Williams’ penalty howler is crucial
TEDDY Sheringham refused to blame Brett Williams after his late missed penalty saw York City escape from Stevenage with a point.
Eddie Nolan had given York the lead but two quick-fire goals after the break from Chris Whelpdale and Charlie Lee gave Boro the lead.
However, Luke Summerfield’s strike 16 minutes from time and Scott Flinders’ save from Williams’ spot-kick denied Sheringham’s side victory in a thrilling clash.
“It is not the worst penalty I have seen, it’s just one of those things,” said Stevenage boss Sheringham. “The goalkeeper picks the right way, it was a good save but it was a penalty that we would have liked to have scored.
“York counteracted what we wanted to do, credit to them. They put us under pressure in the first half and after that I was delighted to get a point out of it.We went 2-1 up and then had a penalty late on so we would have liked to have won.
“Our game did change the second half but we put ourselves under pressure by not being right in the first half.
“I was delighted with the goals, they were both set pieces and that is what we work on throughout the week so it was good that we got goals out of that. I think the draw was a fair result, we were not good enough to win.”
York took the lead in the 39th minute when Nolan swept home his first goal for the club with a right-footed shot from the edge of the box.
But Stevenage came out after half-time with a new lease of life as Whelpdale and Lee both headed home within the space of three secondhalf minutes to turn the game on its head.
But the sides were level once more as Summerfield struck a sublime curling effort with 16 minutes remaining.
Stevenage were then given a penalty after Dipo Akinyemi was brought down by Dave Winfield in the box, but Flinders denied Williams from 12 yards.
"You want as many quality footballers on that pitch as you possibly can when you are chasing a goal down,” said York boss Russ Wilcox. "I was pleased with the substitutes Russel Penn, Emile Sinclair and Josh Carson.
“When you make changes some days they work and some days they don't and I thought today the team looked good and strong.
“We looked a little bit more of a threat when we put three strikers up top. We have plenty of personnel, that’s why we changed to 4-3-3 and we also have the personnel to go 4-4-2 as well with Josh Carson coming onto the pitch.
“We still needed a topclass penalty save to gain us that point.”