Stevenage manager Alex Revell heaped praise on Jamie Reid after two late goals from the in-form striker saw his League One leaders come from behind to secure a 2-1 win at Port Vale and maintain their perfect start.
Reid scored his fourth and fifth goals of the campaign – in the 88th minute and first minute of second-half stoppage-time respectively, to cancel out Lorent Tolaj’s brilliantly-worked first-half opener for Vale.
And Revell could not speak highly enough of the Northern Ireland international, describing him as a “difference maker”.
“He’s in brilliant form,” he said. “He’s someone that’s worked incredibly hard over the past two months, he really has.
“He’s gone from strength to strength, he’s a massive part of the group, he’s a leader.
“I thought he worked incredibly hard and when you work incredibly hard, like he did tonight, you get the rewards.
“He really deserved it and everybody in the group all know the qualities that he has. He’s a difference maker for us without doubt.
“I thought the first finish was someone that was just in complete control and then the second one, I thought that was probably one of the best goals he’s scored – the touch, the turn, the finish was so quick and sharp.”
Revell also hailed the resilience of his team, who remain top of the table having now won four matches out of four.
“I know I say it a lot and people will probably be bored of hearing it, but the group is a really special one that just works incredibly hard for each other,” he added.
“When you have that – and it’s the hardest thing to get in any football club – you just keep going, keep believing, keep driving.
“And then when you’ve got someone on the pitch that can turn a game in an instance, that gives you every chance.
“It was an incredible night for us.”
The result means Vale are still without a league victory and continue to occupy 19th place in the standings.
Boss Darren Moore was keen to focus on the performance of his side before Reid’s first goal arrived.
“It’s a disappointing one but, like I said to the boys, I’m not going to let the 87 minutes that we showed go out of the window in terms of the last six, seven, eight minutes,” he said.
“What’s done us tonight is just a lapse in concentration and that was the disappointing thing because up until then, we were very much in the ascendancy.
“We got our noses in front, believed we could have gone two goals to the good, we missed a couple of chances and then at the end it’s just concentration.
“When we look back at the goals, we’ve only got ourselves to blame really.”
