Birthday boy Darren Sarll took time out from his celebrations to reflect on another milestone he is enjoying.

Today may be his 34th birthday but yesterday marked 12 months since he was handed the reigns at the Lamex following Teddy Sheringham’s sacking.

And the Stevenage boss has loved every minute of it, both the highs and lows.

He said: “It’s tested me in more ways than I’ve ever been tested but it’s been very enjoyable. It’s still a bit of a dream come true.

“I’ve worked, if I say so myself, incredibly hard and even when things aren’t going great, you come out of that spell and think you quite enjoyed the challenge of it all.

“But it’s a tough job and I have the upmost respect for anyone who is a manager, whether they are the manager of Stotfold or Southampton.

“When people say it’s a lonely job, I get that, and when they say it consumes your life, I get that too.

“I loved the achievement of last year from where I took them over to where we finished, those last nine games was a really good experience. How many 33-year-olds have to keep their club in the Football League?

“I’m very appreciative of the chairman and board of directors, who have been brilliant with me.

“I’m quite proud to have done a year. My target at the start of the year for myself was to come out of the January transfer window in a stronger position to attack the last bit of the season.

“That one objective has been obtained and now we’ll look deep, set some more and hopefully finish the season stronger than the first half.”

And when it was put to him that surely this was his big four-oh, Sarll joked that any mistakes over his age were down to one of his players.

He laughed: “I actually think my mature-looking face is down to Ben Kennedy because I met Ben four-and-a-half seasons ago and my aging process has accelerated since then.

“Being a manager is a lot easier than having to work with Ben.”