Stevenage will remember the reaction of the Northampton Town players to their win at the Lamex and use it to drive them to bigger and better things.

That was the view of Boro boss Steve Evans after the 3-2 loss to the Cobblers in League Two, a match that had a dramatic start and a even-more explosive finish, with three goals in the final 10 minutes and a sending off.

The loss, Stevenage's first at home since April, was celebrated loudly by both the visiting fans and the visiting players, with the latter getting a little bit too rumbustious for Evans' liking.

He said: "It demonstrates how important [the win] was to them when they were shouting into our dressing room and singing. 

"It’s October. You don’t shout in people’s faces in October because there are too many games and a long way to go. 

"Nothing has been won or lost today. 

"Psychologically it would have been good for us if we’d beat them but we didn’t and we know why we didn’t. 

"The dressing room is hurting and I don’t need to do a team talk [for the next couple of weeks].

"The Northampton players did it in the tunnel by singing and shouting and trying to come in our dressing room. 

"They were happy and I understand the jubilations, I’ve done it, but I’ve not tried to get in the opposition dressing room."

The game was the big game of the day in League Two, with Boro on top and Northampton in third.

It got off to a grandstand start with a penalty for the away side awarded on 22 seconds and converted 36 seconds later.

Danny Rose equalised and then Alex Gilbey did the same on 85 minutes, three minutes after Kieran Bowie had put Northampton ahead for the second time.

Two minutes later though Shaun McWilliams won it for the Cobblers with Evans furious at what he called "criminal defending".

The boss said: "We deserved to get the second but the third goal is criminal defending.

"We don’t defend well on the halfway line, we don’t defend well on the edge of our box and we’ll ask the players to learn from that. 

"I don’t think there is any doubt it was a penalty and we lost our way for a good half an hour. 

"That happens in big games when someone gets a goal so early. 

"We’ll take it and we’ll see what we can do at Doncaster but if we do win there, we’ll not be shouting and bawling in the visitors’ dressing room as happened here. 

"We’ll go away, say well done to Northampton but you can see how far we’ve come for them to do that."

The bad day for the boss himself was crowned by a sending off for two yellow cards on 28 minutes.

Evans said: "The first yellow card was because their manager used a real expletive at my assistant. I asked him not to speak to my staff like that in no uncertain terms and I got the card and he didn’t. 

"Then when I was in the bench, I clapped the referee and told him he was having a great game. 

"The EFL have real trouble recruiting referees in League One and Two who know the game, understand the passion. 

"The man in the middle never understood that."