Boro consigned to Conference

Forest Green Rovers 2 Stevenage Boro 0

IN the end, Saturday's result in the last ever match at The Lawn did not matter.

Morecambe's win at Grays ensured they grabbed the final play-off spot and consigned Boro to another season in the Conference.

But the Boro contingent among the 1,500-strong crowd must have left dismayed by another fragmented display which was topped off by their 12th red card of the season.

Boro enjoyed excellent travelling support in lovely bright sunshine and the majority would have been satisfied with a decent first-half performance until Forest Green broke the deadlock two minutes before the break.

George Boyd and Jon Nurse both had good opportunities to open the scoring while the home side were restricted to long-range views of Alan Julian's goal.

It was Boro who did the early pressing with Luke Oliver heading wide from a Dino Maamria corner and Boyd also firing wide from a low Jefferson Louis cross when he should have at least hit the target.

The hosts, who had not won in their previous 13 Conference matches, responded with a thunderbolt from Portugese starlet Bruno Teixeira who proved a key figure as the afternoon wore on.

Adam Miller continued the theme by twice trying his luck from distance with the supporters buoyed by the news Grays were 1-0 up.

Boro themselves could have gone a goal up when a testing Maamria cross into the six-yard box was headed over by Nurse.

Forest Green grabbed the initiative on 43 minutes with Justin Gregory, Miller and Oliver all possibly culpable.

Teixeira was allowed to wriggle free in the box and although his first effort was blocked by Julian, the keeper was powerless to stop the rebound.

This was how it stayed and there was double disappointment when it was discovered Morecambe had equalised at Grays.

Lighthearted relief was provided by former England wicketkeeper Jack Russell going in goal for a penalty shoot-out at the break.

Boro's second-half display could only be described as abject as they folded just like England's batsmen used to do against the Aussies.

They were certainly not helped by the early loss of Nurse through injury who was replaced by Rob Duffy.

Forest Green doubled their lead on the hour mark as captain Damon Searle's cross was headed home by Julian Alsop.

Boro failed to really test out home keeper Ryan Clarke and Abdou Sall should instead have added a third for the home side.

It went from bad to worse from Boro's perspective with another red card a quarter of an hour from time, this time for striker Jefferson Louis.

Louis tangled with Darren Jones and after the resulting melee settled down, both men received their marching orders.

Now 10-a-side, Boro's hopes of a comeback of some sort were quashed when Miller's free-kick flicked off the head of Maamria and past Clarke. Unfortunately the flag was raised for offside against the Tunisian.

Boro were now a spent force and Julian showed his prowess by saving well from sub Zema Abbey and Mark Beesley.

A pointless caution for Maamria confirmed the Boro malaise.

The hosts were left to celebrate staying up for another season and a successful end to 72 years at The Lawn.

At least one set of supporters were happy on their journey home.