Stevenage deserved some luck, says boss Darren Sarll

Posted Sunday, January 28, 2018 by PA

Stevenage manager Darren Sarll reckoned his team deserved the slice of good fortune which earned them a 1-0 win at Chesterfield.

A poor game was settled early in the second half when goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale’s attempted clearance bounced off Ben Kennedy and into the net.

It was a goal in keeping with the match which never got going and was short on quality throughout with both teams creating little.

Stevenage almost scored in the 22nd minute when a free kick from Mark McKee was headed against a post by Danny Newton but the rest of the half was forgettable.

Ramsdale’s mistake in the 48th minute gave Stevenage an advantage Chesterfield rarely threatened although Louis Reed had a 25-yard free kick pushed over and Joe Rowley’s shot from 12 yards was deflected behind.

Chris O’Grady glanced a header just wide from a corner in the 76th minute but that was the closest Chesterfield came as they missed out on winning three games in a row for the first time since 2015.

Sarll thought the victory was a reward for his side’s effort. “If you work as hard as we do, and we do work hard, I think you are allowed a little bit of fortune.

“Ben Kennedy’s goal doesn’t come unless he works very hard so I thought we deserved that although I’m sure Jack (Lester) is thinking completely the opposite.

“Those who were here saw Stevenage at their very traditional best in terms of we got the goal from sheer persistence and desire. The quality was limited at times but our foundation is to try and give a little bit more than anyone else and I thought we did that today.”

Chesterfield manager Jack Lester admitted his team had not done enough and said: “I think 0-0 would have been about right.

“There wasn’t much in the game and we didn’t play anywhere near really. They didn’t worry us going forward and it was a freak goal. I thought our shape was good, we knew where their strengths would be and we nullified that.

“But the quality wasn’t there today and the basics weren’t done well. It was a scrappy game and it looked like 0-0 was the way it was going.

“He (Ramsdale) is disappointed, they don’t normally go in, it was a bit of a freak goal and they didn’t really cause any problems but we didn’t impose our fast attacking football on them.”