Stevenage boss hopes for ‘marked improvement’ following last weekend’s defeat to Millwall

Teddy Sheringham says he hopes his players will build on the work they have done in training this week and put on a better performance when Spurs come to town tomorrow.

Boro lost to Millwall last weekend in a pre-season friendly and tomorrow host a Tottenham XI at the Lamex, just a week before the League Two season kicks off.

Sheringham has been hit with a raft of injuries this past week, and says it has been difficult for him as a manager and for his players to build on what he’s trying to implement at the club ahead of the new season.

Sheringham said: “[Spurs will offer] a very different [test] to what we’re going to be expecting from Div Two teams [but] there were a few teams that really tried to play last year in Div Two.

“We’re going to come up against certain teams that are like this, not all of them.

“It’s a test of how to stop Tottenham first of all and, for us, how to get forward as well.”

Last time out Boro lost 1-0 at home to Millwall, and Sheringham says while the players are still learning about him, he’s still learning about them.

“It was probably more my fault than their fault, the performance,” he said.

“I wasn’t happy but considering what we’ve done and haven’t done in our preparation I thought they did ok.

“They got a little bit of verbal from me at half-time for not doing the right things but overlooking that it’s probably my fault more than theirs and we’ve done some work this week.

“We are all learning. Players are still learning about what I want and I’m still learning how to get my point across, what sort of sessions to do to get my point across.

“It’s a different type of game against Tottenham on Saturday but hopefully we’ll see a marked improvement in certain aspects of the game.”

Speaking about injuries picked up in the past fortnight, including one to Dave McAllister against Millwall, Sheringham said: “On Monday’s injury list there were 10 players. That was half of the budget of what I’ve got at my disposal.

“It’s very difficult when that amount of players are out to carry on and try to progress what we’re trying to do here. It’s been a difficult time, but that’s part of football.”