Boro thrive when fixtures come thick and fast says skipper

MARK Roberts says Stevenage are looking forward to the business end of the League 1 season, saying the high fitness levels at the club really come into play when the fixture list gets congested.

Starting Saturday, Boro will face two games per week for each of the next four week and speaking ahead of this weekend’s home tie against Carlisle United, a team who are level on points with Boro in seventh place in League 1, Roberts said his side wants to keep its current winning momentum going adding that when games come thick and fast his team is at its strongest.

“We are all looking forward to the game this weekend, it is another big game for the club against a close rival in the play-off picture,” Roberts told The Comet.

“We have got a lot of big games coming up. We have Sheffield Wednesday next Tuesday and they are another team trying for promotion.

“With us playing teams around us you have the ideal opportunity to put some distance between you and them or to make up distance on teams above you. They give us a great chance to improve our situation and you thrive on things like this as a footballer.

“Other teams [in and around the play-off area] will also be playing each other as well and they’ll invariably drop points but we need to keep our winning momentum going.

“We’ll play Tuesday-Saturday for most of the weeks to come and that’s when we’re at our strongest. We play lots of games and we recover well, and that’s when our fitness comes into play.”

This weekend’s opponents will be without joint top scorer Lee Miller who is serving the second game of a three-match suspension. Craig Reid returned from injury last week for Boro, but the striker is unlikely to feature. Last time the two sides met Carlisle ran out 1-0 winners at home at the end of September.

“We were really disappointed the way we played up at their place. It was 1-0 but we might have snuck a draw,” Roberts said.

“We have come a long way since that stage of the season though and we’ve improved as individuals and as a team since then.”