Familiar failings at both ends haunted Town as they were on the receiving end of a surprisingly comprehensive 3-0 defeat against Stevenage Borough, despite controlling the vast majority of the game.

Early goals in each half set the tone for what was 90 minutes of missed chances and, when tested, suspect defending by the Blues.

Shane Supple took the number one shirt for Town, having been joined for the pre-match warm-up by new signing Neil Alexander. In front of him was a familiar back four of Dan Harding, Jason De Vos, Alex Bruce and David Wright. Owen Garvan and George O'Callaghan formed the central midfield with Matt Richards and Danny Haynes patrolling the flanks, while Alan Lee and Jonathan Walters started the game up front.

Jim Magilton's side were slow out of the blocks on a still, sunny evening and former Town youngster Adam Miller saw a fierce shot deflected to safety virtually straight from the kick-off. A wayward O'Callaghan shot from Richards's knock-back quickly followed as the early exchanges proved relatively scrappy.

Nine minutes in, Miller turned neatly to lose Garvan and slipped in the prolific striker Steve Morison, whose shot was turned over by Supple at his near post.

It was little surprise when the hosts took the lead a minute later. Miller was to the fore again, spraying a fine ball out to left-winger Mitchell Cole, once a highly-rated youngster at West Ham and Southend. Cole ran at and out-foxed Bruce, whose trailing leg brought down his opponent for a clear penalty. John Nutter stepped up to slam the ball straight down the middle of Supple's goal.

That was in fact just about it as far as the home side's first half attacking forays were concerned, as Town started to warm to their task and assumed complete control. Walters arrowed an angled effort wide before striking a goal-bound volley which rapped against the shins of O'Callaghan. Then Harding shot wide while Stevenage made an early change with Santos Gaia replacing the injured Mark Arber.

In the 22nd minute, O'Callaghan should have done better than slice wide from 18 yards after a Walters lay-off, while the busy ex-Chester forward had Town's best effort to date three minutes later when his sharp effort was parried by home keeper Alan Julian at his near post after a fine, storming run by Lee.

Town were knocking the ball about well enough at this point, with their strikers starting to link nicely and plenty of crosses fizzing around the Stevenage box. Haynes was beginning to make some headway, while Walters was involved in most of the Blues' best work and forced Julian to parry again with a skidding long-range effort.

After home manager Mark Stimson had harsh words for a linesman following a dubious throw-in decision, Town's strikers combined twice in quick succession to create two good chances. First, Walters flicked cleverly to Lee, who got in behind the defence but lofted the ball just over Julian's crossbar. Then the same move occurred in reverse in the 37th minute, with Walters seeing his shot hit the top of the bar via Julian's touch.

A generally wasteful half by O'Callaghan was compounded shortly before half-time when he volleyed another good chance over from a Lee header, and then dragged a shot wide of the near post on referee Darren Deadman's whistle.

Despite the deficit, Town's level of performance had steadily improved since Stevenage's goal, with some of their build-up play worthy of better finishing.

As promised before the match, Stimson made ten further changes at the break. Among those taking to the field were striker Ollie Allen, son of Clive, and recently released Town youngster Luke Webster, currently on trial at Broadhall Way. The Blues began the half as they had started the first.

It took only a minute for Allen to make an impact, as Stevenage worked the ball across to him on the right hand corner of the area, where he took a touch before arcing a fine right-footed shot over a clearly surprised Supple and into the opposite top corner. The two-goal lead was surprising to say the least, but Allen's opportunism deserved its reward.

Town attacked immediately, and Garvan — who had a generally quiet game — saw a shot excellently parried by Stevenage's substitute keeper after De Vos, staying forward after a corner, had cut the ball back. Then O'Callaghan saw another effort gathered well.

Stevenage's second-half eleven was altogether snappier and livelier than its first-half predecessor, as challenges on Harding and Wright proved, although it was aided significantly by a marked deterioration in Town's performance.

Bruce had to be at full stretch to head a lob off the line with Supple stranded as the Blues began to look leggy and far less cohesive. Lee half-volleyed over from an angle and inadvertently blocked a Garvan shot that was, in all probability, heading into the net before being replaced by Jordan Rhodes in the 66th minute. Kurt Robinson took over from Richards at the same time. Rhodes was straight into the action, turning well and seeing his shot blocked.

Walters, quieter now, shot just wide of the near post after a fine run on 72, before the game's final goal was scored three minutes later.

This time Stevenage found space on the left hand side of the Town box as defenders backed off. Supple parried the first shot that came in, but Paul Hakim was first to the rebound and bundled home from a matter of inches. 3-0 seemed an improbable lead, but Town had caused their own problems and Supple appeared to let Bruce know this in no uncertain terms after the goal.

Jai Reason replaced O'Callaghan, who needs to perform better than this to challenge for a regular place, and Ian Miller replaced Bruce — before Walters took yet another shot, this time seeing a drive from the edge of the box palmed over.

Tommy Smith came on for De Vos with 10 minutes remaining as the game's latter stages were played with little incident - although Supple was forced to make one good save from Allen, and both Harding and Haynes dragged late efforts wide.

Pre-season matches are never hugely deserving of minute dissection, but some familiar flaws were certainly on show at Broadhall Way. While Town were clearly superior between the boxes, several clear chances and presentable half-chances were missed while Stevenage, whose second-half line-up exuded confidence when allowed space, were given their goals far too easily and made the Blues look vulnerable when run at. Tommy Miller or Pablo Couñago could, one suspects, have made count at least one of the 25-plus shots that Town took on the night.

On the positive side, Jon Walters and Alan Lee both worked very hard in attack and showed signs that they have been putting plenty of work into their partnership. The former was particularly impressive all round and looks to be carrying on where he left off in May.

While Town had plenty of the ball in central midfield and passed fluently at times in the first half, Owen Garvan and George O'Callaghan have both had better days. Danny Haynes embarked upon some searing runs in the first period but was subdued in the second — while Matt Richards put in a few decent crosses and was given plenty of space to link up with Dan Harding.

Not a total disaster for Town in terms of general play, but lessons still to be learned. Magilton will surely want to get the likes of Sylvain Legwinski, Gavin Williams, Jaime Peters and his new signings into the pre-season mix as soon as possible.

Town: Supple, Wright, Harding, De Vos (Smith), Bruce (I Miller), O'Callaghan (Upson), Garvan (Reason), Haynes, Lee (Rhodes), Walters, Richards (Robinson).

Thanks to Something Blue for the report.

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