Jimmy Smith believes Stevenage are ready to bounce back from a poor display against Carlisle United.

Boro were second best against caretaker boss Graham Kavanagh’s side, going down 3-1 at the Lamex Stadium. Smith acknowledged the result, and performance as a whole, wasn’t good enough.

“It was a poor game on Saturday, we know that,” he admitted.

“We’ve gone through the game and the gaffer has said what he has to say and so have the players.

“It’s down to us [as players], though. We’re the ones who cross the white lines and it’s up to the 11 players who have the shirt to do the job.”

The job this Saturday is to claim all three points away at MK Dons, who sit eighth in League One. Karl Robinson’s side lost 2-1 to Peterborough on Saturday but had previously been on an unbeaten run in the league.

Despite having the odds, seemingly, stacked against them, Smith said Boro are not going to Stadium MK to “draw or lose.”

“We need a win and then we can push on from it. Last Saturday wasn’t good enough so not going to sit back and let them play nice football.

“We want to put them on the back foot and win the game.”

He added: “We had a good week in training – we’ve been working hard and putting things into our game. We feel good, feel fresh and we need a big game on Saturday.”