Stevenage boss says his team did enough to win today’s League 2 match, a result that sees them move up to eighth

Graham Westley says he disagrees that AFC Wimbledon should have had a penalty in today’s 2-1 home victory against the Dons.

Last week against Morecambe, Boro conceded a soft first-half penalty only to then be denied one of their own when Roarie Deacon appeared to be fouled in the box.

The tables were turned today, however, as Stevenage were awarded a penalty for a foul on Dean Wells which Simon Walton scored to put his side 2-1 up. Then, late in the game, Wimbledon thought they should have had a spot kick when Darius Charles collided with Adebayo Azeez only to have their claims turned down.

Speaking afterwards, Westley said: “There was the penalty late on at Morecambe that wasn’t given last week, but everybody in the ground knew it was a penalty.

“I think when that challenge went in [on Wells] today everybody in the ground knew it was a penalty.”

Talking about the tackle on Azeez, the Boro boss added: “I saw everything that went on and I’m really not sure what they are saying. I was at the time confused and the fact that there’s any hullabaloo about it confused me even more. I didn’t see anything in the situation whatsoever.

“It bemused me at the time and it still doesn’t become any clearer now.”

The victory was Stevenage’s fourth in five matches, and moved the club to within a point of the League 2 play-off places. It was also a win that Westley believed his side deserved.

“In the first half it was difficult against the wind. The conditions were tough and it was much easier for them to stay on top of the game than it was for us.

“I thought we worked very hard. Up until the point where we scored [the opening goal on 32 minutes] I thought we did very well.

“We dropped our standards once the goal went in and gave away a sloppy goal by the standards we’re capable of.

“In the second half I thought we took the game to them, we showed an intention to win. We possibly weren’t clinical enough. We need to just add just a bit more edge and ruthlessness to our forward play. We earned the penalty, scored the penalty and did enough to win the game.

“We did dig in [at the end] and defended well in those last few minutes but we went under the game. We didn’t show the confidence and composure to get the third goal and kill it off.

“I don’t like to go on the back foot; I like to be on the front foot particularly at home. I think we’ve got to get in the habit. When you’re winning, and you’ve been for a while you do stay on the front foot and play with confidence to see the games out and we’ll start to get to that for sure.”