Boro boss Graham Westley hailed the performance of Lawrie Wilson after the midfielder inspired his side to a convincing 3-0 win against Ebbsfleet United on Tuesday evening. While Westley is often loath to single out individual performances, it was imposs

Boro boss Graham Westley hailed the performance of Lawrie Wilson after the midfielder inspired his side to a convincing 3-0 win against Ebbsfleet United on Tuesday evening.

While Westley is often loath to single out individual performances, it was impossible to ignore the all-action display from the 21-year-old, who capped an excellent night's work with a goal late on.

Wilson would arguably have not been in many fans' first choice XIs at the start of the pre-season campaign but his form has been so impressive that he has now made himself one of the first names on the manager's team-sheet.

Westley believes the former Charlton trainee's game has matured after playing a bit-part role for Boro last season.

"I think, as you find with a lot of quick players, that everything they do is at high speed too often," Westley told The Comet. "I think what Lawrie has learned to do is add a bit of composure to his undoubted athleticism and to think about ball retention as part of what he does.

"His end product is improving all the time as we saw not only with his goal but with some of the crosses he put in.

"When you've got athleticism like his and you start to develop quality then you are only going in one direction."

While Wilson was undoubtedly the star of the show, Boro put in an impressive all-round team performance to dispose of Ebbsfleet as goals from Chris Beardsley and Joel Byrom preceded Wilson's late strike.

But with a trip to much-fancied promotion contenders Oxford United to come on Saturday, Westley insisted he will not be getting too carried away by Boro's first win of the season.

"It was definitely another step forward, just like it was at Barrow on Saturday. But there's lessons to learn from the performance - it's easy to get carried away when you win for the first time.

"But we're quite philosophical about it. We're going to enjoy the victory though as it's been a long time in coming.

"We've stuttered to life in the league campaign and it's been a little bit frustrating for everyone but it's great to get that first win.