GRAHAM Westley takes charge of Stevenage for the first away game since his return to the Boro hotseat on Saturday at Portsmouth.

The 45-year-old began his third spell at the helm with a 1-0 win over Hartlepool United at the Lamex Stadium on Easter Monday.

Westley’s arrival, and the victory, were a boost to the club who travel to Fratton Park this weekend to face a side who, despite being third from bottom, are unbeaten in four League 1 games.

Westley told The Comet: “The thing that is important in football is that every game only gets won or lost on the day.

“What happened before is irrelevant from the point of view of your own form and from the point of view of their form, what counts is the form that you show on the day.

“I probably bored people to death when I was here last time round saying ‘I never overestimate any side nor do I underestimate any side’ the top can beat the bottom and the bottom can beat the top of any league.

“You always have got to make sure you have confidence in your own game, a belief in your own game, and you’re ready with your own game to go and beat whoever you play.”

Reflecting on his first week back at the club, since being appointed as Gary Smith’s successor, Westley said: “It’s been good, we won which is nice, the players have been terrific, the response has been good.

“There’s a lot of good quality and good characters here, it’s been fun to be back.”

Westley has been putting the Boro squad through their paces at the new training facility at Bragbury End this week.

The manager was full of praise for the centre.

“It’s quite nice to come back at a time like this when we’re moving in to such new and inspiring surroundings, it’s a great place to work,” he added.

“I said last week ‘the lowest common denominator drags things down and the highest common denominator drags things up’ and when you work in a place like this everybody’s standards get raised by the nature of the environment so it’s a fabulous place.

“It’s a statement of the club’s ambition and the club’s professionalism.

“When you’re part of an environment that’s got that ambition and that professionalism it can’t but help everybody.”

Robin Shroot will miss the game for Boro with an ankle injury, while Patrick Agyemang, who is on loan at Portsmouth from Stevenage, will not play as part of the agreement.