STANLEY lost out to Stevenage in another unhappy trip to the Lamex Stadium for the Reds.

Accrington have made six trips to Borough – and haven’t yet won conceding 16 goals in the process.

It was a blow for boss John Coleman who had been determined to avenge Stanley’s play-off semi-final defeat to Graham Westley’s side in 2011 – but his team made a horror start.

With just  55 seconds on the clock,  a corner wasn’t cleared by Stanley and Dean Wells headed the ball goalwards with Chris Whelpdale getting a touch to force the ball over the line.

And Stevenage could have had two a minute later but debutant Fulham loan keeper Jesse Joronen tipped Tom Pett’s fierce blast over the crossbar.

However Stanley grew into the game and, in their first real attack on 19 minutes, Lee Molyneux got the ball from John O’Sullivan, he ran at the defence and unleashed a fierce low shot which squeezed into the bottom corner of Chris Day’s net to level the scores. It was Molyneux’s first goal in his third spell with the Reds.

Stanley then tried to press for a second and Molyneux and Sean Maguire both had efforts blocked as they asserted their authority towards the end of half.

The Reds were unlucky not to take the lead immediately after the break when Day caught a strong Rob Atkinson header but Stevenage went up the other end and made it 2-1 on 48 minutes.

Charlie Lee got the ball in the area from a knock down from Chris Beardsley and it was a crisp finish beyond Joronen to restore the home side’s advantage.

Maguire had an effort blocked at one end while Lee headed over and Atkinson blocked an Adams goalbound effort as the game went from end to end.

John Coleman brought on Shay McCartan with 25 minutes to go and they went on the hunt for the leveller with Molyneux having a couple of efforts which weren’t far off.

However Borough continued to carry the major threat with Cameron Lancaster flashing an effort off-target, Adams had a goalbound shot deflected inches wide and Darius Charles had a free header but steered it over – two goals however proved enough on the day.

STANLEY: Joronen, Hunt, Aldred, Atkinson, Winnard; Procter, Joyce; O’Sullivan, Maguire (McCartan 64), Molyneux (Barry 85), Gray (Carver 78)

Subs not used: Simpson, Windass, Hatfield, Mingoia