Tom Pett believes Stevenage are now getting the rewards for plenty of hard work after putting 10-man Carlisle United to the sword.

The Comet: Tom Pett prepares to volley his flick-up beyond Magnus Norman in the Carlisle United goal.Tom Pett prepares to volley his flick-up beyond Magnus Norman in the Carlisle United goal. (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

The midfielder fired Boro ahead in the first half of the 3-1 win, five minutes after Rod McDonald had seen red for hauling back a flying Elliott List.

And after finally getting a break from Tuesday games, they put the extra time on the training paddock to good use.

The Comet: Tom Pett celebrates scoring for Stevenage against Carlisle United.Tom Pett celebrates scoring for Stevenage against Carlisle United. (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

Pett said: "We’ve worked on things and if you look at the move that ended in the sending-off, that’s how we want to play.

"We don’t want to just go direct, we don’t want to be that team. We want to be the team that is going to play with a purpose.

"It’s what we’ve been working on and we have all bought into it. It’s pleasing that something from the training pitch has paid off.

"We’ve got a run of games now where we can find our legs again but it’s not just about Saturday, it’s about working on the training pitch and finding good habits and patterns of play.

"This week really helped that."

Luke Norris and Arthur Read sealed the win after Brennan Dickenson had equalised for the Cumbrians with a heavily-deflected shot.

And after drawing a blank in recent weeks, the 29-year-old was happy to see them develop a killer instinct, even if they should have perhaps had more.

He said: "We’ve been getting in the right areas and creating a lot so to walk away with three goals will give everyone a bit of confidence and take a bit of pressure off the front boys.

"We defend as a team and we attack as a team so for both myself and [Arthur Read] to score from midfield it shows we have got goals everywhere.

"We’re always going to look to improve and get better and it could have been five, six and even seven if we were clinical.

"We’ll give ourselves a pat on the back for scoring three but we’ll still look at how we can be better.

"It’s not always about the finish, it's also the final pass. At times we had a lot more time to lay somebody in.

"But when you score three you can’t be too disappointed."