Sampson eyes reinforcements for shot-shy Stevenage

Posted Sunday, December 08, 2019 by PA

Stevenage caretaker boss Mark Sampson believes his side need to hit the transfer market to start turning draws into wins after being held 0-0 by Crawley at the Lamex.

The two struggling sides played out the tense scoreless draw with Crawley, boosted by the addition of John Yems in the managerial hotseat, defending doggedly.

Bez Lubala fashioned the best chance of the game midway through the second half after rounding keeper Paul Farman but scuffed his shot wide to leave the spoils shared.

“We’re disappointed with that,” said Sampson after a third straight goalless draw in the league.

“We really wanted to come back home after a little while away and show our supporters the progress we are making.

“Being solid and keeping clean sheets is great, and of course I’m chuffed that we are such a difficult side to break down. But going forward it was pretty poor today.

“There are a lot of games coming up though, so there’ll be plenty of opportunities for this group to show they can be as good offensively as they are defensively.

“We’ll certainly do our best in the transfer window to see who we might be able to add in that forward department, because we need to.

“That’ll help us turn these tight games into wins, and that’ll be so important in what is a tight scrap around us.”

After a slow start, Stevenage’s Terence Vancooten misjudged what should have been a regulation clearance, providing Ashley Nadesan with a golden opportunity only for the Crawley forward to mishit his shot.

Despite Stevenage having plenty of the ball it was the visitors – under the guidance of Yems for the first time since his appointment earlier in the week – who were much the livelier in attack, Nadesan having another sight of goal but again failing to extend Farman.

Jason Cowley provided the only moment of note for Stevenage, cracking one from 20 yards that had Glenn Morris diving high to his left.

That was as it good as it got for a team noticeably devoid of confidence in front of goal but Yems was pleased with the point.

He said: “From a personal point of view, it’s been a delight this past couple of days to be around the boys and from what I’ve seen today, we’ve got plenty to be excited about.

“Ever since I was young it was drilled into me that if you can’t take three points, make sure you leave with what you started the game with and we’ve done that.

“It’s been a whirlwind period since we came in and you’re never going to truly affect things in such a short time, but to a man they’ve shown a response to what’s happened and there’s plenty to build on.”