Jamie Jones says Stevenage’s desire to retain the spine of the squad that finished last season at the club could see Boro push on higher up the League Two table this time around.

Boro have retained a number of key players on new contracts, including defenders Ronnie Henry and Luke Wilkinson as well as midfielder Charlie Lee and Jones himself.

“We know that we’re not going to sign eight or nine new players who will have to come and bed in, and who will take a few months to get to know each other,” Jones said.

“We’ve got the squad together already and will have a couple of additions that will come in.”

Jones believes that there is only one place Boro want to be, and that’s right back in League One.

The club is entering its third successive season in League Two, but the goalkeeper believes that the ingredients are there to push on up the table.

“The only place Stevenage is going from last season is up,” he continued.

“Looking at last season it’s goals that we need. We’ve got everything else. A solid defence and midfield, and an attacking midfield as well. We just need a 15-20 goal striker.”

Jones joined Stevenage from Preston North End in January, and the club finished last term 18th following a strong end to the campaign which saw them move away from the relegation zone.

“Sarlly [Darren Sarll, manager] has put plenty of hard work in from the get-go. He put me in straight away and I owe him for that.

“We had to get rid of the bad habits that maybe were in there but it takes a while.

“We put the hard work in on the training ground and we got things right on the pitch. When it did happen it was very good.

“He gets you going and is a very good man-manager. He has kicked on himself and knows what he’s doing.”