Stevenage moved back into the play-off places in League One after a gritty home win over Blackpool.

A goal five minutes from the end of normal time by Jake Forster-Caskey was enough to give Boro a 1-0 win and send them above Oxford United.

It wasn't a pretty performance and it wasn't a pretty goal, struck low and firmly from the edge of the box but taking a huge deflection to take it wide of the prostrate Daniel Grimshaw.

At this stage of the season tough and with three points a huge thing every week, nobody inside the Lamex Stadium cared.

Boro manager Steve Evans had been delighted, like most people, with the comeback win at Wigan Athletic.

So he opted to make zero changes to the starting line-up, with the only change in the squad being the return of Forster-Caskey on the bench in place of Elliott List, the striker having come off with a hamstring twinge at the DW Stadium.

The game kicked off after a very emotional minute of applause for Ollie Gatfield and Liam Sharpe, the supporters involved in a car crash on January 13, one which claimed Ollie's life and left Liam in hospital fighting for his.

The sisters of the pair gave a speech before hand, fighting through the emotion and grief to do so.

Once the game kicked off though, the emotions of the Boro faithful were one of worry and a little frustration.

That was because for perhaps the first time this season, and perhaps the last two, Stevenage were outmuscled and maybe even bullied.

Blackpool forced Craig MacGillivray into a couple of saves, Haiden Coulsen's deflected effort watched wide on the dive before the keeper needed to push a Oliver Norburn drive wide.

An example of the pressure Boro were under was the sight of Carl Piergianni down, battered and bloodied on the bridge of the nose.

His departure back to the dressing room to get that patched up had the boss frantically shouting instructions as Boro played with 10 men for a good few minutes.

Stevenage did have one big chance of their own, Harvey White's header to the edge of the six-yard box flicked over his shoulder by the onside and unmarked Jamie Reid.

That effort though hit Daniel Grimshaw more than anything and bounced over the top.

The home players were also seemingly having problems with their footing on the pitch, more so than the visitors, but they did start to stem the haemorrhaging as the half came to a close.

And the fact they were still level was a huge positive and while there have been too many draws at the Lamex this season, a draw at full-time was starting to seem acceptable.

However, it did get better in the early going for Boro. A long throw by Luther James-Wildin was looped towards goal by the head of the home skipper and then Reid just miscued a pass through to Vadaine Oliver as Stevenage broke.

It wasn't good enough for the Boro boss though and he made a triple change 13 minutes in - something he had been about to do at Wigan one week earlier before Piergianni equalised.

The changes were like for like and didn't alter the system, a 4-4-2 with a diamond in the middle, and while it didn't have a monumental shirt in the momentum, it did almost bring a goal.

Nick Freeman got the byline and clipped a cross to the back post where Aaron Pressley was waiting.

His header went down into the ground but bounced up into the arms of Grimshaw.

Blackpool were not creating much at this point either and with niggly fouls and a couple of bookings on both sides.

It felt as if anyone would score, it would be Stevenage, but that also felt like one of those 'you have to pick one' decisions.

It proved to be correct though.

Match details

Stevenage: MacGillivray, James-Wildin, Butler, Piergianni, Sweeney, Freeman, Roberts, Burns (L.Thompson 58), White (Forster-Caskey 58), Reid, Oliver (Pressley 58).

Sub (not used): Ashby-Hammond, MacDonald, Vancooten, Guinness-Walker.

Goals: Forster-Caskey 85

Booked: L.Thompson 74, Evans (bench) 90+3

 

Blackpool: Grimshaw, Husband, Gabriel, Pennington, Norburn (Virtue 88), Morgan, Joseph, Coulsen, Ekpiteta, Hamilton (Lavery 78), Kouassi (Dembele 68).

Subs (not used): O'Donnell, Connolly, Byers, Virtue, Casey.

Goals: 

Booked: Kouassi 45, Dembele 79

 

HT: Stevenage 0 Blackpool 0

Added time: 11

Referee: Simon Mather (Manchester)

Attendance: 5,014 (including 780 from Blackpool)