Stevenage 1
Harrogate Town 0
League (League Two)

Match report written by Neil Metcalfe, The Comet

Stevenage's hopes of 10 straight victories at the Lamex looked to be thwarted by Harrogate Town and goalkeeper Pete Jameson - until another late goal steered all the points to Boro.

The visiting keeper pulled off save after save, especially after the break as Stevenage applied more and more pressure.

But with 90 minutes all but up, a cross from the left wing was glanced by Dan Sweeney and into the net for a 1-0 win.

The result sends Boro back into the top three and while tough on the Yorkshire club, it was a win that had been coming after an inspired quadruple substitution by manager Steve Evans.

He made five changes from the team that lost last time out in League Two, away to Bradford City, with one a surprise.

In came Danny Rose, Max Clark, Jake Taylor, Kane Smith and Dean Campbell, the latter making his first league start since his summer loan switch from Aberdeen.

Luther James-Wildin, Jake Reeves, Jordan Roberts, Jamie Reid and Saxon Earley made way with the former not even making the bench, Michael Bostwick making his return from injury.

The incoming players did not set the world alight in the first half though and Stevenage will have been disappointed with their showing.

They did have three good chances. Alex Gilbey tried to lift the ball over Pete Jameson when he got alone inside the box but the keeper pushed it wide and then the Harrogate number one made an excellent double save to deny Rose and Taylor almost on the stroke of half-time.

Other than there were half chances but a lot of misplaced passes and a distinct lack of urgency at times.

That was especially true of the opening 16 minutes when Harrogate were presented with three glorious opportunities.

The second was the better of them but was one where Dan Sweeney needed to buy his goalkeeper a good quality drink afterwards.

The centre-half put a woefully short pass across the edge of the area which was seized upon by Josh Coley but after beating the defender, Taye Ashby-Hammond came out to stick an instinctive hand up and prevent the shot hitting the net.

The first was after just 44 seconds, Jack Muldoon driving a low effort from the edge of the box to the left of the goalframe and then Luke Armstrong's cross from the left of the six-yard box found only Clark underneath his own crossbar and the danger was cleared.

Firm words were probably needed and delivered in the Boro dressing room at half-time and there was a noticeable improvement in the early going of the second period.

Smith was the main attacking threat in the opening 10 minutes with a number of crosses causing concern in the visiting defence.

Rose was just beaten to by Rory McArdle while both Rose and Norris were inches away from connecting with another.

A third saw Taylor head straight into the hands of Jameson.

But it was obviously not enough of an impact for the Boro manager and four changes at once in the 63rd minute made a huge statement.

It almost paid pretty quick dividends. Reid twisted and turned inside the box and when he let fly a deflection wrong-footed the keeper and looked to be rolling in.

It went wide but the keeper was quickly into action, pulling off a great one-handed stop from a Sweeney shot and Rose put the rebound onto the roof of the net.

Boro were really turning up the wick at this point and Harrogate had a huge let-off.

A close-range header from Carl Piergianni was cleared by a combination of defender and post and went out for another set-piece.

That was eventually chipped in by Rose but it hit the bar, bounced down onto a defender and that back up onto the crossbar again.

That was then cleared.

Sweeney then failed to make any contact with an Alex Gilbey free-kick when it looked like it just needed prodded home.

Jameson then made another save from a Rose header and it was looking as if the keeper was going to deny Boro.

Sweeney had the last word though.