Alex Revell earns manager praise as Stevenage beat Swindon

Posted Wednesday, March 13, 2019 by PA

Stevenage boss Dino Maamria claims Alex Revell’s work-rate made the difference as the veteran striker’s first-half goal helped his side to a 2-0 win over Swindon.

After 36 minutes, Revell produced a diving header from Joel Byrom’s cross to beat the previously-invulnerable Lawrence Vigouroux.

Ilias Chair grabbed a long-range second in injury-time after Vigouroux had gone up for a corner in search of an equaliser.

He said: “It was a brilliant team performance and we got what we deserved.

“Revvy (Revell) deserved his goal, you can see his work-rate. He leads from the front and he makes the difference. It’s good to see.”

The win move Stevenage up to 10th, five points outside the play-offs, and Maamria is making no bones about his side’s ambition to crack the top seven.

“We’re in a good position but we’ve got a big game coming up on Saturday (away to fourth-placed MK Dons) and we’ve got to keep working hard,” explained the Boro boss.

“Sometimes you lose focus when you talk about the play-offs, but if we show the same purpose and endeavour, we’ll get to where we deserve to be.

“We were gutted to lose on Saturday (1-0 at home to Bury), so we were determined not to let that result affect us.

“I thought performance was as good as Saturday but we were more clinical. We switched on tactically and better defensively, which helped us win the game.

“In the first half we should have scored two or three goals but we were more fluid going forward in the second half.

“We finish strongly in the last 15 minutes of games and we seem to score late on. I like our fans to go home happy – and I’m sure they did after this one.

Stevenage would have scored more if not for Vigouroux’s resolve between the sticks and Swindon’s own play-off hopes took a major blow – now lying 12th and seven points behind Colchester in seventh.

Town boss Richie Wellens was livid with the first-half performance in particular and hinted that a major squad overhaul could be on the way in the summer.

Wellens said: “Not too many players turned up, that was our worst first 45 minutes in a long time.

“To be honest I can’t wait to get some players in, I’m just really disappointed for our travelling supporters.

“We had some decent chances but we started slowly and took a bit of time to get going.

“Dion Conroy was our best player by a mile, but the players know they need to be better than that.

“We played well in patches but it’s a frustrating result, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve still got a lot to play for this season, but we need to improve.”