Three avoidable goals made it an afternoon to forget for Exeter City's under-18s on Saturday at the Cliff Hill.
Nicky Ajose made three changes to his team after last week's defeat at Luton. Between the posts in goal, Dan Layer replaced Dylan Shanahan, while striker Kieran Wilson and midfielder Luke Hodgetts both came into the starting lineup as Tobias Alsop and Harry Appleton dropped to the bench.
Stevenage's first came just before half-time. As the young Grecians attempted to play their way out of defence, a loose touch then a poor interception gave Stevenage the opportunity to counter. Quickly creating an overload through the centre of the pitch, the visitors exploited the space left by a quickly retreating City side to find their striker free in the box, and he calmly slotted the ball first time underneath Layer.
After the break, Boro began on top, and a long ball forward from the blues' defence was missed by a City head. That allowed the Stevenage forward to run down the right, and as Layer came out of his penalty area to try and meet the ball, a miscommunication meant that one of his own defenders touched the ball past him. This gave the Stevenage man the chance to cross into the box, and his low ball was met well in the middle by their number 10, who flicked a shot off the back of his heel and into the net.
The visitors rounded off their dominance with a killer blow from a corner mid-way through the second half from a set-piece. A corner was swung in from the left and met on the penalty spot by a blue head, who had stolen a pocket of space in front of his marker. His header was directed into the bottom corner of City's net, just out of reach of Layer, and that put the game to bed.
Another disappointing afternoon for the young Grecians, but they'll now have a weekend off to work on putting things right before travelling to Northampton on September 21st.
Exeter City under-18s: Layer, Cartwright, Cayless, Anthony, Oakes, Crees, Hodgetts, Graham, Williams, Wilson, Cutler.
Substitutes: Shanahan (GK), Alsop, Appleton, Rickhuss, Baker.