Steve Evans felt his Stevenage side produced their best ever performance under his leadership as they drew 1-1 at Northampton Town.

Boro trailed 1-0 to a fifth-minute Louis Appere goal and a lacklustre first 45 minutes led to a double substitution at the break.

That changed the whole feel of the game and led to total dominance from the visitors, for whom Jamie Reid's equaliser was the very least they deserved.

And Evans felt the showing after the break humbled a very good promotion rival.

The Boro boss said: "They're top class and they have big resources but they score after five minutes which makes it incredibly tough.

"We made a decision to defend the conditions, it's quite a strong wind out there, but it is a mix up. 

"They then had better possession than us and we struggled to get our fluency. 

"I made a decision to change it at half-time and change the system and obviously it worked because it's the best performance from a Stevenage side we’ve had [since I’ve been here]. 

"We made a really good side look very, very average and they're not very average. They've got top players and a top coaching staff. 

"But we've laid siege to their goal, we've had the bar twice and there’s a couple of blocks. 

"But we scored and the boys deserve enormous credit." 

He admitted that the change at the break would have happened regardless of the goal conceded before taking aim at some of the negative doomsayers from outside of the club.

"Goals change games," he said. "We played Northampton at home earlier in the season they got a penalty kick in 50 seconds. It changes the course of how a game works out. 

"There have been words attributed to us in recent weeks from different managers. We've just switched completely off from all that nonsense and concentrated on ourselves. 

"We've got eight games left and we'll get eight more battles like we had today. 

"No other team will earn us promotion. Should we get promotion it will be because we've been good enough over the season."

And he paid tribute to the almost 1,000 fans who made the trip to Sixfields.

He said: "A massive thank you to the travelling supporters. They came in big numbers and will quite rightfully have been disappointed at half-time. 

"But they'll be going back to Stevenage thinking about what a stunning performance the second half was and that we should have won."