Boro miss big opportunity after being held by Grays

With Luton, Cambridge and Oxford all dropping points, Stevenage missed a big oppoortunity to close the gap on the leaders of the Blue Square Premier after being held at home by lowly Grays. The Essex side came into the game after a run of 3 straight defeats, but frustrated Westley’s side all evening.

Jon Ashton, as expected, missed out with Mark Albrighton coming in to replace him. Eddie Odhiambo started in midfield alongside Bostwick and Byrom while Lee Boylan returned in place of the dropped Charlie Griffin. Grays fielded their new signing Petar Rnkovic up front while former league players like Glenn Poole, Paulo Vernazza and Anwar Uddin all started. Uddin in particular was impressive at the back keeping Boylan and Beardsley quiet for the majority of the game.

Stevenage started the game well, but didn’t create enough chances to really test Lee Butcher in the Grays goal. Boro’s first attempt came from a well worked move, but the Grays keeper did well to keep out a Boylan shot. Grays looked like they had a goal in them as they worked a few openings with Mark Roberts having to cover at the last minute on more than one occasion. Grays though did get their goal and it was another well worked move ending with the new striker, Rnkovic rounding Day and sliding the ball in. That goal woke the home side up.

Boro rallied in search of an equaliser and did so 15 minutes later when a quickly taken free-kick found Boylan who showed his killer instinct in front of goal and hit the equaliser. To be fair we did deserve to get back into the game after reacting well to going behind.

Unfortunately though Boro again failed to build on their equaliser and rued several missed chances in the second half with both Beardsley and Boylan guilty of missing simple chances. Westley then made another baffling tactical decision to add to his collection. He took off arguably our best player last night in Eddie Odhiambo for Vincenti. I can understand bringing Vincenti on as a target man, especially when we played hoofball for the majority of the game, but I think he could of come on for Cole who was poor last night. Odhiambo showed a lot of determination last night and gave 100%. He also put some great through balls through and just before coming off tackled a Grays player before releasing a great through pass. That summed up his night, before the manager decided to take him off.

“We are extremely disappointed not to get three points from the game. We got back in it and should have won. It is a positive that we’re unbeaten at home, the longer you are unbeaten, the longer you’re unbeatable.” Wise words from Vincenti…

Boro had one last big chance when Mark Roberts was a fraction away from connecting with a Drury corner, but a slight deflection took the ball away. Overall it wasn’t a great game and Boro weren’t at their best, but even still these are the sorts of games we should really be winning if we are to challenge the likes of Oxford and Luton. A disappointing night, but I’m still reasonably confident that we can bounce back on Saturday against Altrincham and win 3 points.