Graham Westley admitted he was in a state of shock after seeing his side fail to convert chances into points against Notts County at the Lamex on Saturday.

Stevenage dominated the shooting stats with 10 on target compared to County’s two, but it was the Magpies that came away with the win after Callum Ball’s first-half goal.

Shaun Derry’s side were indebted to goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski who was in inspired form, beating away everything Boro could fire at him.

“I was shock that we didn’t get an equaliser,” said the Stevenage boss after his side’s 16th loss of the campaign.

“It was one of those days; if you saw the game on chances and took their goal away, you wouldn’t think it was an away win.”

He added: “It’s disappointing that we came away with nothing but that’s not a criticism of the players. Over 90 minutes they put in a lot of good work and deserved a lot more than they got.”

Despite the loss, Westley was adamant the target remains the same as it was before kick-off: win 10 more games.

“We knew going into the game we had to win eight, nine or 10 games to see ourselves as a League One club. Now, we have one less home game to do it in but still need the same number of wins.

“I think you can see when the depths of the squad are tested we struggle. If we can move four or five on and add one or two to strengthen the squad I have no doubt the players are in the right shape and the right place to win games.

“We saw that at Swindon and today. Obviously, we’re disappointed with the result but in performance terms, we had energy, played good football, had lots of chances and on another day we win convincingly.”