I'd write about bits of the game, but I'm feeling quite lazy after an afternoon of sweltering heat in my East Stand seat. What I will say is that Winn's "challenge" was right in front of me and was horrific. Clohessy is actually very lucky not to have suffered severe damage to his left eye, as the bladed stud marks on that side of his face prove.
Ratings:
Morris 7: His kicking seemed off today, but other than that he was solid and made a vital penalty save. I see nothing wrong with keeping him as No1 for next season, as he's got better as the season has gone one, no doubt helped by Evans forcing him out of the side.
Clohessy 7: After escaping losing the sight in one eye, I thought he did well considering. In fact I'm staggered he didn't come off after that challenge. He wasn't as prominent going forward as usual, but he was always a useful outlet.
Coughlan 7: As usual he was a tower of strength at the back, and one that used all the tricks in the book against the inexperienced Harrison. In that weather, had he been against a quick striker, he may have struggled, but thankfully he wasn't.
Barker 7: Made one slip that could've proved costly had Stevenage not been dreadful, but again managed to generally coast through a game.
Prosser 6.5: You get what you expect with him really - a centre half trying to get by at left back. He's not going to give you much going forward, but he will add height and strength to the defence and he is a tryer and a communicator.
Grant 5.5: I thought Granty was poor at times to be honest. He gave the ball away so badly, so often, at times it was laughable. He was excellent against Bradford last week, but this week he was generally the opposite, although he did improve a little once Sawyer was on the pitch.
Easton 6: Gave his usual 110% and was better than his first game back.
Ferdinand 5.5: Probably the poorest I've seen him play. He really struggled to assert himself against the opposition full of thugs, but this was probably a good thing, as once again Paul Jewell was in the crowd watching him.
Crawford 5.5: Quite a quiet game from him, although he could've and probably should've done better from Corr's excellent flick on just before he was taken off.
Corr 7: As usual he put himself about and got into some good goalscoring positions. His goal was a simply stunning finish and I'm delighted to see him hit his 20 goal target. He looked chuffed to bits with it as well.
Hall 7: Is that 16 assists in the League now and 19 in total? Unbelievable. He's quickly turned into our star man and by the way Stevenage continually doubled up on him, it hasn't gone unnoticed!
Subs:
Sturrock 6: Put himself about and was unlucky with a very good header at the end. I kind of like the fact that he's being used as a second half sub at the moment to give Crawford a chance.
Sawyer 7: Added a nice bit of craft, creativity and energy to the midfield. With a full pre season, he should be one of the stars of League Two next year.
Mohsni 5.5: I'll be honest, I could kind of see the reasoning behind bringing him on at the back, but you just knew he'd do what he did. Harrison was just starting to get the legs on Coughlan, so Bilel was obviously brought on to snuff that out, but just when is he going to learn to stop doing these stupid things? Least this flakey recent form surely means the big boys won't come calling in the summer.
Coughlan's lack of pace was exposed time and time again by their no 26 (was that Harrison?) who, at one point, gave him a 2 yard start to the ball and beat him by 2 yards over about a 10 yard distance.
I felt the ref didn't handle the game well early on and allowed a lot of stuff to go unpunished. Stevenage were a big, strong team and reminiscent of Boston a few years back. They get their results by physically bullying sides out of the match. Nothing wrong with that, it's a legitimate tactic and one which we will have to learn to deal with if we need to get out of this division. All part of our learning curve.
I thought we shaded it in the first half but after the sending off there was only one side in it. Credit to them for not sitting back behind the ball, they really pressed us all over the pitch and I thought we were the team who was one short at times. The ref gave them very little indeed and the penalty they got was probably the third one they should have had. However, when Morris saved it you could see their players visibly deflate. At that point they knew it wasn't going to be their day and that gave us the impetus to press on and the last 10 minutes were excellent - we could have won 3-0.
Ratings -
Morris - 8 - mainly for the penalty save and a couple of good catches/punches under pressure. The defence in front of him didn't let much through.
Clohessy - 7 - Lucky to retain his sight after that awful challenge. Very dangerous play although no malice intended in it, I'm sure.
Prosser - 6 - Every clearance was 40 feet in the air. When this lad has his head screwed on right he looks decent enough but he seems to have frequent concentration lapses. Reminds me of David Morley. We cannot afford that sort of tightrope walking defending every game. Will he control the ball? Will he make the challenge? Hmm. Not at all convinced.
Barker - 6 - Not the best game I've seen him have by a long chalk. Caught in possession 2 or 3 times and one occasion gifted them a chance where their striker raced clean through and then fired over not just the bar but the entire North Bank without touching it. That takes some doing.
Coughlan - 7 - Solid enough in the air and the tackle but was totally exposed for pace at times. But he is in his late 30's and his effort and commitment are unquestionable.
Hall - 7.5 - A few cameo pieces and some decent delivery but off the pace I felt for much of the game, especially in the first half. Probably because he spent more time on the deck being fouled than anything else.
Ferdinand - 6.5 - Not his type of game at all. Correctly subbed I think.
Grant - 6 - I say Ferdinand was correctly subbed but that's because PS wanted to change the style of play. If it was based on performance on the day then Grant would surely have come off. So many passes went astray.
Easton - 7.5 - Pick of the midfield. Steady, strong and went about his job effectively.
Crawford - 6 - Huffed and puffed a lot but posed no threat whatsoever. Needs to have a bit more in his locker if he wants to make it in the game. It's too early to say whether that was an off day or his regular performance but unfortunately I suspect it was the latter.
Corr - 8.5 - MOM - Rarely lost an aerial challenge, every flick or knock on was aimed to someone, had a header well saved and the power in the header behind the goal was awesome. Cor! We have a 20 goal striker! (See what I did there...)
Subs -
Mohsni - 5 - This lad is everything. The biggest asset, the biggest liability and you get the feeling he'd die for the cause. Pure entertainment on legs. Not his best day but didn't he lift the crowd when he came on?
Sawyer - 8 - One of the most influential subs performances I've seen this season. Good to see him back.
Sturrock - 7 - Unlucky not to score with that header at the end.
Ref - 3 - Lacked authority, gave cards at the wrong times, made wrong decisions. There was one challenge on Crawford that laid him out, but he played advantage. Once we had lost that advantage, Crawford was still down and so at that time, shouldn't he have stopped the game to allow treatment? Instead, he allowed Stevenage to counter attack and only stopped the game when the ball went out of play. Now surely that's the correct thing to do IF you think a foul wasn't committed... but he booked the Stevenage player, so that wasn't the case. I'll happily stand corrected by one of the refs on here if I'm wrong but it strikes me that a decision (or lack of it) like that has trouble all over it if, for instance, the next time the ball went out of play it happened to be in our net. Not good Mr referee.
