‘We left ourselves with too much to do’ says Stevenage manager

Speaking after their 2-0 defeat to Southend United on Saturday, Stevenage manager Graham Westley believes the game was over in the first half.

Goals from Myles Weston and Ben Coker in the first 20 minutes secured Southend’s second win of the season and leaving the Hertfordshire club with plenty of reflect on.

“We let the game go in that first 10-15 mins. There was a big home crowd and we haven’t faced that type of pressure previously. We’ve played away games but against lower level sides without the crowd in and we didn’t stay on top of the game as we planned to,” said the 46-year-old manager, speaking to the club’s official website.

“We let our organisation go defensively, the back four shape we lost for the first goal and Tom let his man come in off the line for the second goal.

“They weren’t typical Stevenage goals that we concede. If a side does something special then great, but one long ball to get flicked on and end up in the back of our net isn’t what we do.

“I don’t think we can complain we didn’t win the game, albeit we did show some fight and we did get back into it second half. We left ourselves too much to do and we don’t want to be coming to places like this and going two behind early on.”

Next up for Stevenage is a midweek League game against Plymouth, who picked up their first this weekend in a 3-0 win against rivals Exeter.