Opposition view: Revell adamant Stevenage 'should have been out of sight' before spot-kick defeat to Cobblers

Stevenage manager Alex Revell felt his side 'should have been out of sight' before eventually losing on penalties to the Cobblers in the Papa John's Trophy on Tuesday night.

The former Northampton striker, who took charge of Boro back in February, made eight changes but still saw his team go toe-to-toe with Northampton in a closely-fought encounter at the PTS.

But both sides struggled to carve out clear opportunities and it was only on penalties that Town prevailed, winning 4-2 to progress into the knockout stages.

"I'm happy with the performance," said Revell. "We were excellent against a League One team who only made two changes from the last game.

"As a performance, it was really good. But again we're stood here talking about chances missed and you're never going to have better opportunities in games than what we had tonight.

"When you miss those chances, the result is always in the balance and we've ended up 0-0 and lost on penalties, which is always tough to take.

"Performance-wise, I'm really happy, but missing chances has been a regular thing and we've got to look at how we execute those positions.

"We should have been out of sight but I can't keep giving excuses because it's there for everyone to see and all we can do is work hard and we'll keep working and keep persisting.

"There are some real big positives to come out of the game and to take a League One team all the way is pleasing."