlough scheme paying players’ wages was, in many cases, life-saving. Advance payments also made a return possible. But furlough is finished and advance payments won’t go on for ever. The analogy of kicking the can down the road — used by Colchester chairman Robbie Cowling — is apt. Wallace just hopes they don’t reach a dead end. ‘We’re going into a dangerous time,’ he said. ‘We are going into a situation where we are losing tens of thousands of pounds each home game while still paying players in full. Either we can bring more people in to rectify the situation or we all go bust. I can’t see any other outcome.’
With fans kept at bay, Wallace is missing upwards of £25,000 per home game through gate revenue alone. For now the focus at Stevenage for young manager Alex Revell has been on changing the culture, the so-called Revell-ution. Twenty-two players left to clear the decks. ‘We are reinventing the football club, that’s how I see it,’ he said. ‘I brought in hungry players, younger players who have got to learn quick.’ Seven summer signings got the nod to start on Saturday with captain Scott Cuthbert one of the few spared from last season. For Cuthbert, the scorer of Stevenage’s third goal, the environment is unrecognisable. ‘It’s a whole new group, whole new mindset, whole new mentality at the club,’ he explained.
If League Two sides defend as Portsmouth did here, it won’t take long to surpass the three wins Stevenage earned last season. First Elliott List and then Charlie Carter capitalised on Sean Raggett mistakes in a frantic opening to the game. Ronan Curtis’ individual quality reduced the deficit before Gareth Evans could counter Cuthbert’s scrambled finish from the penalty spot with the last kick of the half. John Marquis made it 3-3 early in the second and it went to penalties. Revell and Wallace know the road ahead is going to be bumpy.