Gary Smith spoke to the official website after Saturday’s victory at Gresty Road and the manager was delighted to see his side get back to winning ways.
First talking about Chuks Aneke’s strike that gave Crewe the lead, Smith admitted that he worried it may be a similar to picture to that which ahd been painted in recent weeks.
“The cross came in, it looked like a bit of a push on Darius Charles at the back post, but Pogba works it out and I think it’s Chuks coming onto it under pressure, he drives it and scuffs it through someone’s legs, the goalkeeper is unsighted and all the same old feelings come rushing back.
“Up to that point, certainly they hadn’t troubled our goal and we’d had the better territorial advantage, it was a very encouraging start to the game in the first half an hour and to go behind was an absolute body blow.”
His side reacted well to going behind though, and the manager explained that he saw positives in so many areas of the field that he always felt there was a chance of getting back into the game and pushing on from there.
Stevenage certainly did that and two goals in five second half minutes swung the game in Boro’s favour.
“Some of the build up play was extremely encouraging. When we got into the final third the final pass or the movement in the box, the finishing touches weren’t quite right. The one thing that did look good and much more exciting from our standpoint was how we were getting there and that’s not been a feature of us for the last few weeks.
“There was lots of passion, it was more positive and when we came in at half time our focus was on trying to replicate what we had achieved in the first half. The difference was that we found the space to work in, there was better communication, we went 4-4-2 from the start and didn’t change that in the second half and the guys have just warmed to it.”
The only thing that Smith would point at was not being able to secure a third goal and remove any of the nerves surrounding the closing exchanges, but chances weren’t short and on another day that goal may well have come.
“Greg Tansey’s long range efforts are normally ones to savour, I thought he, three or four times, struck the ball ever so well but missed the target.
“Lucas [Akins] and Marcus [Haber] played well up top and showed a good understanding together and I think the addition that we have been able to have of Steve Beleck coming on continued to have that effect and keep the pressure on. It was a real difference to what we have had in the past and if we take the result away from it I am even more pleased about the performance of the group.”
He continued “We won’t get greedy, we’ve come out of the game with all three points from a place where Crewe have shown very good form and we’ll take that result away from here and with a performance like that we will hope to get that home form on track.
“We looked far more assertive and certainly looked more of a threat and today I think maybe a small portion of fortune, that we haven’t been getting of late, was also with us.”
Next up for Boro is the home game with Doncaster Rovers and Smith will be hoping his side can get another positive result and push towards the top six.