Dean Parrett says he cannot wait to get another game in a Boro shirt after making his first senior start for the club on Tuesday evening.

The former Spurs midfielder joined Stevenage on a free transfer in October on a deal which expires at the end of the season and after a couple of substitute appearances, including one on Saturday against Stourbridge, the 22-year-old started his first game since joining at Swindon.

Parrett spent an unsuccessful spell on loan at the County Ground last season, and after playing just under an hour against Town the former England youth international said it was now time to push on and stake a claim for a first-team place.

“It was brilliant to get a start. I’d been out of football for three months and didn’t have a pre-season, so it’s a brilliant achievement for me and I need to kick on now,” Parrett said.

“It wasn’t the best of games from me on the ball, but I think I’ve got to get back into training and knuckle down and hopefully if I get another start soon I can impress.

“I know quite a few [Swindon] players and I was quite excited to play, but it didn’t go [as good as it could have] while I was down here.

“To be fair I kind of wished I’d have put a better performance in and proved some critics wrong.

“It’s not an excuse but not having a pre-season can hinder players. Obviously coming in it was 12 games gone so there was a lot of catching up to do.

“I think I’ve worked hard to get where I am now and I have to keep working hard and get as fit as I can.”

Parrett started in a midfield three on Tuesday alongside Michael Doughty and Simon Heslop, while Luke Freeman and Jimmy Smith operated as wing-backs.

Speaking about the defeat on penalties, which saw Stevenage exit the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, Parrett told the Comet: “I thought we could have maybe nicked it at the end.

“We had a few corners and maybe if we had put better deliveries in we could have scored maybe a couple of more goals because they looked vulnerable from that.

“It’s all about how we started, really.

“If we had started better and not conceded such a sloppy goal we could have gone away with a 1-0 win.”