In his monthly column the SA’s Mark Hollis talks results, goalscoring and a rise in the Association’s membership

ONE point from our opening two league games and an exit at the first time of asking in a cup competition would usually spell an unhappy start to the season for football fans.

Not this one.

It was always going to take a bit of time to settle into our stride and the victory against Stockport County on Saturday means that we now have one more point than we had at this stage last season.

A nervous performance and hard fought point against a well drilled Macclesfield Town side on the opening day was no disgrace and Charlie Griffin’s last minute equaliser was enough to send the fans crazy and ensure a number of them remained in the ground singing for quarter of an hour after the game had finished.

Following that with a Carling Cup debut against last year’s FA Cup finalists Portsmouth was no easy task but was one that Stevenage went about with a great deal of professionalism, matching Pompey for large portions of the game and really looking like we could get something in the last 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take our chances and it ultimately led to us being knocked out 2-1.

The performance was one to be proud of with the players and fans alike giving everything they had for the entire duration of the match.

With the opening day nerves and the Carling Cup out of the way, a tough away trip to Bradford City awaited and, whilst I didn’t make the trip, it’s largely accepted that Stevenage were the better side and deserved to take at least a point from the game, if not all three.

It would appear that, as with the game against Portsmouth, an inability to finish our chances cost us the points but I’m sure that this will rectify itself over the coming weeks. And if it doesn’t I’m confident that Graham Westley will do something to rectify it.

Off the pitch, the Supporters’ Association is steadily growing and since my last article has signed up over 150 more members. At the time of writing, we are only four people away from our revised season target of 600 with membership sitting at 596.

With the rate at which Stevenage fans are signing up we are so confident of reaching this milestone that we have had to revise our target again and 650 is the figure we are now aiming for.

This will put our membership figure higher than it was in the 2006-07 season and is something we will be working hard to do over the coming months. Obviously this can’t be achieved without the support of the Stevenage fan base so once again we’d like to thank everybody who has joined up so far.

Obviously, the start of the new season has made a large contribution to the increase in membership with fans being able to sign up at the SA Hut inside the stadium and undoubtedly the introduction of the new SFCSA eShop has made a huge impact on the SA’s ability to more easily reach the supporters.

Using this facility, fans are able to sign up to the Supporters’ Association online by simply selecting the level of membership they require from the SA eShop, entering their details and sending a photograph.

There are also a number of SA pin badges from seasons gone by available for purchase* and, since its inception the eShop has been used to sign up almost 20 new members with new applications being made almost everyday.

In other news, we are looking for fans to make their views known on the SA page in the matchday programme.

If you have been to any of the games this season and wish to write a short report on your experience, please contact Peter Keen on peter@sfcsa.co.uk

Finally, John Carroll has released details of SA Travel to the matches at Cheltenham, Lincoln, Hereford and Rotherham. For details, and to book, contact John on (01438) 814285.

For up-to-date information on what is going on with the SA and access to the SFCSA eShop, visit our website – www.sfcsa.co.uk

* Payment for badges and subscription fees is taken securely online using PayPal.