Development might be seen as all important in a football management but winning should not be shunned either - meaning Stevenage's Herts Senior Cup victory was most welcome for academy manager Jorden Gibson.

Boro's young side picked up a 2-1 win in their second round match at Potters Bar Town courtesy of goals from Harry Anderson and Theo Alexandrou

And the success had the gaffer purring with delight, just as much as the performance did.

"Winning is winning," he said. "Winning is not a dirty word and that is something that Ronnie Henry and Nick Mountford are trying to get into them every single day. 

"They've got to want to be competitive at every single opportunity and this was a really good test against a team that are in pretty good form in their league.  

"We had to be competitive from minute zero to minute 98 or whatever it was but it was good to win. 

"It’s obviously good to be through to next round and St Albans will be another really good test. 

"But this was a game of two different types of halves. 

"We were quite dominant in the first half while in the second half we had to really show our grit and graft and determination to want to keep the ball out of the net.  

"I actually thought conceding right at the end was probably a good thing for their development but yeah, we're really pleased to get into the next round." 

The inclusion of Anderson, as well as another first-teamer in Reece Hannam, gave the Boro squad a lot more experience in the first half.

But even after Anderson departed at the interval, some of the younger members of the squad continued to impress.

Gibson said: "We had a really nice balance in the squad.

"We had two senior players come and get some minutes with us, and they were brilliant, but I thought our junior pros in Owen Cochrane and Theo Alexandrou were really good. 

"And then we had Rylee Mitchell in goal again, which was nice to get him back. 

"But I thought the two standouts for me were definitely Owen and Louie Henry. Louie is just a 16-year-old lad and he did very, very well."

The academy boss at the League One club also had plenty of praise for their hosts, with five of the Stevenage squad having been on loan with the Scholars at one time or another.

Gibson said: "Max Mitchell and Potters Bar have been really good for us as a club and from a development point of view. 

"He’s taken our young players and he's given them lots of opportunities and they are a club that have looked after our players. 

"They have done really good by us and we're really pleased with what has happened."