Stevenage’s caretaker manager Darren Sarll sees Saturday’s encounter with Newport County at the Lamex as a great chance to move up the Sky Bet League Two table.

The Welsh-side are just one place and two points above Boro but despite last week’s defeat at Notts County, Sarll believes the last four games show his side are more than capable of picking up a positive result.

He said: “There’s an excitement to see the work we’ve done this week, with the little differences and little changes about how we play Saturday. I’m really excited to see them come to fruition.

“I’m motivated and invigorated with the fact that when we win the game we’ll move up the league. It’s been a long time coming.

“The last four games there’s been a steadiness about us that has given us a footing and a platform to push on.

“The important thing is our status as a football league club. How we go about that doesn’t really matter but it’s so important we maintain that status.

“And we are nearly there. In an ideal world I would like to play free-flowing attacking football and showcase our players in a different way.”

Newport arrive at the Lamex on the back of five straight defeats and without a win in six.

And with Warren Feeney being their third manager of the season, following Terry Butcher and John Sheridan, it’s fair to say this won’t be a year remembered with fondness by many County fans.

For Sarll though, those distractions and poor form won’t mean anything come 3 o’clock on Saturday.

He said: “Warren was with John Sheridan so I don’t think the change will have been too dramatic. There’ll be a lot of continuity between them.

“Their current form is their current form. I’m more worried about our own.

“We know it’s a big game and we need to concentrate on being us, about being nice and resilient and solid, and taking our opportunities when they present themselves.

“Every team goes through little cycle of performance levels, good and bad.

“But we’re at home and we’re going to do what we always try and do at home and attack the game.”

Sarll said that he had around 23 training on Thursday and would address any niggles tomorrow (Friday) prior to picking his side.