Stevenage 2
Lincoln City 1
League (League Two)

Match report written by Damion Roberts, The Comet

Lawrie Wilson grabbed both goals as Stevenage recorded their third straight win to move to within one point of the League 2 play-off places.

The Boro winger usually supplies the assists for others – he has eight this season – but scored a goal in each half after Lincoln had taken the lead through an Ashley Grimes penalty.

“It was a good win,” Wilson said afterwards. “It was nice to come back from behind for the first time this season and it was nice to get my name on the score sheet. I haven’t scored many this season so it was nice to get those goals.

“The first was one of those shots where the ‘keeper’s palmed it down and I was there just to pass it in. The second took a slight deflection but it was still going in there.”

Graham Westley’s men began the game with Scott Laird returning from suspension at left-back while on the bench there was no goalkeeper after Ashley Bayes took a knock midweek.

Up front Darius Charles started alongside Craig Reid but neither attacker was able to make an impact in the opening stages with the game offering very little in terms of chances.

Lincoln, too, failed put together any meaningful phases of play, although they did have the first effort when Grimes shot from an acute angle on 20 minutes only to see his effort blocked on the edge of the six-yard box.

Next to try from range was Mousinho who, running on to a Charles knock down, shot wide from 25 yards before Lincoln’s Josh O’Keefe, like Grimes before him, was closed down too quickly when trying to test Day on 25 minutes.

The visitors had done well in the early stages to limit Boro’s penetration down the wings so the hosts were left to try their luck through the centre and it was from there where Reid hooked a ball over the crossbar whilst on the turn 28 minutes in.

Throughout the game Lincoln lacked the guile to trouble a sturdy Boro back four but they got a break just after the half-hour mark when Mustapha Carayol crossed from the right and the ball was deemed to have hit Laird’s arm inside the box, with Grimes converting the spot kick with confidence.

After a quiet start the game began to open up a little and Carayol worked himself a yard before smashing just over soon afterwards but it was Boro who would score the next goal.

With just 10 minutes remaining of the half, Mousinho was presented with the ball 25 yards from goal and fired goalwards.

Carson could only parry the midfielder’s effort to Wilson who slotted the rebound past the despairing goalkeeper and into the net.

The second half opened with both sides shooting wide, Grimes for the Imps and Stacy Long for Stevenage. Gavin McCallum, who had teed up Grimes, then drilled a left-footed effort into the side netting from 12 yards after running on to a misplaced Mark Roberts pass.

Boro, like the visitors, often found their way into the opposition penalty area blocked off, but when Charles did break clear to make a run to the goal line his pull back to Wilson was met first by a Lincoln defender who cleared.

In a match of few clear-cut opportunities it was beginning to feel like the next goal would win it, and so it proved when Wilson shot from distance on the hour mark and the ball dipped and swerved before beating Carson and hitting the top corner.

Going behind, Lincoln were expected to fight their way back into it but they lacked not only a cutting edge but also an urgency.

Boro, too, were unable to forge any further realistic scoring chances, although Reid did waste an opportunity when he turned his defender in the Lincoln box once too often and saw his shot blocked by a recovering centre-half as a result.

Lincoln’s best chances came in the dying moments from precision crossing from corners, but even the appearance of Carson in the Stevenage box could not force an equaliser for the visitors and Boro held on for all three points.