Stevenage players have been set a new task by manager Steve Evans - cope better with the expectations and pressure of being League Two leaders.

Boro went to the division's summit with victory a week ago at home to Swindon Town and they stayed there thanks to a 1-1 draw at Gillingham.

It wasn't the most polished of performances though and the boss wants his side to start accepting and adapting to their new found position.

He said: "Mikel Arteta said it is really, really hard to get to the top of the table but it’s harder to stay there and it is harder to stay there when people are shooting at you.

"We didn’t cope with it as well as we should have done.

"But we are far surpassing where everyone thought we’d be. We are the surprise package, don’t you worry about that.

"But after becoming the surprise package, you have to become the real deal.

"The two teams have worked really hard but it was a poor spectacle for those watching as a neutral.

"I’m not questioning our effort, determination or will to win.

"We should have had two penalties in the second half, certainly the one on Alex Gilbey in the second half was clear cut.

"We’re disappointed but we’ll play a lot better."

Danny Rose had headed Stevenage ahead on 32 minutes, beautifully guiding Saxon Earley's cross into the far corner, but the Gills had levelled with an equally well-met header from Elkan Baggott.

And despite chances after the break, the Boro boss felt his side were lacking a bit of quality.

Evans said: "We didn’t do enough with the ball. We tried to be competitive and we won our fair share of 50-50s.

"We scored against the run of play but I don’t want people to think Gillingham dominated. It was a scrappy game.

"We tried to win it in the second half, we made the big chances.

"Jordan [Roberts] should certainly score or at least hit the target.

"We’ll take the point but we have to focus on ourselves and we didn’t do enough."