Stevenage only beaten once

Today was the regionaly qualifying round for the Southern Counties League Cup, with ten teams trying to progress to finals in May. We had to make some changes from the recent defeat to Slough but had a squad of 13 players to contest the initial group stage (which was two groups of five teams).

Our first game paired us with St Albans Blues, and in straight 15 minute matches you have to be clinical with any chances that come your way. We had enough chances to win two games, hitting post/crossbar three times and shooting straight into the keepers arms when clean through, and not scoring one of those chances was going to cost us later in the morning in our attempts to qualify, especially with tougher teams to face.

Luton arrived with a squad packed with academy boys, but in all honesty I felt that we matched them all over the pitch and didn't look too troubled until we switched off for a few seconds and allowed a short corner to be played, which ended up with a Luton player on the edge of the box and nobody closed him down, allowing him time to take a touch and line up a shot thatsailed into the top of the net. We had worked really hard up to that point to stay in the game.

Game three was against Hertsmere, and once again we created chance after chance with Tobi having three good opportunities and the returning Joshua also having a one v one. It looked like being one of those days, with Noah a virtual spectator in the Stevenage goal. But then we cretaed a little bit of magic when Joseph took down a pass forward and facing his own goal he played back to Noah in the Stevenage goal, Noah quickly found Joshua on the right and he exchanged passes with Tobi before taking on two defenders and corssing.

The cross fell to Albie who couldn't quite get a strike on goal, Kamau's effort was blocked but the ball fell to Leo in a wide position but his shot went through the keepers leg to give us a 1-0 victory and three much-needed points. Our final group game was against a Dacroum side also packed with academy boys, but once again we proved that we like to play the better teams and produced our best performance of the day.

Despite going a goal down, from looked a dubious offside, we battled away and competed all over the pitch. And our efforts were rewarded when Kamau met a corner with a good header that just got over the line despite the best efforts of the Dacorum goalkeeper. ifanything we looked the more likely to score again as we put a lot of pressure on Dacorum. But the draw meant a play-off with Wycombe for 7th position.

We controlled the game from start to finish, moved the ball around well, and Leo Maamria once again did very well to score from an acute angle from the left hand side. We couldn't add to that goal, but overall we improved as the morning progressed and just needed a little more luck in front of goal. Although we cannot now make the League Cup Finals, our 7th position should mean that we qualify for the Plate competition laer on in the season.