Stevenage Borough emerged victorious with three points from this keenly-fought match of two in-form sides in the Conference despite a poor refereeing display from Mr McDermott.
A bright start by Stevenage saw their early pressure pay off with a sublime strike by Anthony Elding after five minutes.
Some good work down the left flank by Jamie Cook and James Gould saw the ball laid off to Elding and his thunderbolt strike from a tight angle left Accrington keeper Jon Kennedy with no chance.
On ten minutes Dino Maamria was through one on one and beat the keeper but his soft shot was cleared off the line.
Stanley then went straight to the other end and in a repeat performance Accrington striker Lutel James went one on one with Lionel Perez but the Stevenage keeper saved well with his feet.
In typical end to end fashion Elding and Simon Travis brought a fine double save out of Kennedy.
At this stage all the chances were falling Stevenage's way. Some fine work by captain Steve Watson released Michael Warner on the right wing and his cross was missed by mere inches when all Elding had to do was get something on the ball and it would have gone in.
On 30 minutes and against the run of play a long free kick by Peter Cavanagh was headed back into the six-yard box and Paul Mullin bundled the ball over the line for the equaliser.
Borough fought back immediately and a looping cross from Travis was headed onto the crossbar by Elding. Just before the break another cross from the right by Warner was dropped by Accrington keeper Kennedy and Elding was there to blast it home from ten yards.
The second half was largely marred by the one-man show from referee McDermott. His constant blowing of the whistle ruined the game for both sides.
Chances were few and far between for both sides to increase the scoring and Borough held out for a deserved victory.