Graham Westley picked midfielder, on loan from Preston NE, to start for Stevenage at Cambridge United

Keith Keane says he is happy to be back playing football, and pleased to be back working with a manager who knows how to get the best out of him.

The midfielder joined Stevenage on March 5 on loan from Preston North End, whom he joined in 2012 when he was signed by current Boro boss Graham Westley.

Keane hadn’t played since mid-December before he joined Boro. He came off the bench in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Newport County, started today’s draw at Cambridge United and now hopes that’s he’s done enough to stay in the first XI for Tuesday’s trip to Exeter City.

“I’m happy to be back playing football; it’s what I’ve come here to do, to play games and to try to help them get promoted and get up to League 1,” Keane said.

“I felt good today, and I hope the manager thinks that I’ve done well enough to play again on Tuesday.

“If you ask any player I’m sure they will tell you that they go places to play where a manager wants them.

“[The manager] knows what you’re like and what they’re getting out of you, and there’s isn’t a much better feeling than having a manager like that.”

Stevenage took an early lead against Cambridge before conceding an equaliser late into injury time, and Keane says the squad was satisfied with the performance until they let in that late goal.

“To be honest, I thought it was on the whole a good away performance until right at the end,” Keane said.

“If we’d come away without conceding we’d be standing here saying it was a decent performance.

“We probably ended up sitting back a little bit too much in the second half, but I think that was mainly because we felt comfortable. They were putting balls in that we were dealing with comfortably.

“There’s [one chance] that has happened, and if we hadn’t made that mistake we would have come away with all three points.”