Maamria stunned Stevenage are still winless in League Two

Posted Sunday, September 01, 2019 by PA

Stevenage manager Dino Maamria was left scratching his head after seeing his side miss out on a first League Two win of the season by conceding a late penalty at home to Macclesfield.

After coming from behind, the Boro looked on course for all three points until Joe Ironside converted from the penalty spot with five minutes left after Kelland Watts’ challenge on Emmanuel Osadebe.

And Maamria revealed his side must improve at both ends of the pitch if they’re going to convert good periods of play into points this season.

“I can’t believe we didn’t win,” he said. “We’ve peppered their goal and played on the front foot. We could have had four or five in the first half, but it just wasn’t to be.

“If we’re being brutally honest with ourselves, we weren’t great defensively today and we need to take more ownership going forward. We’ve created chances today we really should be putting away.

“I’m not going to fault the effort, because the boys who had the shirts today gave me everything.

“There’s a lot of belief and togetherness in that dressing room, and we’ve continued to work incredibly hard on the training pitch, especially on being a side that plays front-foot football.

“The lads are disappointed, but people have left the ground today having seen us play good football, create chances and play to entertain.

“Once we can get some of our injured bodies back, I think we’ll be a different animal.”

Macclesfield took the lead against the run of play in the first half through Ben Stephens, but the introduction of Jason Cowley at half-time inspired an improved performance from the hosts.

Kurtis Guthrie stabbed home the equaliser before 21-year-old Luther James-Wildin fired in a long-range effort to give Stevenage the lead.

But Watts’ foul gifted Macclesfield a share of the spoils and Silkmen boss Daryl McMahon believes the point could prove a crucial one.

McMahon said: “I can’t fault the spirit we showed this afternoon. We talked about managing the emotion of the game and we probably invited a fair bit of pressure on ourselves, but they’re a good side.

“We dug deep to get ourselves back into it and for me it’s certainly a point gained rather than two points lost.

“They’re a very capable team and when we look back later in the season, I think we’ll see this result as a positive one.

“There’s a fair bit we’ve learned about ourselves in terms of managing the game, but fair play to them. They deserved their goals – I can’t sit and tell you that they didn’t.

“You can’t help but applaud the second one, which was very special.”