Dino hails ‘brilliant’ Boro after sinking U’s
DINO MAAMRIA insists his Stevenage side were “absolutely brilliant” and could have put six or seven past Colchester.
Despite going down to an early Sammie Szmodics goal, the hosts bossed the match, with Kurtis Guthrie scoring against his former club to level things up.
However, the visitors held on – surviving by the skin of the teeth until the 82nd minute – when Ben Kennedy slotted home a penalty. And the hosts rounded it off late on via Emmanuel Sonupe’s goal and Maamria admits he was purring on the touchline.
“We conceded from their first attack, but one of the big things I put across is that you have to play the next moment,” he said.
“We want to play good football and win games and even after conceding, we made sure we showed we want to play from the back. After the first 20 to 25 minutes, we were absolutely brilliant.
“We could have scored six or seven and no-one would have complained. It was different class.”
If they play like this all season then Stevenage will become serious promotion contenders, but lapses in concentration can plague them – with Szmodics tapping in Ryan Jackson’s low cross from just three yards out to put Colchester ahead.
Szmodics and Luke Norris both went close soon after, as Colchester pressed for a second.
But Guthrie went close with a deflected long-range effort, before he equalised four minutes before half-time when he tapped home at the far post, after Scott Cuthbert had headed on Joel Byrom’s corner.
Half-time sub Sonupe’s acrobatic effort was then well saved by Barnes.
Stevenage keeper Seny Dieng denied Norris, before Kennedy slotted the hosts ahead from the spot after Steve Seddon had been fouled by Brennan Dickenson.
And, two minutes later, Sonupe wrapped up the win when he calmly lifted a shot past Barnes, from Guthrie’s pass.
“The early goal gave us a good base to start, but we were really wasteful for the next 20 minutes,” said Colchester boss John McGreal.
“We played some terrific stuff early on, but we then dropped a bit for the last 15 minutes of the half. And for the last hour we were poor.”