A Stevenage XI exited from the Herts Senior Cup on Tuesday evening after a hard-fought and entertaining encounter at Cheshunt FC...
Jordan Gibson’s first half strike was cancelled out by Yvan Jourdan’s smart finish just minutes later, before a second half Brian Moses goal saw the Ambers through to the Semi-Finals.
Ollie Byrne, making his first appearance for the club since signing in January, was made to work inside just two minutes. Reacting quickly to palm over a point-blank header, it was an impressive start for the young goalkeeper.
The home side’s impact man was clearly Hafeez Sanusi, towering centre-back turn centre-forward who caused Stevenage’s young defence all sorts of problems inside the first half. After just seven minutes, the big man turned away from his nearest marker before firing the ball across the face-of-goal much to the home fans encouragement.
Stevenage’s main threat came out wide from the lightning quick Sonupe and Gibson. On 10 minutes it was the former who beat a couple of Cheshunt men from the left touch-line before cutting inside and shooting narrowly wide from a tight angle.
Young Liam Smyth who scored a hat-trick in the first round should have fired Stevenage ahead of 20 minutes after fired the ball across goal to put the ball on a plate for the striker, whose touch let him down at the crucial moment.
On the half hour mark, Stevenage went ahead through a curling effort from the edge of the box by Jordan Gibson that gave the Cheshunt goalkeeper no chance of saving. The hosts responded in-kind, equalising a few minutes on after a good finish by Yvan Jourdan.
Gibson came close again on 36 minutes with another long-distance strike, this time with his left foot, but Cheshunt’s threat continued to come through Sanusi whose header forced a save out of Byrne before the half was out.
The second half failed to live up to the first and despite chances from Smyth and Gibson, Stevenage struggled to impose their will on the opposition. Cheshunt were encouraged and on 80 minutes, a poor back-pass towards goal allowed Brian Moses to close down Byrne’s clearance which resulted in the ball spinning into the net to make it 2-1.
It was an inglorious end to Stevenage’s Herts Senior Cup run in 2019 with attention swiftly turning to the First Team’s clash at Lincoln City on Saturday.
Starting XI: Byrne, Frazer-Robinson, Okoye, Vancooten, Field, McKee, Ball (C), Sonupe, Gibson, Dyson, Smyth
Subs: Fernandez, Sackey-Mensah, Conteh, Gouldbourne, Draper
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