After watching his side produce late heroics to win 3-2 for the second home game in a row, Dino Maamria praised the spirit of his players who clearly never know when to give in...
Stevenage fans had three weeks in-between home games but it was well worth the worth..
Having found themselves 2-1 down against the league leading MK Dons with less than 10 minutes to go, Maamria's men fought back to claim all three points.
Speaking after the game, Maamria said it was a result the team deserved.
"We were very good, especially in the second half," Maamria said. "We tore them to pieces, I thought. In the second half it looked like only one team was going to win it and then they scored. That is the belief in the team, it is the third time now we have come back from behind against good teams. They showed why they were top of the league, they are a good team but they were second citizens throughout the game. They had the first 15 minutes of the game but after that we took charge of it, I thought we were fantastic.
"One of my big messages to the players is to always stay in the game. Stay in the game because sometimes you do everything possible and something might happen that throws it (the game) away. What you have got to do is play the next phase of the game and play the next moment, that is what we did.
"It gave me the chance - when we were still in the game - to make the changes I needed to make, to change the system a little bit and give me a chance as Manager to test myself and see if I can turn it around in 10 minutes. We did that and it is the third time we have done it now, it is fantastic."
The winning goal came from the boot of Ben Kennedy with less than a minute to go of normal time. A wonderful curling free-kick that crashed in-off the crossbar, it was another memorable moment from the young Stevenage attacker.
"He was awesome today, credit to him. We needed him today, Newton is not here, Kurtis is not here and Kenners stepped up to be fair. He was fantastic. He was awesome throughout the game and what a goal he scored, he deserved the winner. Ben Kennedy is a big character, he thrives on those big games and he showed it today again.
"I told him you have got to do everything with belief. If you have got the ball there, and you just hope to hit the target, you are not going to get anything from it. You have got to believe you are going to score from it. He showed from that free-kick that his intention was to put it in the back of the net, and he did that. The belief that he shows comes from within and I think this team have got a lot of that."
---
Subscribe to iFollow for only £4.49 a month & gain full access to all official videos, including all interviews, full match highlights and also live match commentary.
To find out more about our video service, please click here.
