Stevenage FC

Captain Mark Roberts spoke to Boro Player after the game at Colchester and admitted that there his team mates were disappointed with the result and that bouncing back from it is key.

With Colchester winning two of their last three in the League after the appointment of new manager Joe Dunne, Roberts was adamant that his side were not underestimating the U’s.

“We knew a Colchester side at home with a new manager were going to come at us and it was up to us to weather the storm. I thought we did that quite well but probably gave them too many chances but 0-0 at half time we were looking to build on that after the break.”

After Anthony Grant was sent off for a second bookable offence the game changed as Sanchez Watt put the home side ahead and Roberts was frustrated with the way in which Grant was given his marching orders.

“It was difficult to see from where I was maybe the referee could have used some common sense and keep 11 players on the pitch you could probably understand why he gave the second yellow but it would have been good for him to just have a word with Anthony [Grant] but that’s football sometimes, we don’t blame the referee for the defeat and we can only look at ourselves.

“Obviously the sending off is a turning point and then it was a case of chasing the game but credit to the lads they thought tooth and nail up until the last kick of the game and had things gone differently we could have got a point.”

With Boro’s unbeaten run coming to a disappointing end Roberts has no doubt that the squad will be back in on Monday determined to put in a hard weeks training in preparation to get back to winning ways against MK Dons next Saturday.

“It is a big test against MK dons but it is those tests that you have to thrive in and the lads will be itching to get back to training Monday morning, put a good week in and finish off with a good result against MK Dons on Saturday.

“We have not had to deal with too much adversity this season, we have had a couple of defeats in cup competitions but the league run has been nothing short of sensational. We would have liked to win more games but we have shown that when we go behind we have always managed to salvage a draw. It is up to us to dust ourselves down and come back even stronger.”

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