Stevenage Borough 2 Southend United 1

Stevenage Borough recorded a good victory in their final home fixture of their pre-season season preparations. A fantastic first half saw Borough completely dominate their league opponents and goals from Joel Byrom and Darren Murphy were enough to secure the win.

Stevenage finally had the chance to play in the long awaited new home strip, The new kit had some smart new stripes on the shoulders and red lettering and numbers.

Ten minutes into the game Stacy Long came closest to breaking the deadlock. A superb ball by Andy Drury found Long on the left wing who beat his man but saw his shot saved down low.

It became irrelevant a minute later as Lee Boylan’s shot was parried by Steve Mildenhall and Byrom followed up with a venomous shot that hit the underside of the bar as it rocketed into the goal.

Five minutes later Borough had doubled their lead when Murphy hit a shot from distance that bamboozled Mildenhall. The Southend goalkeeper got fingers to it, but couldn’t stop the ball from nestling in the net.

Stevenage had found their rhythm and were the better side throughout the half. Their play was enterprising and every player was giving their all in what was likely to be their last game before the season begins

With just a couple of minutes remaining Scott Laird came close to putting the game even further out of reach. His shot from fully forty yards thundered against the crossbar before bouncing away from goal and being comfortably cleared by the defence.
 
Southend started to exert a bit of pressure in the second half and in the opening fifteen minutes Frank Moussa came the closest to getting united back in the match. His shot inside the area looked to have beaten Chris Day, but was just wide of the post.

United’s persistence finally paid off when Moussa again found himself free in the area and drove a low shot past Day and into the bottom corner.

Southend continued to press with Borough rarely venturing into the United danger zone and as a result with ten minutes remaining Borough were lucky to still be ahead. Francis Laurent got the better of Laird and his low pass to Alex Revell was inch perfect, only for Revell to scoop the ball inches over the bar.

United continued to pressure, but Borough held firm for a deserved victory. Their final game comes on Saturday afternoon as they travel to recently relegated Woking. Although the line up should be completely different, this game had served to show that when Borough are on form, they will be a very difficult side to beat.