Sotiriou: Top quality O’s totally deserved win at leaders
Sotiriou struck in the second minute of injury time at St James Park to seal a 2-1 victory, after Joe Pigott had cancelled out Demetri Mitchell’s opener.
And the 23-year-old admitted it was a special moment, telling the club website: “It’s a good feeling, I feel like we deserved that.
“We were the best team today and deserved that three points.
“We’re working on it a lot, me picking up the second ball and being able to link up with either the 10s or the wing-backs.
“I managed to get on it and saw it open up and shot and it went in.
“It just opened up, the centre-backs dropped off and I saw the goal and just hit it and it went in the corner.
“I was buzzing. I missed an earlier one in the first half and I’ve missed a few recently.
“It motivates me more to still take the shots, I don’t get down about it.”
O’s had the better of a goalless first half in Devon, with Omar Beckles and Brandon Cooper heading against the crossbar amid various other chances.
But Mitchell volleyed the hosts ahead early in the second half, before Pigott levelled with a neat finish on 55 minutes.
Sotiriou then sent the travelling fans wild with his drive into the bottom corner, adding: “It’s a long way as well, so thank you for coming, a 92nd-minute winner, don’t get much better than that.
“We totally deserved it. Everyone was amazing, the game plan was spot-on.
“Pigs [Joe Pigott] was amazing, glad he got his goal.
“Jord and Theo did the wing-back job amazingly well and Prats and Iddy just doing what they do, winning the ball back.
“It was a real good team performance, Sol Brynn as well just making sure his kicks were right, everyone was top quality.
“After Cambridge we thought it would be time to kick on. We know what Stevenage do, what they are as a club and how they play and we just didn’t match them up.
“Today we were much more aggressive and stronger with everything we did and it showed. I feel like we bullied them.”
Head coach Richie Wellens looked on from the stands as he served a suspension, but echoed the thoughts of Sotiriou.
“We didn’t play as much as we usually do, but we had a game plan,” he added.
“First half I think we were totally dominant, hit the bar twice, had two or three other situations when we can score – Ruel has got a tap-in but misses the target.
“Apart from one breakaway there was no threat at all.
“You come out second half and the lad hits an absolute worldie and you think ‘maybe that’s just our luck’ but we never felt sorry for ourselves, we kept doing the basics right.
“I think that was a big thing, we did all the basics right. Set-plays were good, for and against, and it’s something we’ve been striving for.”
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