Stevenage fall victim to worst assist we’ve seen in years during EFL play-offs | OneFootball

It took more than 270 minutes for the EFL play-offs to produce a goal but it was worth the wait, if only for the comedy.

Hull and Millwall played out a goalless stalemate on Friday night before Southampton shut out Middlesbrough on Saturday lunchtime. Perhaps the Saints knew what was coming…

After the Championship first legs, it was the promotion hopefuls in League One’s turn to attempt to summon a goal.

And Stevenage and Stockport looked set to fail, with their meeting at Broadhall Way drifting to a 0-0 draw as the 94th minute ticked over.

Then Benony Andresson took over.

The Icelandic striker robbed Stevenage defender Carl Piergianni who, for reasons unknown, decided added time was the moment to start playing out from the back.

Andresson bore down on the Boro goal as Piergianni’s centre-back partner Charlie Goode got across to cover. Andresson cut inside Goode but, at the crucial moment, the 20-year-old’s legs gave way.

In the 94th minute, he could be forgiven for being exhausted. But, no. Andresson was a 91st-minute substitute.

Whatever the reason for his ill-timed tumble and roll, it completely befuddled the Stevenage defence.

Three defenders were joined by their goalkeeper in circling the loose ball. Perhaps paying their respects to it, like Chelsea.

While they waited for each other, and Filip Marschall – joint winner of League One’s Golden Glove – tried to pinch the ball rather than smother it, Ben Osborn nipped in to poke home, sparking delirium among the travelling Hatters behind the goal.

The other Hatters, Luton Town, were probably laughing themselves silly too. Luton were denied a place in the play-offs last week by Stevenage following their dubious late winner against Wigan.

Stevenage manager Alex Revell rued his side’s inability to defend Andresson’s moment of clumsy genius: “Disappointing goal, absolutely. We could have dealt with the initial bit better. Instead, we tried to come out and play with 30 seconds to go and got caught.

“It is a mix-up on the edge of our box that shouldn’t happen. It (late goals) can happen – we felt the joy of it last week, it’s the pain of it this week.”

Stockport boss Dave Challinor, though, credited Osborn for anticipating, well, whatever that was.

“It shows if you follow things up and expect them to happen, things do happen. For Ozzy to be that far up the pitch, he gets his just deserts.

“He benefited from the chaos. Our supporters behind the goal got to celebrate with the team.”