Stevenage Boro 2 Scarborough 0 TWO wonderful strikes made this seem like a stroll in the park for Boro on Saturday. Midfielders Adam Miller and George Boyd were the two hitmen as Boro went two-up inside 20 minutes and then never regained these dizzy heigh

Stevenage Boro 2 Scarborough 0

TWO wonderful strikes made this seem like a stroll in the park for Boro on Saturday.

Midfielders Adam Miller and George Boyd were the two hitmen as Boro went two-up inside 20 minutes and then never regained these dizzy heights after this.

Scarborough, staring relegation in the face, were generally ineffective and yet still caused one or two alarms in the Boro defence as the home side appeared to relax their grip.

Boro began with a 3-5-2 formation with the formidable trio of skipper Jason Goodliffe, the towering Luke Oliver and Ronnie Henry at the back.

It was Goodliffe who almost gave his side an early lead when his header from a Miller cross looked to be heading for the top corner before it was clawed away by Ian Dunbavin.

Boro's dominance, punctuated by some lovely flowing football, led to their opening goal on 10 minutes.

A nice passing move broke down on the edge of the penalty area. Miller picked it up and let fly from 25 yards into the bottom corner.

Dunbavin was dumbfounded and the keeper was equally powerless just 11 minutes later.

The quality of Miller's strike was arguably surpassed by Boyd, who took a square pass from Dannie Bulman, changed feet on to his favourite left and arrowed a shot into the top corner this time.

Another of the midfielders, Dino Maamria, soon nearly added a third when his deflected effort skipped just past the post.

The feeling inside the ground was that the game was over as a contest and perhaps this transmitted itself to the players.

A Maamria header apart, Boro never really threatened for the rest of the half and Scarborough could even have got themselves back into the frame.

Their first opportunity did not arrive until 43 minutes had passed and it was a real gilt-edged one.

Lee Fowler's cross found Jason Blunt in acres of space and although Alan Julian made a fine stop, the Scarborough man should not have given the keeper a sniff.

Chris Hughes sent a left-footed shot just past Julian's post as the half ended to fire another warning shot across the Boro bows.

The second 45 minutes was largely forgettable with Boro content to conserve their energies for tougher battles ahead and the visitors looking every edge a doomed side.

Boro reverted to four at the back midway through the half when Justin Gregory came on for Bulman.

Both sides could still have scored, notably when Dunbavin somehow denied Oliver from a yard out following a Maamria corner.

Minutes earlier Tony Hackworth's shot was blocked when Julian dropped a corner under pressure.

The other threat from the visitors came in added time when Julian was penalised. The keeper redeemed himself though when he threw his body in the way of player-manager Neil Redfearn's free-kick to ensure his fourth clean sheet in five games.