Boro boss Graham Westley saluted the awesome support of the club s travelling fans following Saturday s 3-0 defeat to Leicester in the FA Cup first round.

Boro boss Graham Westley saluted the "awesome" support of the club's travelling fans following Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Leicester in the FA Cup first round.

More than 1,000 Stevenage supporters made the trip to the Walkers Stadium at the weekend and, despite seeing their side well beaten by their League One opponents, they ensured their presence was felt and rewarded their heroes with a warm reception at the final whistle.

"The fans were fantastic," said Westley, who saw his side go down to goals from Lloyd Dyer, Mattt Fryatt and Andy King. "They were loud and they kept the noise going even as the score deteriorated.

"At the end the reception they gave the players was awesome and I'm really proud to be their manager."

Westley praised his players for a spirited display and believes the tie could have panned out very differently had Steve Morison taken an excellent chance at 0-0 after being put through by Eddie Anaclet.

"I thought the boys worked very hard. They set about their task in an intelligent way in the first half. We passed the ball well for the first half hour and had Steve Morison put the chance away that he got down the right hand channel then it could have been a different story.

"You need to be clinical if you are going to pull off an upset and we just lacked that little bit of clinical edge that could have made the difference."

Westley adopted a 4-5-1 formation and this managed to initially nullify the Foxes going forward but from the point Morison missed his chance there looked to be only one winner.

"We passed the ball very well and showed good composure," added Westley. "We were nice and settled in the environment and I think they found it difficult to build their play up against us.

"We dropped the one in the hole behind the midfield and (Gary) Millsy picked up the bits and pieces that (Steve) Howard was winning up top.

"Had the Morison chance gone in then there might have been a little bit more pressure on the home side and sometimes that can work to their disadvantage. We needed to take that chance really to make a game of it."

Encouragement

"After a very slow start to the season in our league we have started to perform much better. We won two points from five games and five points from seven games and we were sitting in the bottom two so we didn't have a great start to the season.

"I was new to the players and the club again and they were new to each other. We've won 22 points from our last 10 games which is much better form and today I think a lot of players will take encouragement from putting in some good performances against good quality players. That confidence can only serve us well.

"The reason that we have been winning points is because we've been passing the ball well. They have been organised out of possession and they have been working really hard to score their goals at the other end.

"We came into today's game believing that if we got things right on the day and if Leicester underperformed then we could expect to get ourselves a result.

"I think they are in there a little bit disappointed because they wanted to spring a surprise but they are determined lads and I'm sure they will kick on in their league form.