Boro boss pleased with display in win over Hartlepool, and pleased with response of fans to his return to the club

Graham Westley says he had no doubt that his side would score against Hartlepool United before Max Ehmer slotted home the only goal of the game 15 minutes from time in yesterday’s (Monday) League 1 win.

Westley was in charge at the Lamex Stadium for the first time since his re-appointment at the weekend, and afterwards said that he was made to feel welcome by the club’s fans and staff and that his side worked hard for the win.

“It was nice to be back,” Westley said.

“[It was a] really welcoming afternoon from the fans, everybody at the club was pleased to see me back I think, that was the feeling I got, and the players put on a really strong performance.

“It was gritty, determined, organised, and considering that they’ve only had a couple of days to get themselves ready after the Crawley game and to take on board a new manager I thought they were outstanding.

“Hartlepool are a fighting side. They’ve had some strong results in recent times in the sense of being unbeaten, they go to Sheffield united and win, so they’ve shown what they’ve got in their locker.

“There are no easy games at this level, we knew that they would come and give nothing away, and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t really concede too many chances and we didn’t over the 90 minutes.

“It would have been great if we could have converted more of the chances that we created ourselves but in the end we got the one, we kept the clean sheet and 1-0 gets your three points.

“I have to say I felt [the goal] coming. I didn’t really have any doubt that we’d go and score and Luke Freeman could easily have made it 2-0 before the death.

“I didn’t really have any doubt about the players, I think they played with an intent, they played to win the game and they did exactly what they set out to do.”