Stevenage manager Graham Westley spoke to the official website after this afternoon’s 1-0 defeat at Swindon and whilst he was disappointed with the result he indicated today was always going to be a challenge, albeit one he wasn’t going to let heads get down about.
“It was a disappointing result. We were just counting up and I think we had two starters from the game right at the end of last season. We have made a lot of changes from the start of the season and we were realistic enough to know it was going to take some time to settle the side down and get us playing to the type of level we need to play at. You can’t make nine changes from a starting eleven and then come to a play-off side at the end of last year and expect to dominate.
“First half I think our way of playing was a little bit confused. We talked to the players about intelligent football and being prepared to turn sides at the same time as being prepared to play. I think we were a bit predictable in the first half, second half I thought we were much better.”
Massimo Luongo scored the only goal of the game in the 25th minute and on that, and his own team’s chances, the gaffer said, “I think it was deflected. I thought I saw a big deflection on it which took it past Steve Arnold. I wouldn’t have expected him to get beaten from that range but I think there was a big deflection on it.
“We had two or three good chances second half ourselves. Dani could have easily scored from Shrooty’s ball in and Greg Tansey blazed over when he was in front of goal. We could have easily got it back in the second half and certainly as the game wore on we started to look stronger and were more assured about what we were doing.
“The learning process is never an easy one and I think you have got to make sure you don’t get carried away when things go well and you don’t get carried away when things don’t go so well. When you consider we got smashed out of sight 3-0 at the end of last season here and we only got edged out today, that’s progress in itself. We just have to make sure we keep our confidence high, keep building on what we are doing. I think we will be at the level that we want before too long.”
“It was a fairly even contest in the second half. We struggled in the first five minutes. In the second half we got back in the game and we gave ourselves a good chance to win the points. It would have been a good point away from home and it would have been a good measure of progress.
“It’s not worth getting our heads too down. It’s not the start we wanted but we only had two points from our first three games when we won the Conference so we are not going to get our heads too down about it.”
The full video interview with GW, which includes his views on the squad strength, squad players and the latest on Chris Day’s injury, will be online in due course.