INTERVIEW: Charlie Lee on Stevenage’s win over Hartlepool

Charlie Lee says the variety in Stevenage’s style of play this season is going to make life difficult for his side’s opponents.

The versatile midfielder was the standout performer as Boro beat Hartlepool United 1-0 in their opening league match of the season, and afterwards he spoke to the Comet about what opponents can expect from the new-look team this season.

One thing is certain, says Lee, and that is that he would rather being playing FOR Boro rather than against them.

“Stevenage, we’ve got a bit of a reputation for maybe being big players who boot it and every now and again you’ve got to throw that in because they’ll be scared of it,” Lee said.

“But as you can see the players we’ve got here are not going to be booting it left, right and centre. Our midfield today wasn’t very big.

“We’ve got players who can win headers and tackles, and we can then slide it down the side of [opponents] and play some football.

“If teams want to think we’ll just boot it then that’s good because we’ll do it every now and then and turn them, and Darius [Charles] today...I’d hate to mark him.

“And just when they’re worried about that we’ve got [Tom] Pett and [Chris] Whelpdale. The reason Whelp’s goal came about was that…he’s cut inside and scored and that’s because the defence is so deep. We’ll mix it up this season. I wouldn’t want to play against us.

“Obviously it wasn’t 100 per cent perfect but there wasn’t much wrong today. We probably would have liked to kill the game off earlier; I think we had a lot of chances.

“Opponents are going to get chances [such as hitting the crossbar in the opening minutes] and if that just drops in then you’re straight behind the eight ball and then you’ve got to go looking for it.

“Probably the first five minutes was our worst bit, we didn’t quite get hold of the game, but from then on we were strong, we looked fit and we ran them. I wouldn’t want to play against us as we look strong and we’re all working for each other.”