Boro Player spoke to Gary Smith after Saturday’s home defeat against Colchester United and he revealed that despite the obvious initial disappointment of losing the tie, he and his staff can turn things around.
Speaking after the final whistle manager Smith said, “There is no doubt that there’s an edginess about our play and we are all bitterly disappointed to get beaten, and again at home.
He continued, “It’s the toughest challenge I’ve had to face as a young manager, what I can tell you is that the players, myself and all of the staff are well and truly up for it.”
His Stevenage side could well have taken the lead in the first half but opposition goalkeeper Sam Walker saved well from midfielder Anthony Grant, however after the break the away side took control and two Jabo Ibehre efforts were the difference.
It makes it six defeats on the bounce for Stevenage but Smith is confident that he can turn things around, and that both the players and staff have the ability to do so.
“You can see the disappointment, it becomes almost a natural occurrence that when you concede a goal, especially after four or five defeats on the spin, the feelings are ‘here we go again’. The players are very good individuals and very good characters; they’re feeling the pinch at the moment as we all are, but our challenge is probably three wins to make sure we secure our League One status and I have absolutely no doubt that in our last twelve games we can get that.
“We have the bodies to do it, we have the players’ mentality to do it and the staff certainly are fully behind each and every one of those individuals in the changing room to get it done. Is it going to be easy? Absolutely not. Somehow and someway we have to get a result and try and change everybody’s perspective and at least lift some personalities in there.”
Smith continued, “As much as there are players who’s form has dipped, or they’re finding it difficult to reach the sort of standards that they were earlier on in the season, what we have got is a very competitive group and guys that can come in and they can not only compete but they’re good footballers.
“There were spells in that first half where I thought we showed some good signs and there is no doubt that we looked competitive, of course there were efforts at goal at both ends and we had a terrific chances ourselves to go in front through Anthony Grant and those moments make a big difference in a game. They’d had a couple of sights at goal but if we had nicked the lead then of course it can change everybody’s feelings about what is going on, but when it’s not quite going your way you have to be frugal and we must keep our goal intact. We haven’t been able to do that for the last couple of games, in fact we have conceded too many goals full stop.”
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Apologies for the abrupt ending to the interview but this is due to technical difficulties.