BORO skipper Mark Roberts has lauded his club’s supporters, and asked them to continue to back Stevenage as the club looks for back-to-back promotions.

More than 1,000 fans made the trip to Roots Hall on Saturday to watch Boro’s 1-0 defeat away at Southend United while 3,000 supporters saw Stevenage beat Port Vale on Bank Holiday Monday.

With only a trip to Northampton Town this Saturday and then a final home match against Bury next weekend to come before the end of the regular season, Roberts has called on Boro’s faithful to cheer his side on to the League 2 play-off places.

“It’s another massive game at Northampton, I’m sure we’ll take quite a few fans there,” Roberts told The Comet. “We took a great deal of fans to Southend last Friday and it’s great to see that.

“Our away support has been great all season, but it was fantastic at Southend; I think around 1,000 tickets were sold before the game.

“We’re going to Northampton, who are just up the road and we might be able to secure our place in the play-offs at that game, so it would be great to take a lot of people to that match as well.

“The crowds have picked up recently. Today (the Port Vale game) was virtually a play-off game as they could have snuck back into the reckoning.

“We’ve taken the three points, though, and we’ll be looking to do that again at Northampton and then at home to Bury.”

Boro boss Graham Westley says his team will come across an imaginative outfit when then they travel to Northampton this weekend.

Like Boro, the Cobblers still have something to play for this season as they sit just above the drop zone in League 2 and Westley says he is looking for a better performance than the one Boro put in the last time they were on the road.

“Gary is a very experienced manager, he’s operated at a higher level, he’s got a good background,” Westley said.

“I’ve managed against Gary on many an occasion when he was at Yeovil, and he’s a tough guy to play against.

“He produces sides which are imaginative, they have a passing dimension to them, but he is where he is, he’s doing what he’s doing, and we’ve got to go there and make sure we’re better than him and his team at the weekend.

“It’s up to us to do better than we did at Southend on Friday and come away with a victory.”