Advantage Stevenage

Stevenage will have a two goal lead to defend at the Abbey Stadium on Bank Holiday Monday. Graham Westley’s side dug deep and pulled out a fantastic second half performance to give them the edge going into the second leg in 4 days time. Even after the sending off of Darren Murphy, goals from Mark Roberts and a brace from Steve Morison sent Broadhall Way crazy in a thrilling second half. It’s advantage Stevenage, but there’s still a lot of work to do before we can start planning for two trips to Wembley.

Westley made two changes to the team that faced Mansfield on Sunday with Jon Ashton returning to partner Mark Roberts and Junior Mendes coming in for Mitchell Cole, who was suspended. Darren Murphy was preferred to Gary Mills in midfield. Cambridge manager Gary Brabin decided to play a 3-5-2 formation. Bolland, Coulson and Hatswell marshalled the back line with Tonkin and Gleeson playing as wing backs. It was a fairly narrow midfield with Phillips and Crow in attack. I was surprised that Rendell was left on the bench and even more surprised when he wasn’t thrown on when the U’s were losing 2-1?

The first half was mostly Cambridge. They had the better chances and looked more at home. Lee Phillips went close with a looping header, while Danny Crow should of done better with the chance he had late on in the half. Stevenage chased the ball a lot in the opening period and when in possession, didn’t keep the ball enough to ever really threaten Cambridge. The main talking point of the half was the sending off of Darren Murphy. From where I was standing, a better view than the linesman on the East Terrace side, I saw him challenge Challinor for the ball in the air and then loads of Cambridge players surround him immediately after. Challinor went down like a sack of spuds and didn’t have a scratch on him. Replays showed that there was miminal contact, nowhere near his face. The sending off was a joke and if Boro appeal then they should be confident of getting it resinded.

The sending off changed the game. Boro were now pumped up and straight from the restart looked to attack Cambridge. Within 2 minutes, Boro took the lead with Mark Roberts bundling the ball in after Morison had headed the ball back across. Broadhall Way erupted. Cambridge though responded well and within a minute had equalised thanks to a superb finish from Lee Phillips. He wound up the East Terrace a lot during the game, but his strike was quality. He turned at the edge of the box and fired a right footed volley past Day. He had no chance in keeping it out.

The game calmed down after the first 5 minutes of the second half, but Stevenage, with 10 men were looking the more dangerous side going forward. With an hour played a long diagonal ball by Drury found Morison who headed past a stranded Potter. Why he was out that far off his line I don’t know. Boro reject. It was Morison 29th goal of the season and a much deserved one after tonight’s performance. He worked his bollocks off all night and showed great composure in front of goal with two fine finishes. He’s had his critics, but he turned up tonight when it mattered most.

This time Boro didn’t let their goal affect them and they kept calm. I thought Ashton’s defending was good tonight, even though he needs to improve his distribution. Too many pointless long balls. However, his experience was first class tonight and along with Roberts they kept Cambridge quiet, even when Pitt and Holroyd came on. Just to rub it in, Boro added a third when Drury broke through before nodding the ball to Morison who volleyed in the third. Drury was superb tonight. He worked hard and was Boro’s main creative threat.

A great night, again, at Broadhall Way and two Wembley finals are now in touching distance. All we have to do is another 90 minutes at the Abbey Stadium like the second 45 tonight. Cambridge will go all out attack on Monday looking for the two goals. It’s not going to be easy, but as long as we keep our heads I’m sure we’ll be ok. Come on BORO!