2025-26

An unusual sense of optimism surrounded the Boro’ camp as we went into the 2025-26 League One season under Alex Revell’s command. Was it misplaced? Some shrewd transfer activity and solid pre-season showings offered us enough foundation to that belief. And it turned out to be backed up once the season started up. An opening day victory away to Blackpool set the tone. We then followed it with three other wins in League One as part of a run that saw us lose just two league games up until the end of October.

At the best of the run, we even hit top spot in the table. That was no mean feat considering some of the well-resourced sides in the division. In some quarters, it had eerie echoes of the 2012-13 campaign; Gary Smith’s team enjoying a very good start for example. For Smiffy, however, things went very awry. The difference here was that, despite our blips (and there would be some), Revs’ side persisted in grinding out the points and making a nuisance of ourselves in the promotion battle. In fact, we’re pretty confident we only fell out of the top six on a very small number of occasions all season.

In the end, Boro’ got into the playoffs with a stoppage time winner on the last day against Wigan. Sadly, our torrid run in the playoffs would continue as Stockport County got the better of us over two legs. You could make a strong case to say that our legs had gone by that time; deserting us after a long, impressive season. But to be there was very much a major achievement. And t gave renewed sense that we were deserving of our place in the third tier. Of course, we haven’t said a thing about the cup competitions. And there’s a good reason for that, which you can discover for yourself below…