Graham Westley wants more after Stevenage end barren run in style

Posted Sunday, January 19, 2020 by PA

Graham Westley aims for his Stevenage side to build on their resounding win at Cambridge after they scored more goals in one afternoon than their last 11 League Two games combined.

Stevenage recorded their first league victory since October 26 with a comprehensive 4-0 success on the road.

Elliott List scored in the first half and Jake Cassidy’s header, on his debut after signing from Maidenhead this week, doubled the advantage before late strikes from Charlie Carter and Charlie Lakin.

“It was a relief to everybody to finally show that we’re capable of playing League Two winning football,” Westley said afterwards.

“You need ingredients to bake a cake. Our cake was better today. I’ve been saying since I’ve been here that there are a lot of good ingredients in that dressing room, but there having been some missing ingredients. My job is to identify players that can do the jobs that weren’t getting done and bring people in to strengthen us. Hopefully the team can get stronger.

“My reaction is two-fold. Number one, delighted, and number two, let’s recover right for Tuesday night. Winning after winning is an art. We’ve proved we can win and now we’ve got to prove we can win after winning.

“If you know your job, and I’d like to think that I do know my job, and you keep working hard at it then in the end you get rewards.

“The debutants made a big difference but let’s credit the team. From back right the way through to front everybody did their job in a positive, front-footed way and that’s the Stevenage way.”

For Cambridge, the humiliating defeat was their sixth loss in seven matches and leaves Colin Calderwood’s side nine points above the relegation zone.

“We’ve got to just tell the fans that we’re sorry for what happened in the second half,” Calderwood said.

“We obviously didn’t get to compete with them. Then went it went 2-0, if it stays 2-0 so be it, but to allow it to go to three and four looks as if we’re giving up. They kept running harder with the incentive that they’re ahead in the game and we were very, very poor of course.

“Hands up, we’ll take all the criticism, of which there should be quite a bit, and we have to accept that and take it on the chin a wee bit and work again from Monday through to next Saturday and look for an improvement.

“It was calamitous really. Some of the play was so substandard. I think we went under from the second goal onwards and didn’t really believe that we’d push, force, get a break, be lucky to get maybe a goal back to change the game and that’s disappointing.”