Stevenage made it two wins on the bounce as they defeated Grimsby Town 2-1 at The Lamex Stadium to end their winless run in the league...
Goals from Kurtis Guthrie and Charlie Carter put Boro into a commanding position and despite Ahkeem Rose’s late strike for the Mariners that sent nerves jangling all around the stadium, Samspon’s side were able to hold on for all three points.
The Caretaker Manager made two changes from the midweek win against Wycombe Wanders as Ben Nugent and Luther James-Wildin came in for Arthur Iontton and Jamie Fielding.
After an opening exchange where both teams couldn’t take advantage of possession, Stevenage took the lead in the 17th minute when the ball was worked well from the left-flank to the right and Michael Timlin found the advancing James Wildin, who played a low cross and Kurtis Guthrie helped it in with a clever back heel flick.
The lead could have been doubled shortly after with Charlie Carter’s long range effort, who curled his shot from the edge of the box to almost find its way into the top corner but the ball flew just past the post.
The home side wasn’t holding back on their 1-0 lead. Tyler Denton was finding space every time he looked to get in behind the Grimsby defence. Timlin, aswell, latched onto a loose pass in the centre of midfield just after the half-hour mark and played in Jason Cowley, but the striker was caught in two minds and was intercepted by the opposition defence.
The boys made it extra special going into half-time as Guthrie looked to be going nowhere when three players blocked him in near the right corner flag, but he played it to Luther-Wildin all alone and he found Carter in the box who smashed it past the Grimsby keeper James McKeown and made it 2-0 going into the break.
Grimsby had their best sight of goal as they looked to get back into the game just five minutes into the second half. Matt Green almost was on the end of a through ball that caught out the Stevenage defence, but the chance went begging as the striker couldn’t get the ball under control.
Elliot Whitehouse could have pulled one back for the away side just before the hour mark, as his volley in the box just crept over the bar. Down the other end, James-Wildin almost turned from provider into finisher as he burst into the box and McKeown was called into action to turn his effort past the post. Soon after, the right-back was replaced by Jamie Fielding.
With just ten-minutes left to play, Ahkeem Rose cut the lead in half when his fierce shot rifled past Paul Farman to set up a nerve-wracking end to the match, but Boro were able to see out the result to record their first league win of the season and move off bottom of the league.
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