Hills eager to put injury nightmare behind him

Defender Lee Hills is convinced the Stevenage squad has the quality to achieve promotion this season, despite their recent dip in form.

The former Crystal Palace man, who made his debut for the club only last week despite signing in summer, believes a good run of results will see Boro put themselves firmly in contention come May.

“With the squad we’ve got, I think we can definitely go up. There are some amazing players here but we’ve had a bit of bad luck recently, if we can get back on the winning trail then we’ll definitely be there at the end of the season,” he told the Comet.

Hills tore a muscle in his thigh towards the end of pre-season but is delighted to be back in the fold following his ten-week injury lay-off.

“I haven’t played a full game in a very long time so I was really happy to play the 90 minutes last week – I think the adrenaline got me through it. Then to top it off with another 70 minutes three days later was great,” said the defender.

Prior to his pre-season injury, Hills had spent a further two years on the sideline as a result of knee ligament damage, so is just pleased to be back involved in Gary Smith’s plans.

“I just want to play to be honest. The amount of football I’ve missed over the last three years is way too much. I’m just happy to be training every day and fit,” said the 22-year-old.

“I haven’t really played a sequence of games properly in my career yet, so hopefully I can get going with that, stay healthy and get as much football in me as possible.”

Hills believes if Boro can repeat the commitment they showed on Tuesday night during the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth, a good result against table-toppers Tranmere Rovers on Saturday is well within their grasp.

“We really put our bodies on the line and worked for each other against Bournemouth,” he said. “I think if we press high up the pitch like we’ve been working on and show the same attitude that we did on Tuesday then I’m sure we’ll get the right result.”