York Preview

The games are coming thick and fast and next up for Boro is a trip up North to face York City in what is a warm up for the FA Trophy Final in May. Graham Westley’s side are 23 games unbeaten in all competitions and face another difficult away trip in their pursuit of a play-off place. York held 5th place Kidderminster to a 0-0 draw at the weekend at KitKat Crescent and Martin Foyle’s side are slowly improving after a difficult season. Their last 4 results in the league have been all draws, but with the club still not safe from the drop then some wins are needed in their 9 games remaining. Defensively, York have improved a lot since the start of the season. The problem now though is scoring goals and that hasn’t been helped by the departure of striker Craig Farrell in January. York are relying a lot on youngsters and former Ebbsfleet striker Onome Sodje to get them out of trouble.

The game earlier in the season between the two sides ended up in a 3-3 draw. Boro took a 2-0 lead early on before goals from Sodje and Farrell levelled things up before half-time. Another goal from Farrell gave York a 3-2 lead before Steve Morison headed home Boro’s equaliser. It was a game that Boro should of won comfortably, but at that stage of the season any team we played seemed to score for fun and York were no exception. Things are different this time around. Stevenage are far more solid at the back than they were in September. Mark Roberts and Jon Ashton seem to have gained a good understanding together and Ronnie Henry and Scott Laird are performing well at right-back and left-back respectively.

York have no new injuries for the game on Tuesday night although boss Martin Foyle may decide to hand Onome Sodje a start after impressing against Kidderminster on Saturday. Sodje could prove to be City’s key man as his pace his a valuable asset against the slower Mark Roberts. The ex Northwich defender is pretty sound in every department, but does lack pace, which could force Foyle’s hand. GW must decide who to replace David Bridges with after he was stretchered off against Oxford. Darren Murphy, Peter Vincenti and Gary Mills are all pushing for places. Andy Drury misses out again too with a hamstring strain so Lawrie Wilson or Junior Mendes will cover.

Boro’s previous three visits to KitKat Crescent have all been wins and the support travelling up from Hertfordshire will be hoping for a repeat result. At this stage of the season, results are all that count and I for one won’t be complaining if Stevenage play ugly tomorrow night and nick a 1-0. One of the main criteria for Westley when he arrived was to produce an attractive team to watch and although that hasn’t quite happened, Boro are well placed to make an assault on the play-offs and could well go up this season. I still would prefer not to watch the ball up in the air all evening, but if it brings home 3 points then so be it.

Prediction: York 0-1 Boro