Boro ease to Trophy win
May 10, 2009 Leave a Comment
The season ended on a high in a sunny North London as Stevenage Borough beat York City 2-0 to win the FA Trophy at Wembley. It was the perfect end to what has been a difficult week for the club. Boro were the dominant force throughout and what could of been a trciky encounter ended up being a walk in the park for Graham Westley’s side. It was also later confirmed to be Steve Morison’s last game for the club with a move to Millwall expected to be announced imminently.
With Scott Laird, Mitchell Cole, David Bridges and Jon Ashton all out, then GW had some re-arranging to do with his team. In came Lawrie Wilson at left back, while there was a recall for Peter Vincenti in the midfield. Michael Bostwick dropped back to defence leaving Gary Mills to partner Darren Murphy in the centre of the park. It wasn’t the usual 4-4-2 we are used to seeing Boro play. Drury had a free-role behind Morison while Boylan and Vincenti stayed wide. It seemed to work well as York were reduced to half-chances all game and never really looked like troubling Chris Day in the Boro goal.
York though did have the first chance when Daniel McBreen screwed his shot wide in the first 30 seconds. Other than that though, York were rarely a threat and it was mostly Boro that threatened to open the scoring. Boro’s first chance came from Darren Murphy, who’s turn and shot was straight at Ingham. Boro threatened mostly from the right with Ronnie Henry impressing in a right wing back spot. It was from one of his crosses that Peter Vincenti headed over as Boro continued to press. Another chance soon came Boro’s way when Steve Morison forced his way through the York defence before knocking the ball over Ingham, but it didn’t have enough to go over the line and was cleared by Pejic.
Stevenage went into the break level at 0-0, but were the far stronger side. You has the feeling at half-time that we may end up being punished for not taking our chances. The second half began and Boro immediately began to try and push for the opening goal, but clear chances were few and far between. Lee Boylan had a chance when he turned inside the box, but shot wide. Peter Vincenti then had another opportunity with a spectacular volley which brought a good solid save out of Ingham. From the resulting corner, Mark Roberts headed down to Morison’s path and at the second opportunity he shot into the roof of the same Wembley net he scored in 2007. Boro were on their way and it now looked like another Trophy success was coming Hertfordshire’s way.
York didn’t really threaten at all in the second half. They had a few free-kicks in good positions, but other than that they lacked a cutting edge up top. Boro continued to try and kill the game off and score a second, but seemed to lose the ball at the last minute with moves being snuffed out by the York defence. Eventually though, Boro did seal the win when a quick throw by Morison sat comfortably for Lee Boylan to volley home. A fantastic finish and a goal worthy to settle any Wembley encounter. Boro had done it.
It was a good day out and a fantastic response from Graham Westley’s men after the disappointment of losing to Cambridge on Monday. We were in control of the game throughout and thoroughly deserved the win. I don’t think the new Wembley Stadium has the same magic that the old one had and this year’s final didn’t have the same atmosphere that the 2007 one did, but nonetheless it was still a great day out for Boro. The win puts Stevenage on the map and on a high going into the close season and with some shrewd signings then next could be a special one for Boro.
