Alex Revell ‘so proud’ of Stevenage after win against Wigan grabs play-off spot

Alex Revell was in a state of shock after a nerve-shredding afternoon ended in a memorable 1-0 victory for Stevenage against Wigan and with it a play-off place.

Dan Sweeney bundled in a stoppage-time goal to send Boro back up to sixth.

Bedlam followed in the stands at Broadhall Way and again at the final whistle, and after boss Revell picked his way through the throng, he was full of praise for his players.

“I can’t really describe it to be honest,” said Revell. “I am so proud of every single person. I know what this group’s about and this just summed up who we are.

“We’ve kept giants out of this top six, but we did it with character, spirit, togetherness, all of that.

“We knew we had to score and sometimes you have to be brave. We tried to do it, I felt we were doing well and I felt it was coming.

“The changes we made were really good, they added freshness to the team, but everybody, every single person deserves huge amounts of credit for what they’ve done for this club.

“I’m so proud.”

Stevenage had been inside the top six for most of the afternoon, only to be bumped out by Plymouth taking the lead at Northampton.

But it did not change the knowledge that a win would prolong their season.

“It was just about doing the basics well and we just kept going, we kept plugging away, and if you keep doing that, you get your rewards,” Revell added.

“And the scenes at the end, I’ve got to be honest, I’ll never, ever, ever forget what I saw.

“Now what we do is we allow ourselves to enjoy this – and I want them to enjoy this – but we’ll make sure when we come back in, we’ll start building for two brilliant games.

“And we will look forward to them because nobody said we’d be here, no one thought we’d be here, and we are.

“People expected us to fall away and it’s not been plain sailing this year, it hasn’t, but it shows the group we’ve got.”

Opposite number Gary Caldwell is also looking to the future, and he wants to emulate Boro’s achievement.

The Wigan boss said: “I just said to the players, listen to the celebrations and what winning feels like because it has to hurt. We want that to be us and we have to work extremely hard over the summer, pre-season and next year to try and make sure it is.

“That’s why we’re all in the game, to be successful, and when you see a team doing it, you want it to be you.

“When I came in here in February, this club was in a really dangerous position and we’ve picked up 25 points from 16 games, so the players deserve a lot of credit for that.”