Stevenage 3-0 Wycombe Wanderers: Boro progress in the Papa John's Trophy

Stevenage secured their progression to the knockout stages of the Papa John's Trophy with a 3-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night.

The Boro comfortably saw off Wycombe through a brace from Danny Rose and a Terence Vancooten header to progress in the Papa John's Trophy. 

Rose started the scoring in the opening minutes with an emphatic finish and it set the tone for the rest of the game. Steve Evans' men have made a blistering start to their league campaign and they were equally as impressive in the Papa John's Trophy against League One opposition. 

The hosts doubled their lead in the second half when Rose grabbed his second of the night and the game was put to bed when Vancooten bundled the ball home with ten minutes to go. 

Both managers saw the clash as an opportunity to shake their teams up and give some minutes to fringe players. The hosts made six changes from their 3-0 defeat to Bradford at the weekend whilst Gareth Ainsworth only kept veteran Sam Vokes in the lineup from their trip to Derby. 

Boro came out all guns blazing and had taken the lead in the opening three minutes. After the young Wycombe defence failed to clear their lines from a routine cross, Jake Taylor headed the ball towards Danny Rose to volley low into the corner. 

The first half continued in a similar vein and the duo who combined for the first goal almost punished The Chairboys again on the twenty minute mark. Rose caught the Wycombe defence asleep and prodded the ball towards Taylor who failed to hit the target from close range. 

The youthfulness of the visitors was clear to see and their first half performance was blighted by carelessness on the ball. Vokes, however, provided an outlet of experience up front and went closest to levelling the scores before half time. He was played through on goal by Connor Parsons and was denied only by a superb reflex save by Stevenage 'keeper Aaron Chapman.

Vokes was replaced at half-time with Ali Al-Hamadi and shortly after the break Ainsworth found his side two goals down. Rose started and finished off the move to grab his second goal of the evening. After he won the ball in midfield he carried on his run and headed the ball comfortably into the roof of the net from Kane Smith's looping cross. 

Despite having an even share of possession Wycombe were unable to test the Stevenage goal and with ten minutes to go they were made to pay for their wastefulness. Rose had a chance for his hat-trick with a spectacular half-volley which was just beaten away by Tyla Dickinson. 

However, the resulting corner was met by the head of Terence Vancooten and despite the best efforts of the Wycombe players to clear off the line the ball nestled into the back of the net to give Stevenage their deserved three goal lead. 

Stevenage didn't seem satisfied with their three goals, however, and substitute Jordan Roberts was denied by Dickinson in the closing seconds. It was a comfortable win for the hosts and they continue to impress this season under Steve Evans.