Steve Evans hailed his Stevenage side’s resilience after they overcame injury doubts and travel disruption ahead of their 3-0 win at Fleetwood.
The visitors ran out convincing winners at Highbury thanks to Jamie Reid’s eighth-minute strike and second-half goals from Ben Thompson and Elliot List.
And the performance delighted Evans, especially in light of their far-from-ideal build-up, which included the team bus breaking down on their drive north on Friday.
Evans, who side remain fourth in the table, said: “I thought it was a really good away performance.
“We played some really good football in the first half. We knew we’d have to work hard, but I must admit, as I’m watching the game, I don’t really remember them creating a clear chance that I thought they’d score from.
“There were wide free-kicks and corners that they sent in, but the one thing they weren’t going to do was outmuscle us and bully us, like they do to other teams. They weren’t going to do that to us.
“Our big boys stood strong and got good blocks in when they needed to.
“All three front boys were touch and go before the game – Jordan Roberts and Jamie Reid have both done a warm-up since last Saturday, that’s all they’ve done, warm up with the team on Thursday.
“And when we travelled north yesterday our team coach broke down, so we’ve had all sorts of issues that meant we couldn’t train properly. We had to use our experience and we spoke to Preston, who organised some indoor facilities, so we were still able to get the players’ legs moving.
“So when you consider those factors and that our front three have hardly been on the training ground, it demonstrates what efforts they’ve given us today.”
Fleetwood’s defeat put an end to a six-game unbeaten run and boss Lee Johnson could not hide his disappointment as they missed a chance to climb out of the bottom four.
Despite hitting the bar twice, Johnson urged his side to impose themselves in the early stages of games.
“It was really disappointing performance,” he said. “I can imagine our supporters are scratching their heads.
“Again we’ve taken that punch on the nose in terms of the goal with the first real entry into our box by the opposition and that’s happened far too many times at this club.
“And I don’t think they deserve that to be honest, so it’s my job to find a way of getting the boys going when the atmosphere isn’t like a Blackpool game, in which it’s easy to think forward, play forward and be aggressive in our tempo in those early stages, because we can’t keep giving teams head starts.
“We were all right in the majority of our play today, in our box-to-box play and we were quite fluid in our possession and moving the ball.
“Phoenix Patterson was excellent for us in his dynamism, we just lacked a bit of quality in the final third. On a number of occasions we got in some great areas and couldn’t pick somebody out or we didn’t have the composure at the levels we’ve had in recent weeks.
“We need to show a lot more pitch personality in the early stages of games and I’ve told the two or three players that very strongly.”
Ranieri comes out of retirement to take charge of Roma
Claudio Ranieri has come out of retirement to take charge of Roma until the end of the season.
The Italian retired in May, calling time on a career in which he famously led Leicester City to a shock Premier League title in 2016 and coached a host of teams from Europe's top leagues, including Chelsea, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Inter and Monaco.
Ranieri, who last coached Cagliari in Serie A, returns for a third stint in charge of Roma, with whom he came agonisingly close to winning the Serie A title in his first spell between 2009 and 2011.
Across his previous two spells, the 73-year-old managed 96 games in all competitions, registering 53 wins, with a win percentage of 55.21%.
"Roma is pleased to announce that Claudio Ranieri is the new Technical Manager of the First Team," Roma said in a statement.
"At the end of the season he will take on a senior managerial role, he will be an advisor to the ownership for all sporting matters of the club.
"The search for a new coach will continue in the coming months and Claudio will also have a say in this decision."
Ranieri replaces Juric, who was sacked after Roma lost 3-2 at home against Bologna on Sunday, leaving them languishing in 12th place in the Serie A standings.
Juric, who won just four of his 12 games in charge of the club, was Roma's second coach to be fired this season, with Daniele De Rossi being sacked in September.
According to reports in Italian media, Roma found it difficult to sign a replacement for the Croatian before settling on Ranieri, with former Italy coach Roberto Mancini and Maurizio Sarri among the preferred candidates.
Ranieri's first game will be away to league leaders Napoli on November 24.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
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