Boro made hard work of it, but made it through safely to the 1st round proper of the FA Cup after beating Chelmsford City at Melbourne Park. Graham Westley named a strong side, knowing that the Blue Square South side would be no pushovers. Eddie Odhiambo came back into the side on the left wing while Yemi Odubade once again partnered the in form Charlie Griffin upfront. Chelmsford had some familiar faces in their line up with John Martin starting and Ollie Berquez and Danny Hockton on the bench.

The first half was a funny affair. Boro had the majority of possession, but didn’t do anything with it. In fact, I don’t remember their goalkeeper having to make a save in the first 45 minutes. Chelmsford defended well, but to be honest, Stevenage lacked a killer touch in the final third to make their dominance pay off. Chelmsford were the ones though who took the lead against the run of play. Rob Edmans, who impressed in attack got the goal, rounding Chris day before slotting into an empty net.

To be fair, Boro never panicked and always looked capable of creating chances to get back into the game. Michael Bostwick was closing everything down in midfield while the pace of Yemi was always an outlet Boro could look to exploit. Westley’s side went in at half time 1-0 down, but not out of the tie by a long way.

Stevenage were by far the better side in the second half. Chelmsford were barely given a chance to extend their lead as the Blue Square Premier side tried to get back into the game. Although the team created chances, either the final ball was lacking or the finishing was not good enough. Boro went more direct in the second half with Griffin the aim, but he hardly won a ball in the air all afternoon. The former Salisbury man was also guilty of missing some chances, but got it right in the end when he guided a Joel Byrom cross into Ashley Harrison’s net. It was a simple goal that had been coming for a while.

Boro were back in the game and there only looked like one team that could go on and win it. Westley brought on Cole to try and inject some pace into the side, but he failed to make an impact on the game. Griffin then went from hero to zero when he missed a glaring open goal. The game looked like it was petering out to a draw and a replay as Boro were failing to make their chances count. GW threw on Peter Vincenti in the hope that the supersub would again save Boro. Yemi Odubade, who was becoming a growing threat to the tiring City backline worked his way down the right flank before his cross found Vincenti who stroked the ball home. It had come late, but it was good enough to put the Hertfordshire side into the 1st round proper and earn themselves a trip up to Port Vale in just under 2 weeks time.