Stevenage's first-half showing against Rotherham ‘above Wrexham'

Powys County Times

3 days ago

Manager Alex Revell hailed Stevenage's first-half performance in Saturday's narrow 1-0 League One win over Rotherham as 'above Wrexham'.
It was the same score as that victory over the Welsh side in October and came with a superb hard-working effort matched by this success over the Millers.
Jamie Reid's deft header after 40 minutes had given Boro an interval lead and they should have put the game to bed as they passed up a succession of chances in the second half.
Revell said: 'For me, the first half was one of the best I've seen. I put that above Wrexham.
'I thought we had everything. We had energy, the start we wanted where we asked for runners in behind to get crosses and shots.
'That was an excellent performance and then second half, you saw a resilient team that put their bodies on the line in certain moments.
'We had 12 shots and not enough on target but we restricted them to five and none on target.
'That tells a story from the game. It was only going to be a set-piece they scored from because other than that, we were strong and dominant.'
And the boss had praise for Northern Ireland international Reid as he followed up a brace in the win over Blackpool last time out.
He added: 'All of a sudden we've got wide players and overlapping full-backs that want to put crosses in the box.
'The delivery for the goal was right and the movement was right, but the execution of his header was top class. It was another performance where he just grows.
'I'm delighted for him as it's his hard work and energy that gets us the win.'
Rotherham manager Matt Hamshaw was left to look at what ifs in a toothless display that brought no shots on target.
He said: 'I'm disappointed and frustrated but I know what we've got in this group.
'We're up and down and we've got to stop this not turning up for halves of football.
'First half we didn't turn up. We could have gone in 0-0 at half-time but they get the lead and then they're hanging on a little bit, but we were huffing and puffing and not creating a lot.
'I'm not going to rant and rave as it's only the second game of season, but the levels have got to improve as we didn't show anywhere near enough quality.
'Stevenage are a hard-working team and they put balls into the box, but I felt for the majority of the game we dealt with that.
'But they could have arguably won 2-0 or 3-0 with the chances created, albeit on the counter attack – and it didn't look like we had much.'