Stevenage boss reflects on 2-0 friendly defeat to Spurs

Gary Smith says the Tottenham Hotspur game was a good workout for his players and added that the Boro XI that started the match was close to his first choice starting XI.

Speaking after the 2-0 defeat, which saw Stevenage put out an entirely different XI in the second half to the first, Smith said: “When you give [the ball] away cheaply they’re going to ask a lot of questions of you, physically.

“There was two very different periods, though. The first reflected pretty much the more senior players in the group now and [we are] starting to piece together what might look like a starting XI as we stand.

“Of course that can change slightly but as you see in the second group there are not too many senior players out there at the moment. There’s a few bodies that need to be added to strengthen that group.

“It’s not easy to get the ball off of a star-studded Tottenham starting XI but there were periods where we showed some real nice qualities.

“There were not as many opportunities at goal as I would have liked. I think the main effort was [Harry] Kane’s which Chris [Day] made a fabulous save off of.

“So a very good workout and quite a nice confidence boost for the players in the way they conducted themselves.”

*For more from Wednesday night’s game between Stevenage and Spurs, including a gallery and match report, see the links on the right hand side of the page.