Stevenage boss Graham Westley is expecting a tough match this weekend as his side face Phil Brown’s Southend United.
Boro and Southend both won their league openers 1-0 last weekend against Hartlepool and Accrington Stanley, respectively but were both knocked out of the League Cup midweek.
Stevenage have not beaten Southend in their history but Westley admits he is expecting his side to be tested.
“I expect a test every time we play, home or away. Every opposition will relish the opportunity to try to challenge us and I think that there will be no games where we’ll win three points without being on top of ourselves,” said Westley, speaking to The Comet.
“The challenge is going to be there [against Southend] and we really have to get ourselves right to win three points.”
The 46-year-old manager says he is only going to take the positives from his side’s 1-0 defeat to Watford in the Capital One Cup first round.
“Our job is to win matches and when you get the opportunity in cup game to win your way through to the next round you want to do that; I’m not going to pretend there’s not a sense of disappointment,” he added.
“But, as always in football, if you get disappointment you have to be constructive. We were disappointed to get relegated, more that disappointed, but our attitude to it was let’s be positive about taking the next steps in building the club’s future.”
Stevenage travel to Roots
Hall to play Southend United on Saturday.