London Colney boss proud of his players after Stevenage loss.

Matt Newman (Image: Archant)

It was a dream tie for the Blueboys, but it was always going to be a test too far against a League One outfit that fielded a number of first team players.

Danny Fitzgerald (Image: Archant)

It was not the futile exercise for Stevenage that many expected though, although it did look ominous after Bruno Andrade turned in Omare Tounkara’s cross in the third minute.

Ryan Thompson’s charges did not wilt though and created chances of their own; Matt Newman and Martin Collins coming closest.

The tie was effectively over five minutes before the half as Ryan Johnson and Roarie Deacon made it 3-0.

A penalty in the latter stages scored by Jordan Burrow put Colney further behind but it couldn’t dampen Thompson’s spirits. (For the full match report, see online).

“We didn’t want to come here concede loads of goals, not touch the ball for 90 minutes and get made a fool of; that could rip the confidence out of the team.

“We haven’t done that and the lads have taken a lot of confidence from the game.

“They’ve shown they can be competitive at any level; this is a young team and I can’t speak highly enough of what they have done.”

The challenge for Thompson now is to take the performance into Saturday’s league clash with Berkhamsted.

“They’re always a tough team; we lost to them earlier in the season but we never should have lost,” he said.

“They’re one of those side I can’t seem to beat but we’ll keep pushing as hard as we can to win evyer game we go in to.

“As long as we’re competiting adn the lads have a good attitude then we’re halfway there.”