Manager's positive thinking helped us through festive period - Beardsley

BORO striker Chris Beardsley has praised manager Graham Westley's positivity and said his side is happy with picking up seven points from nine over the Christmas period.

Beardsley was on target as Boro beat Cambridge United 4-1 on New Year's Day and, with a 3-1 win over the same team on Boxing Day and a 0-0 draw at home to AFC Wimbledon already in the bag, the 25-year-old said he was pleased with how the festive period had panned out.

"Seven points from nine is not bad. We're happy with that. We're striving to win every game but AFC Wimbledon is the best team to have come here this season.

"They played that game well, had a holding midfielder who stopped some of our forward play, but we got seven points from nine and we're now looking to move on and pick up more.

"We want to take positives from every game and the gaffer will do that, he'll tell us the positives he's spotted and the negatives we need to correct.

"He's a positive person, the gaffer. He won't let people dwell on things for too long. He will say his piece and we'll take pieces from it and then he likes us to quickly move on."

Beardsley was one of three strikers employed in a 4-3-3 against the Us, and the former Kettering man said the movement up front between himself, Yemi Odubade and Lee Boylan was among the best he has seen this season.

"We went out and did the job and, although there were lapses we need to improve on, it's a good start to the New Year.

"(Graham Westley) is going to want us to get on the scoresheet and we did that. Our movement is probably the best it has been for a few weeks. I think we varied from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 and I think we got the best out of Yemi and Stacy Long."

Asked if he expects any new faces to arrive in January, Beardsley said he would leave that to the manager.