GW, Doughty and Hartley give their thoughts following the 2-0 win over Crawley.
Graham Westley praised his side’s battling qualities this afternoon, as Stevenage put in something of a “backs to the wall” performance to win 3 points against Crawley.
After Peter Hartley scored Boro’s first set piece of the season early in the game, Crawley put Boro under the cosh for much of the match and Graham admitted that we had to see a different side of the team for us to win.
“We weren’t at our best, we didn’t play great with the ball and we looked leggy.
“Our attacking players weren’t at their very best but it was about digging in, being gritty, being hard working, being organised, being together, scoring at a set piece, digging in some more and eventually getting a late counter attack goal that put a seal on it.”
The atmosphere at The Lamex was fantastic throughout the match and Graham has noticed a real difference on a match days.
“There’s a little bit more of the old feel about the place, that little bit of a buzz you got used to feeling in this stadium. I have to say I’ve not been really feeling it since April when I come back.
“There’s a real appreciation now that this team is starting to get back to winning ways, wanting to give the club some more success, playing with ambition, not playing with fear, getting out there and doing what you need to win.”
Michael Doughty finished the game off in injury time with a fine solo effort, his first goal for the club.
“The managers been on at me for not utilising some of the things I've been doing in training on a match day. I’m just pleased to finally break my duck because it’s been 13 games now and I want to add goals to my game.”
Despite winning 4 games out of the last 5, Michael was cautious with his praise for the team.
“I wouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves, we've not really achieved anything yet but the last couple of weeks have shown that we’ve had a real change in emphasis and we've really come together and started performing. We knew we were capable of it, it was just getting the confidence and understanding what was required of us.”
Peter Hartley also scored his first goal of the season, and praised Greg Tansey’s delivery in the build-up to the goal.
“We’ve worked really hard on corners for the last couple of weeks, me, Jones, Ash and Greg - who was different class today. He put it on a plate for me, all I had to do was connect and it was going in the goal, really good to get off the mark for the club.
“If we’re going to be successful this season we’ll all need to dig in and pull each other through. Today was the defences turn to repay the strikers for the easy job they gave us on Tuesday. We've made our money today, so to speak”
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