06 February 2021

Alex Revell rues Stevenage’s first-half display in draw with Morecambe

06 February 2021

Stevenage manager Alex Revell lamented his side’s first-half performance after they needed Luke Norris’ late header to rescue a 2-2 draw against Morecambe at the Lamex Stadium.

Midfielder Elliott List put the hosts in front on eight minutes as Morecambe’s defence cleared the ball straight to him on the edge of the penalty area and he smashed a low drive into the bottom left corner.

But the visitors equalised through Toumani Diagouraga 20 minutes later, before Cole Stockton raced into the box, cut back and hit an unstoppable strike into the top right corner to give the Shrimps the lead in the 34th minute.

Having seen his team push forward after the break and finally net the equaliser through Norris nine minutes from time, Revell was frustrated Stevenage didn’t kill the game off when they had the advantage.

“We thought the second half was probably one of the best halves of football we have seen for a little while, but that weighs up with the first half which was really disappointing at times,” said Revell.

“We should have scored again early on. That would have been 2-0 and all of a sudden it’s a very different game because they’re not used to coming out, they want to sit in behind the ball, be comfortable and win 1-0, so we knew they would find that tough.

“Their goals are really disappointing for us to concede and there’s only a certain amount of times we can keep saying that. We’ve got to make sure we’re better when we start.

“It’s not good enough and we cannot play like that. But they stepped on it in the second half and that was really the most pleasing part of the game.”

Stevenage stay 21st in the League Two table after their 11th draw of the season, while play-off chasing Morecambe drop a place to seventh.

Visiting manager Derek Adams agreed it was a game of two halves and was happy to accept a point following Stevenage’s improved second-half performance.

He said: “We started the game very well and we had a number of very good opportunities to go ahead in the first half. Aaron Wildig had two very good chances, but then Stevenage got the goal.

“When it was 2-1, we were in total control of the game. We knew balls in behind would cause them problems on the counter attack and we did that well. But the second half was a different story, which is disappointing.

“Stevenage were the better team after half-time. We created some good opportunities, especially early in the second half. Late on in the game they do get back to 2-2 and we take a point and move on.”

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