Steve Evans delighted Stevenage are delivering for fans and owner

Posted Sunday, January 22, 2023 by PA

Stevenage manager Steve Evans was delighted to see his team put on a show in front of a bumper crowd as they swept past league leaders Leyton Orient to close the gap at the top to two points.

A record league attendance of 6,989 at the Lamex Stadium witnessed the hosts fly out of the traps by scoring twice in the first 11 minutes.

Stevenage could go above Orient should they win at Swindon on Tuesday ahead of their enticing FA Cup fourth round tie at Stoke next Sunday.

It continued what has been a stunning turnaround in fortunes under Evans for Stevenage, who had struggled at the wrong end of the division in each of the previous three seasons.

Evans said: “I’ve said for weeks if I’d have watched this club for four, five years and they were at the bottom of the garden, the curtains would have been shut, the blinds would have been down, and I’d turn the telly up because it wasn’t good.

“I’ve got to say our chairman didn’t deserve that – his investment’s been incredible, he deserved better and these players are giving him better.

“We just turn up and organise them, take training and pick the team, but our players are making a point that we can do OK this season.

“We’ve just got to remain focused, I know how tough Tuesday is going to be, nobody needs to tell me how tough Swindon are going to be on Tuesday, and then we get a free hit at a wonderful stadium.”

On how well his side performed, Evans added: “I don’t want to single anyone out today because everyone did their job today in some fashion and did it really well.

“They’re an outstanding team, we’ve played them twice in a month and we’re so lucky that we’ve got four points.”

Stevenage were ahead in the sixth minute when Terence Vancooten’s free kick was headed on by Carl Piergianni and Jamie Reid beat Lawrence Vigouroux to the ball to nod it past him.

A rocking atmosphere was only intensified by the Boro quickly doubling their lead when Jordan Roberts was allowed to cut inside before shooting past Vigouroux at his near post.

A miserable first half for Orient was compounded by them losing Idris El Mizouni to a second yellow card for a deliberate handball, their third sending off in four games.

Having looked shaky in the first 45 minutes, Vigouroux went on to keep the score respectable for the O’s, as he brilliantly kept out Piergianni’s header.

He also stayed strong to beat away Jake Reeves’ effort before doing well to tip Danny Rose’s header from Roberts’ cross over as Stevenage pushed for a third.

They finally had it in stoppage time when substitute Luke Norris ran through on goal after a slip from Jordan Brown before producing a calm finish.

While still 15 points ahead of fourth-placed Carlisle, Orient have now scored just once in their last six games and manager Richie Wellens was fuming with their first-half performance.

He said: “We didn’t compete, first and foremost.

“The last one was a counter attack when we’re down to 10 men, from a mistake, but the first two goals were diabolical from our point of view.

“I’ll take more or less all the criticism because I think I got the team wrong today. The way that we set up was wrong, but also players have to look in the mirror as well.

“Every time we went long, we were short and every time they went long, it was in behind and we were running back towards our own goal and making it tough for ourselves.

“A really bad day at the office and when we fill out that away stand and then at the finish of the game there’s only a couple of hundred there, that breaks my heart because it was nowhere near good enough today.”