Darren Sarll says Rowan Liburd showed his quality with his two goals and overall performance in the 4-0 win over Southend United.

Sarll gave Liburd a first start for Boro since the defeat to Stoke in the EFL Cup back in August, and the forward repaid him with a brace of goals in the second half.

Competition for a starting place in Stevenage’s attack is heating up ahead of this weekend’s home match with Yeovil Town.

Sarll will be able to call upon two of Liburd, top scorer Matt Godden, Ben Kennedy and Harry McKirdy this weekend, while Tyler Walker, the on-loan Nottingham Forest striker, is also nearing a return from injury.

Elsewhere in the team others are also pushing for starting places with Steven Schumacher and Michael Tonge both impressing in central midfield on Tuesday, while at right-back Nathan Kerr put in a solid display in his first start for the club.

Speaking about Liburd’s performance, his manager said: “Rowan with his two goals and the quality of his game you can see why we’ve kept him a little bit away from playing time as we wanted to go through the process to allow you to see what you’ve seen tonight,” Sarll said.

“[There was a] higher intensity, a higher level of workrate, greater dictation of passes in behind and he thoroughly deserved his two goals.”

Sarll added: “The second well done should go to young Nathan Kerr making his first start.

“Another graduate of the academy, he’s been with us now for three years.

“I thought he coped so, so well against Jermaine McGlashan who is a very good player and an experienced player of division three and four.

“He went back to all the training he’s had in three years with us and implemented it.

“I thought we played really well.

“The tempo and intensity was really good and there was some real technical quality thrown in the mix as well.”