Boro crash out of Setanta Shield

Not for the first time this season, Stevenage were comfortably beaten at Stonebridge Road by Ebbsfleet United. Boro travelled to Kent to play in the Setanta Shield in front of just 285 (15 Stevenage) and even with a fairly strong line up they could not prevent losing their 4th game in a row. Ashley Bayes returned to the side replacing Chris Day in goal and Mark Albrighton came in for Mark Roberts after serving a suspension. He’ll be serving another one soon though after getting sent off last night. Westley also gave full debuts to Kieron St Aimie and Jordan Parkes.

I didn’t go, but by what I’ve seen on the forum and other websites it looks like we were pretty poor again and were maybe lucky that it wasn’t more than 3 goals. Ebbsfleet opened the scoring when they counter attacked after a Boro move broke down and George Purcell finished on 14 minutes. Stacy Long, who in my opinion is one of the best midfielders in the BSP, added a second later in the first half. Long also scored again in the second half to complete a satisfying night for both him and the Kent side. This is a quote from the Ebbsfleet website regarding Boro’s performance.

“Stevenage looked out of sorts, especially after the break and really only mustered any form of attack in the final quarter of the game with two half chances.”

That sounds about right after watching recent performances. We lack any creativity at the moment without Martin, McMahon and Morison. A side with Thomas, Black and St Aimie as your attacking threat isn’t going to score you many goals. I think GW needs to have a real look at his squad and pick his best attacking players if they are to get back to winning ways. When we had that good run of form in September an attacking force of Cole, Morison, McMahon and Boylan was working with Bostwick and Martin in the midfield. It wouldn’t hurt to try that again?