Harriers 1
Stevenage 5

EVEN with the second leg of this FA Trophy semi-final to come Harriers’ hopes of making Wembley are as good as over after suffering a crushing 5-1 defeat at Aggborough.

The Blue Square Premier leaders were just too good for Steve Burr’s shell-shocked men who will not be relishing next Saturday’s second leg at Broadhall Way.

Stevenage took their tally to 18 goals in five matches with a masterclass of finishing and left Harriers totally demoralised at the final whistle.

After conceding an early goal Harriers managed to get back on terms through Gavin Caines but couldn’t knock their visitors off their stride. Borough quickly regained the lead, and were 3-1 by half-time and piled on the misery with two more goals in the second half.

Harriers manager, Steve Burr, said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the errors that led to the defeat. “It doesn’t matter what level of football you’re playing at if you concede the goals that we did today then you’re going to lose matches.

“I’m bitterly disappointed because if you take the three mistakes out I didn’t think we played that badly to be honest.”

He added: “Since I’ve been here we’ve defended set-pieces well but today we took our eye off the ball and as a team we were short on what we had been doing.” The start was greeted with a great atmosphere, but neither team could impose themselves on the game in the opening stages.

Stevenage took the lead against the run of play after 25-minutes.

David Bridges rose highest to head powerfully past Ross Atkins in to the top left corner of the net from Michael Bostwick’s deep right-wing cross.

Harriers responded well and the lead only lasted four minutes when a quick corner caught Stevenage napping.

Darryl Knights found Gavin Caines in space on the edge of the box and the centre-back drilled a right-footed strike past an unsighted Chris Day in the Stevenage goal.

Stevenage went on to give Harriers a lesson in ruthless finishing making the most of some defensive lapses.

Yemi Odubade bundled home from inside the 6-yard box on 37-minutes to make the score 2-1 when Mitchell Cole caught the Harriers defence sleeping following a hopeful crossfield ball.

Stevenage made it 3-1 two minutes later when Bridges headed in his second goal from Joel Bryom’s corner.

Harriers failed to create many clear-cut chances in the second half and fell further behind on 71-minutes.

Chris Beardsley followed up with a low diving header passed a prone Atkins when Andy Drury’s looping headed effort came back off the crossbar.

The scoring was completed with five-minutes to go when Beardsley stole possession from Harriers’ Martin Riley and finished neatly into the bottom left corner.

Harriers: Atkins 5; Courtney 5; Baker 6; Caines 4; Riley 3; McPhee 5; Bennett 5; Knights 6; Smikle 5; Bignot 5 (Lawrie, 73); Boyes 5 (Matthews, 60).

Unused substitutes: Singh; Hayward; Sharpe.

Stevenage: Day; Laird; Ashton; Odubade; Byrom (Drury, 63); Roberts; Bridges (Vincenti, 84); Beardsley; Cole (Albrighton, 46); Bostwick; Henry.

Unused substitutes: Bayes; Sills.

Referee: Andy Woolmer. Attendance: 2,433 (317)