Mansfield Town 0
Stevenage 1
League (League One)

Match report written by Neil Metcalfe, The Comet

Jake Young's first goal for Stevenage was enough to give Stevenage their first away win of the League One season - and inflict Mansfield Town's first home one.

It came from a free-kick on 32 minutes, thumped straight and true into the top corner, to leave the small travelling band of supporters delighted with a 1-0 victory.

Boro had to dig deep at times but this team is defensively resolute and the win shoves them back into the top half of the table.

There were two changes from the last League One game, that 2-1 loss with virtually the last kick of the game at Peterborough United.

Nathan Thompson had been injured in that one with Lewis Freestone deputising in that game and the EFL Trophy match four days later.

Freestone played here too but this time at left-back in place of Dan Butler who was not included due to a bout of glandular fever.

Luther Wildin moved into the centre-back position while Kane Smith played right back.

Butler did take up one of the shirts on the bench and there was another surprise among the substitutes, Aaron Pressley back despite picking up an ankle injury in pre-season that needed surgery.

Mansfield's start to the season meant Boro found a home side full of confidence and it was no surprise that the opening exchanges, for perhaps 15 minutes, belonged to the Stags.

It is hugely to the visitors' credit that half-time arrived with a deserved lead.

If there was a tactical switch or tweak that came from the Boro bench, it was small. It simply was a case of digging in and grabbing their moments when they came.

The goal arrived at a point when that momentum was definitely turning, if not fully turned already.

Jamie Reid had been fouled to the left of the penalty box as he let a shot go and there was no doubting what was coming after that.

Young placed the ball, 22 yards from the byline and stood over it on his own.

Knowing what was coming though is not even half the battle and Christy Pym was powerless to stop the thumped free-kick from flashing across him and finding the top corner.

The chances before that and after all belong to those in purple shirts.

Reid had a mazy run across from the left and into the middle, and when the ball broke, Smith had Pym stretching to push it away.

Young and Eli King both had low shots straight at Pym while the goalscorer was also denied by a block from Hiram Boateng.

That chance had come because of the pressing, Dan Phillips that time, and it was something that had the home fans in a real tizz, with lots of mumbles, grumbles and groans.

Nigel Clough saw something that needed changed too at the break, swapping the booked Baily Cargill for Frazer Blake-Tracy.

And it provoked the response that Boro must have been waiting for from the home side.

And Mansfield really should have scored, a chested down cross from Lee Gregory ran to Stephen Quinn but his shot from an angle was pushed away by Murphy Cooper.

Mansfield did have other chances, a low free-kick was pushed round the post by Cooper after a deflection, and they were urged on by a crowd who were equal parts encouraging and furious at the referee.

But Boro had opportunities too, not least when Elliott List got in.

His shot was pushed out by Pym and just a fraction away from Reid who could not move his feet quickly enough to get to the rebound.

But the pressure kept building and building from Mansfield and the home support sensed something.

And there were half chances, balls flashed across the box or blocks and tackles, but nothing difinitive.

And in the end it was a low shot from Pressley, impressing in a late cameo, that nearly crept in at Pym's near post before the keeper recovered.