Boro boss Graham Westley insists playing against quality sides in pre-season friendlies will stand his side in good stead for their Blue Square Premier campaign. Stevenage have suffered defeats at the hands of Millwall and Peterborough over the past week

Boro boss Graham Westley insists playing against quality sides in pre-season friendlies will stand his side in good stead for their Blue Square Premier campaign.

Stevenage have suffered defeats at the hands of Millwall and Peterborough over the past week but have shown signs that they will be ready to hit the ground running come the start of the season against Tamworth.

But Westley will be hoping his strikers hit the goalscoring trail in their two remaining friendlies against Southend and Woking after finding chances hard to come by recently.

"The attacking resources have been up against some really tough defences," said Westley. "They are not getting the confidence of scoring goals but at the same time they are going to have to learn new tricks to try and open up the defences they are playing.

"I'm sure the lads would prefer to be winning than losing but nonetheless I'm sure that we are learning a lot and we won't take the lessons in the wrong way.

"We will build ourselves up and become stronger from the lessons that we're learning.