Wembley incentive for Stimson’s men

Marcus Crawley reports STEVENAGE Boro could be one of the first teams to grace the new and improved Wembley Stadium this year. Boro travel to Grays Athletic this Saturday in the semi-finals of the FA Carlsberg Trophy. The winners over two legs – the retur

Marcus Crawley reports

STEVENAGE Boro could be one of the first teams to grace the new and improved Wembley Stadium this year.

Boro travel to Grays Athletic this Saturday in the semi-finals of the FA Carlsberg Trophy.

The winners over two legs - the return is at Broadhall Way on March 17 - will meet either Kidderminster Harriers or Northwich Victoria in the final of the leading competition for non-league clubs.

This seems likely to be played at the world famous stadium, pending a final decision from the FA.

The showpiece game will take place on Saturday, May 12.

Boro boss Mark Stimson is aware his side will need little motivation for the forthcoming Trophy ties against his former club Grays.

Stimson will be looking for a hat-trick of Trophy wins as a manager after guiding Grays to success in 2005 and 2006.

His assistant, Scott Barrett, was also part of the success at Grays and is hungry for more.

Barrett said: "There's a little bit of added interest because of who we are playing of course.

"We've been stressing to the players that it's important to keep the tie alive and we'll keep telling them that.

"When we first won it at Grays, we beat Burton 5-0 in the first leg and that was the tie over.

"We won 2-0 in the other game as they knew the game was up."

Boro bounced back from a poor display at Oxford United on Saturday to win 1-0 at old rivals Woking on Tuesday night.

Barrett added: "When we first arrived, we didn't realise what the rivalry means to the fans.

"We played the last five minutes of the game against Woking at Broadhall Way on the coach down and that must have helped us!"

"It was a gritty performance and that's all we could do on a difficult pitch."

Midfielders Adam Miller and Steve Guppy are back in contention for Saturday after injury, while defender Damian Batt and striker Paul Hakim are cup-tied.

Boro are at home to Southport in the Nationwide Conference on Tuesday night.

Barrett added: "No matter what happens on Saturday, we have to realise our main objective now is to get into the play-offs so Tuesday night is really important."

Boro's reserves were at Southend United yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon and they were beaten 3-2.