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Westley: Stevenage won ugly

Image: Graham Westley: Pleased with scrappy win

Stevenage boss Graham Westley admitted it was about time Boro won ugly following a 1-0 win over Shrewsbury.

Darius Charles netted the only goal of the game less than ten minutes before the break when his left-footed volley took a massive deflection and wrong-footed Shrews keeper Jayson Leutwiler. Shrewsbury thought they had stolen a point at the death but Jermaine Grandison saw a header rebound off the bar as Stevenage ended a run of back-to-back defeats. The Shrews themselves were also bidding for a first win after two losses in all competitions but were ground out by Boro with boss Westley content with the manner by which the three points came. "When we began the season I expected that we would have a few ugly wins along the way to becoming a decent side," he said. "There have been moments when we have had ugly defeats and ugly draws but it was an ugly win and I guess the lads are getting better. "One thing we didn't want with all the youngsters that we had out on the pitch was to lose Simon Walton and lose one of our bits of experience. "If you look at the number of league games in terms of experience that there were on the pitch, there wasn't a lot. "And if you look at some of the decisions we made, they were a little bit naive and inexperienced from our players. "But the appetite was there and when you have got the appetite and players that are learning about the league it's a joy to be the manager." As well as losing their last three matches, Shrewsbury haven't scored in any of them but boss Micky Mellon admitted he isn't concerned that they aren't finding the net. "The story of the game is that if we don't take our chances we are going to find it very difficult," said Mellon. "But apart from not taking our chances and scoring no goals I've got to be pleased with the performance. "We kept going and we were relentless and created chances, so all credit to the boys, the only thing that was missing for us was getting a goal at an important time. "We knew they were going to be dangerous from set plays and to lose one from that is a little bit frustrating. "I'll be concerned if we don't create chances; I know that I've got good strikers and eventually we will give someone a good beating. "I'd be more concerned if we hadn't made chance after chance and their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves to be fair to him - that little bit of fortune wasn't there for us."

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