Stevenage fell to defeat in the FA Cup Third Round this afternoon, losing to Championship high-flyers Swansea City 0-2 courtesy of goals from Wayne Routledge and Viktor Gyokeres...
Swansea opened the scoring after six minutes, with Yan Dhanda's cross finding Wayne Routledge in the middle, nodding past Jamie Cumming from point-blank range for his first goal of the season.
Alex Revell named two changes to his starting eleven with Luther James-Wildin replacing Remeao Hutton at right-back who missed out through injury, while Chris Lines made his Stevenage debut in place of Jack Aitchison. Luke Norris started on the bench, whilst Matty Stevens was cup-tied.
Routledge nearly doubled Swansea's lead seconds later, finding space in the middle before shooting into the gloves of Cumming.
Swansea wasted another great chance on 18 minutes, as Jordan Garrick latched onto a through ball, beating Ben Coker for pace before releasing a pass that was too heavy for an onrushing Viktor Gyokeres to control.
The visitors had a strong grip on the game, creating another chance after George Byers' long-range strike was saved well by Cumming.
Stevenage had their first spell of the game on 28 minutes, after a short corner routine resulted in a Tom Pett strike that deflected off Danny Newton, before Newton regained possession, passing to Terence Vancooten whose optimistic strike from 40+ yards sailed over the bar.
Stevenage were comfortable with Swansea's possession game, looking to break on the counter and Boro nearly capitalised as Chris Lines fed through Jack Smith who found Newton, heading into the path of Pett who collided with Swansea keeper Freddie Woodman resulting in a penalty shout waved away by referee Michael Salisbury.
Boro grew into the contest and had another chance on 35 minutes, this time with Newton finding space in the middle, but failing to keep his strike down. Charlie Carter also came close just seconds later, heading wide of Woodman's right post.
Coker saw his close-range free kick whistle past the post on 38 minutes as Boro began to look like the better side as the first-half came to a close.
Boro began the second half as they ended the first, creating plenty of chances as Woodman was called into action to stop Carter and Vancooten's aerial efforts.
Against the run of play, Swansea doubled their lead as Gyokeres grabbed his first goal for the cub, converting past Cumming from close range.
Byers tried his luck from long range once more, curing a shot into the path of Cumming who collected comfortably.
Boro almost halved the deficit on the 60-minute mark after substitute Will Norris released Newton, shooting into the chest of Woodman.
Norris made an impact in the second half, finding space in the attacking third as Athur Read's long free kick fell to the striker, failing to generate enough power to beat the goalkeeper.
Aramide Oteh had his first chance of the game on 80 minutes, finding space on the right before curling a goal bound effort that was blocked bravely by the head of Jake Bidwell.
Stevenage were awarded a penalty minutes later as goal scorer Gyokeres handled the ball inside the box. Norris took the resulting penalty and missed, with Woodman guessing right and palming his penalty to safety.
Read had a long-range free kick saved well by the diving Woodman on 87 minutes as Boro continued to press for a path back into the game.
Stevenage were competitive throughout the contest, but it was Steve Cooper's Swansea who would be in the draw for the Fourth Round.
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