Steve Evans pleased with Stevenage’s response to weekend defeat

Posted Wednesday, April 26, 2023 by PA

Stevenage boss Steve Evans said his team used the disappointment of their weekend defeat to bounce back with a 1-0 win at Swindon.

Jamie Reid’s 13th goal of the season was enough to sink Swindon and put his side within one win of promotion to Sky Bet League One.

Evans said: “I think our boys were magnificent. I think we got the team right, the tactics right in how we played.

“We energised the boys after the Mansfield loss on Saturday. We listened to their celebrations, that was hard.

“Sometimes, as the captain said to me on Sunday, it just sparks you again. That’s what it has done.

“We asked the guys to give us a big performance and they’ve given us a big performance. But we know – and you know – we’ve achieved nothing yet. We just go into Saturday and see what we can do.

“I think Swindon fans think they should have had a penalty, the video evidence says no.

Stevenage had an early free-kick on the edge of the box that was tapped to one side to tee up Jordan Roberts and his strike flew just over the top.

After Swindon failed to properly clear, Alex Gilbey was able to get in behind and cut back to Jamie Reid, who firmly placed his shot into the bottom corner from six yards.

In first-half stoppage time, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy ran the length of the field before teeing up George McEachran, but his side-foot finish was too close to Timothee Lo-Tutala.

Within a minute of the restart, Hepburn-Murphy played a one-two with Luke Jephcott to find space, but his shot was well saved by Lo-Tutala.

Danny Rose was handed a chance to double Boro’s lead shortly after half-time when Roberts picked him out at the back post, but he headed the ball back across goal towards no one.

Swindon head coach Jody Morris said that the referee failed to do his job as he got four blatant penalty decisions for his team wrong.

Morris said: “If we have a referee that gets the decisions right then I think we would have had one penalty in the first half and then three more in the second half.

“The three in the second half were just blatant penalties.

“When you are on the front foot and competing against a team like that, you just need to get the right decisions, especially when they are so clear and obvious.

“I believe if the right decisions were made then we would be sitting here with three points.”