Dino Maamria was delighted to see his side not only win, but win well on Saturday as Stevenage saw off the challenge of Yeovil Town at the Lamex Stadium...
After a disappointing performance the previous weekend, particularly in the first half, Maamria says it was very pleasing to see the opposite occur this time around.
"The first half we were very good and the only thing we lacked was a goal," he said. "After last week’s loss, everyone was apprehensive and a bit nervous as we were looking for that goal. Everyone expected us to turn up and win but Yeovil have been alright away from home, I think they have kept 7 clean sheets away from home.
"They get behind the ball, they put bodies behind the ball and defended really well. I thought in the first half we totally dominated the game and we played on the front foot.
"What I asked them before the game was (to show) totally the opposite to last week, to go on the front foot and show people who have spent money to come and watch that we intend on going and winning the game.
"I told the players, we might score in the first minute, we might score in the last minute. You have got to be patinet, keep building play and trust the process in terms of doing the right things at the right times. We will take the 1-0 and move onto the next one."
With less than 20 minutes to go, it was Alex Revell who popped up with another crucial winner to send the Stevenage fans wild.
"It was a great finish by Revs, a good cross and that is the kind of thing we have been trying to build in terms of getting over-loads right, getting crosses into the box and giving our centre forwards the chance to score goals.
"We have been working on that in the last couple of days in terms of getting our centre forward in the middle of the goal to score and he did that."
The game though will be perhaps best remembered for the debuts of two young Stevenage players. After signing on loan with the club on Deadline Day, Ilias Chair - who started the game and put in a Man of the Match performance - and Jordan Gibson - who created the assist for Alex Revell - both contributed to the victory in a big way.
"I think Jordan’s crosses were excellent today, he came on and put two or three good crosses in which is something that we have been missing.
"The outstanding playing for me today was Ilias Chair, he was relentless. He was athletic going forward, technically very, very good, his work rate defending was brilliant. I think our fans will love him because he is our type of player.
"Hunty also had another excellent performance and as a back four, it is good to get back to clean sheets. We have not had a clean sheet for a while and clean sheets always get some points on board.
"Kurtis has been out for a while you could see why we missed him. His quality in holding up the ball, his running in-behind, all of those things that Kurtis brought in today. I was not going to play him for the whole game ideally but he was well in the game and he finished strongly so it was good to have him back."
Victories for the teams immediately above Stevenage in the race for the Play-Offs are to only heighten the importance of picking up all three points.
"Those top teams keep winning. The first thing we looked at when we got back in the changing room was that we saw Exeter beat MK Dons, Colchester beat Northampton and those top teams keep winning.
"We have got to keep winning, we have got two away games in the next two weeks. We will prepare for Tranmere first, it will be a tough game for us but to go on with any ambition from that until the end of the season we have got to make sure that we are coming back from these games with a positive result."
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