It was left late but great..

On Ronnie Henry’s big day, Stevenage came back from behind to rescue a point at Morecambe as Fraser Franks scored late on to earn Sarll’s men a deserved draw.

Boro pushed from the first minute until the last, and just as it looked like it would be another fruitless trip away from home, Franks smashed home the equaliser with just a few minutes to go.

The manager made just one change from the side that held Reading to a draw in last Saturday’s FA Cup Third Round tie, Mark McKee out with an injury meaning a recall for Dale Gorman.

Ronnie Henry was in from the start to make his record breaking, 469th appearance for the club. Ben Kennedy was in for his 100th whilst Ben Wilmot kept his place in central defence and fellow scholar; Andronicos Georgiou was called up for the bench.

Stevenage got off to the better of starts and three minutes in, Danny Newton could have put the boys ahead after Godden fired the ball into him inside the box. After a quick turn and shot, the ball would only hit the side netting.

Wilmot headed over on six minutes and despite playing on a terrible surface, Boro were the team in the ascendency during the first half.

Partly due to the pitch, the fouls were racking up and Stevenage failed to make the most of a number of free-kicks in and around the box.

Despite early dominance without creating too many chances, Morecambe struck first and it was that man again, Kevin Ellison to inflict the pain. After failing to clear the ball in a busy box, Ellison fired in from close range to make it 1-0.

From then on, Stevenage continued to press and were the only team that looked like scoring.

Kennedy headed over the bar from Smith’s whipped delivery at the back-post and just 5 minutes later, the post came to Morecambe’s rescue as Godden headed onto it, again from a Smith cross.

The visitors rarely threatened aside from the goal but there would be no breakthrough from Boro before the half.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first. Stevenage with most of the territory and pressure but without that clinical end product.

Morecambe were dogged defenders and did everything in their power to repel the threat with blocks, tackles and switched-on marking doing the job.

Steve Old had their best chance since the goal on around the hour mark as he headed over from a well delivered free-kick.

Jamie Gray and Tom Conlon replaced Danny Newton and Dale Gorman as Boro pushed for a route back into the game and it was the former who had the perfect chance.

After some quick passing between Pett and Godden, Gray was released one-on-one with the goalkeeper who spread himself well to deny a first goal for the former scholar.

Fraser Franks came on for Jonathan Smith, deployed up front for the final ten minutes as he looked to win the battle in the air for Godden and Gray to run onto

The move came off. With just two minutes to go, the ball came into Franks on the edge of the box who took it down perfectly on his thigh before smashing into the net. A remarkable end to an unremarkable game.

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