Matt Taylor delighted with Exeter’s late winner against Stevenage

Matt Taylor hailed Matt Jay’s late winner as a “big moment” as Exeter finally saw off basement club Stevenage in a 2-1 win at St James Park.

It took until the 37th minute for the deadlock to be broken as Randell Williams planted a bullet header past Paul Farman from Pierce Sweeney’s excellent cross.

The Grecians got stronger as the game went on, but could not finish the opportunities they were creating and were made to pay with 10 minutes remaining when Sweeney was robbed of the ball and it was played to Daniel Kemp to lash home.

But two minutes later, substitute Jay came up trumps with a winning goal that lifts Exeter back into the top three.

“I thought we played well and they were a better team than we played against (in the EFL Trophy) a few weeks ago,” Taylor said.

“We created enough chances to win it more comfortably and their goal came out of nowhere, but if you don’t kill teams off, it only takes one moment of brilliance or a mistake from us, and that’s what happened.

“But what a big moment that was from Matt Jay because if it had gone on for any longer, in terms of trying to score to get ahead, the anxiety of the players and everyone inside the stadium would have changed.

“But the fact we got back in front straight away just settled everyone down and I felt we were comfortable after that.

“You can’t tell me that Lewis (Ward) has had too much to do today.

“It was a huge moment and full credit to Matt Jay because if that had finished as a draw, we would have felt hard done by.

“We trust Matt Jay and he has been unlucky to be behind certain personnel. With the way we are set up right now, he and Nicky Law are fighting for the same shirt and Nicky Law is arguably our best player, but he was in the right place at the right time today.

“But I felt the whole team group performed well today.”

Stevenage, who made nine new signings in January, have their work cut out in their bid to avoid relegation from the English Football League.

Manager Graham Westley said: “Although we are a new squad, you wouldn’t have known it. There was the odd passage of play that was untidy.

“But there was a tidiness about us, there was a lot of good discipline and some good football played us. We restricted them to limited amount of chances and we created our own.

“We tidied up at half-time, I thought we were much better in the second half and created moments and we eventually got back in with the goal.

“We came out of this game knowing we did a lot of things right, our defensive organisation improved when we took things on board.

“What we need to do is make sure is take those things on board from the off.”