Burton Albion 1
Stevenage 2
League (League One)

Match report written by Neil Metcalfe, The Comet

Stevenage kept pace with the others in the League One promotion race with victory away to Burton Albion.

Goals either side of half-time by Burton-born Kane Hemmings and Jamie Reid cancelled out a seventh-minute effort from Deji Oshilaja and gave Boro a 2-1 win.

It wasn't always pretty and it wasn't always the greatest performance by the visitors to the Pirelli Stadium but they did deserve the three points that moves them third in the standings.

It was though another example of the need to put games like this away earlier.

There were five changes from the side that drew with Port Vale in last week's FA Cup tie.

In came Dan Sweeney, Jake Forster-Caskey, Nick Freeman, Harrison Neal and Hemmings in place of Alex MacDonald, Elliott List, Jordan Roberts, Finley Burns and Ben Thompson.

Four of those were on the bench, which had shrunk from nine to seven, but Burns was not in the squad and neither was a clearly annoyed Harvey White.

It had been noticeable in the warm-up that the breeze would be a factor and it probably played a part in the opening goal.

Burton had it in their favour and when a ball was played into the box from a free-kick, it came at Luther James-Wildin quicker than he expected.

The touch was poor and as he tried to recover there was a coming together between Carl Piergianni and Ryan Sweeney, Dan's brother.

That earned a penalty and allowed Taye Ashby-Hammond dived to his right to push Joe Powell's effort out, Oshilaja reacted quickest to thump it into the roof of the net.

Boro's keeper then had a let-off as he came out of his box and mis-controlled the ball.

The pass forward to Josh Walker saw the Burton man offside though.

And that was as much as the home side really showed in the first period as Boro got on top without ever finding top gear.

Max Crocombe in the Burton goal fumbled a Jamie Reid cross behind and then when he pushed out a low Forster-Caskey cross-shot, Hemmings couldn't keep the rapidly approaching ball down and he shot over.

There were plenty of balls into the box from Stevenage and they brought an almighty scramble after Piergianni headed towards goal.

Boro boots were swung at it and there was a back heel in there too but the yellow-shirted defenders kept it out.

It seemed like that would be it but with one minute of stoppage time just begun, Boro levelled.

Butler passed on the responsibility of putting the ball into the box to Piergianni which he did, finding James-Wildin at the back post.

The header was put back across goal and with the flag staying down, Hemmings tucked it away at the near post.

It was perfectly timed but even before that, you felt that Boro would exploit the conditions in the second half.

And they did.

They had already forced one chance when Dan Butler came on from the left, Sam Hughes clearing off the line, but then a half-baked lunge collecting a Boro man and Reid made it 17 for the season, sending Crocombe the wrong way from the spot.

Boro kept probing and with their fans mocking Dino Maamria, the atmosphere turned frosty towards the home boss, even from his own supporters.

He made a double sub to try and change it up but even that brought home boos and the fact Boro kept pressing did little to lighten the mood.

Despite that, they should have probably equalised when a cross from the right was met by a header at the back post. Ashby-Hammond clawed that away and then leapt on the rebound at the foot of the near post.

That provoked a response from the Boro bench as all three of the management team shouted angry instructions at their charges.

Steve Evans was on his feet again as six added minutes was shown, this time the replacement front pair of Aaron Pressley and List the target of the yelps.

One final save by Ashby-Hammond from a Powell free-kick prevented any undeserved outcome for Stevenage or any further ire from the boss.