The U’s had 25 shots, compared to just two for Stevenage, however the visitors managed to battle their way to a 1-1 draw at Grenoble Road.
United were denied what seemed a clear penalty, when Stevenage goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray wiped out Marcus Browne in the right channel of the penalty area while the game was still goalless.
NO PENALTY ❌
A BIG call from referee Tom Nield, are Stevenage lucky to get away with this one? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/thiCdPUOKa
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 19, 2024
U’s midfielder Brannagan said: “It couldn’t be any more obvious. I don’t know how they miss it. You take that away, and we’ve had numerous chances to win the game, and we haven’t.
“You can’t control a game like that, and create that many chances, and not put them to bed. That’s the big frustration because we’ve had some great chances and we’ve got to put them to bed.
“That’s what’s let us down. It’s frustrating.
“You control a game for 90 minutes, concede a sloppy goal, which is just a bit unfortunate, but we should win that game.”
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Stevenage, managerless following Steve Evans’ shock exit to Rotherham United just two days before the game, made life hard for United by defending deep and denying space for the U’s to work with in the final third.
Brannagan said: “It’s difficult at times when a team comes and sits behind the ball. They’re hard to break down. They sit there in their banks, and that’s what they came to do, it was clear to see.
“We had a lot of control of the game, but the final edge was what we were missing.
“When a team comes and sits behind the ball like they do, it’s tough. It was their game plan and it worked.
“It was probably the result that they wanted, but we had more than enough chances to win that game, so that’s the frustrating thing.”