Boro skipper says his side got the basics wrong in defeat to Notts County

Mark Roberts said his side were well below their best in their defeat to Notts County on Saturday.

Stevenage went into the game on the back of a 5-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday last Tuesday but were unable to maintain the same level of performance against Martin Allen’s side as goals from Lee Hughes and Ben Burgess helped the visitors to a 2-0 win.

Craig Reid saw his early penalty saved by County goalkeeper Stuart Nelson after Krystian Pearce had brought the striker down in the box, and although both Roberts and manager Graham Westley believed Pearce should have seen red for the challenge the Stevenage skipper said he will not use that as an excuse as to why Boro performed poorly.

“I spoke to the referee [about the foul] and he thought that [Reid] wasn’t going to pull the trigger,” Roberts said.

“I thought he was. From my angle he looked like he was going to at least have a shot at goal and the letter of the law would suggest that would be a red card, but that’s not what we’ll hang our defeat on as we were far from our best.

“It was a huge disappointment for everyone in the dressing room after the game. Not just the result but the actual performance. We were well below our best and we have to put that right.

“Tuesday [against Wednesday] we were fantastic, and as good as we were Tuesday we were as bad today. The most disappointing thing is we didn’t get the basics right, and unless you get the basics right you’re not going to win football matches.

“We got after them. Our goal at the start of the game was to start well and score early and Reidy had that opportunity from the penalty spot and unfortunately he couldn’t put that away and we didn’t react from that situation to make sure we took the lead. We conceded two goals at two poor times and that’s why we lost today.”