Boro boss Graham Westley has admitted that the start to the current campaign has been a big learning curve for him and his players. The 41-year-old had to juggle his squad around in the summer after losing Steve Morison to Millwall and the Boro forward

Boro boss Graham Westley has admitted that the start to the current campaign has been "a big learning curve" for him and his players.

The 41-year-old had to juggle his squad around in the summer after losing Steve Morison to Millwall and the Boro forwards have struggled to fill this void but the Boro chief insists his squad is starting to gel.

Injuries to key players has not allowed Westley to establish a settled side but most Boro fans would have accepted sitting in second place after 18 games still within striking distance of the current leaders, Oxford United.

"It's been a big learning curve," Westley told The Comet. "At the end of last season we lost Steve Morison and when you lose a player who scores more than 30 goals a season then it's never going to be easy.

"We made four other changes to the side and we have not been blessed with the greatest fortune on the injury front as we have had a lot of important players out.

"We have not been able to get a settled side but nine wins, eight draws and one defeat is a decent platform for us.

"I believe that we will be that much better in the second half of the season."

The Boro faithful will be praying there is no repeat of last year's "Nightmare November" which saw the club go five games without a win and almost see their promotion hopes go up in smoke before the Christmas period.

Boro saved their season by embarking on a 24-match unbeaten streak and, if Westley and Co. can mastermind that kind of run again, then they still have enough time to overhaul Oxford.

"The whole start to last season was one where I was learning what players we had and whether they had a future at the club," added Westley, whose side have gone 14 matches unbeaten since their defeat to Oxford. "They were also learning what I wanted from them and at the start we were in a mess.

"But if you want to be a winner then you have to learn from these things and we did.

"We eventually developed an ability to continually carve out wins and that's obviously what we are aiming for again.