Advantage Boro after the first leg

When Stevenage visit Stonebridge Road in a weeks time for the second leg of the FA Trophy Semi-Final they will have a slender advantage to defend as they aim to return to Wembley for the first time since 2007.

It could of been easier. Boro were 2-0 up at half-time thanks to strikes from Steve Morison and Lee Boylan, but Ebbsfleet didn’t give up and struck back twice through midfielders Neil Barratt and Stacy Long. Graham Westley’s side though in recent weeks has shown it has a lot of character and David Bridges grabbed a late winner to give Boro a psychological edge going into round 2 next week.

Ebbsfleet now have the slightly easier task of turning around a 1 goal deficit instead of 2 after a much improved second half display. The Kent side were all over the place defensively in the first half as Lee Boylan’s goal showed. Boro were actually pretty sloppy in the lead up to that goal and Ebbsfleet had 2 or 3 chances to clear the ball before Boylan finally volleyed past Cronin in the vistors goal. Credit to Ebbsfleet though. A lot of teams would of folded being 2-0 down at half-time, but they fought their way back level and could of possibly gone into the second leg ahead.

However, Boro have now got to be favourites going into the second leg after a 20 game unbeaten run, which doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. The mental strength of the squad as a whole is good and is growing with every game at the moment. Next week is a huge game, not just for the Trophy, but for the play-off chase as well. I think when we do eventually lose our unbeaten run, then it will have a big knock on effect and could see a poor run of results follow. Of course good teams react when things go against them and it will be interesting to see what this teams does when that defeat comes.