Stevenage's return home finished goalless against Crawley Town as neither team could find that one chance to turn the game on its head…
Neither team could quite conjure up any real, clean cut chances with Stevenage enjoying the lions share of posession throughout the contest, to little effect in the final third.
Mark Sampson named two changes to the starting line-up from Tuesday’s victory against Colchester United. Scott Cuthbert returned from injury along with Tyler Denton replacing Tom Soares and Emmanuel Sonupe.
Stevenage started off the more positive of the two teams with the width from wing-backs Denton and List causing problems with their overlapping runs behind the Crawley defence.
Cowley almost made it a dream start inside the first five minutes after coming close to latching onto a misplaced pass inside the penalty box, which was swept up by Crawley’s keeper Morris just in-time.
The Boro defence limited the Reds to very few chances throughout the first-half as Nadesan raced through on goal from the right wing on the half-hour mark, but couldn’t get a clean connection on his shot and was easily saved by Paul Farman.
In response, Cowley had Boro’s best chance of the half minutes later. After breaking into the box from the left hand side, the striker almost saw his effort bend inside the right hand corner, only to see Morris palm his strike away to leave both sides level going into the break.
Stevenage started off the second half in the same way as the first, with the majority of possession, looking to find a way through a resolue Reds defence.
Denton and List were continuing to find joy down the flanks, as they looked to try and get crosses into the box, but with chances few and far between, Sampson made his first change, bringing on top goalscorer Kurtis Guthrie on the hour mark.
Crawley’s own top marksman, Bez Lubala almost broke the deadlock moments later, when he successfully rounded Farman after being played through on goal, but thankfully for the home fans, the forward lost his balance as his shot went wide of the post.
Parrett and Carter came on during the closing stages, but aside from a Lakin shot from the edge of the box that sailed over the crossbar, Stevenage failed to build up a head of steam as the game ended a goalless draw for the third league match in a row.
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