Stevenage 'far from finished' in League One play-off race

The 0-0 stalemate at The Valley leaves Boro eighth, three points behind Lincoln City and Oxford United with five games to go.

But while they have let victories slip away in recent weeks, one thing an Evans team will not do is throw in the towel.

The boss said: "I’ve always said I don’t go away up or down based on result but I do go away up or down based on performance. 

"I’m going home up and I'm looking forward to going to Exeter and if we play like that, we give ourselves a chance to win. 

"I believe in our players and we’ve had a tough weekend. The [other play-off chasing teams] have now got a couple of toughies coming. 

"We're far from finished in this race. 

"We've come out of Easter three behind and some people might have thought we’d come out further behind. 

"We wanted to win more than they did and it just never happened."

Jamie Reid is going through a lean spell says manager Steve Evans. Picture: TGS PHOTO (Image: TGS Photo)

A lack of goals is proving to be their Achilles' heel, just three scored in the last seven outings, games that have produced five draws and two defeats.

Evans is not concerned as long as they keep getting in the right positions.

"That's always a concern but good teams find a way to win games, in other words, they find a way to score," he said.

"The one that Vadaine Oliver makes with a brilliant header, knocks it down for Jamie Reid and you would have put everything you have in your pocket on him heading it into the bottom corner. 

"Unfortunately, he just gets under it, that can happen.

"He's going through a lean spell but the only way he's going to get a goal is being prepared to go back in there and we love the kid, whether he scores him or not, as he is prepared to go back in. 

But he’s played four games in 11 days and he’s run himself into the and bottom of the pitch for the team.  

"He's covered as many yards as he could. 

"And we just thought we'd stick Hemmings on, he’s a goal scorer and he’s been a goal scorer all of his career. 

"He's really unlucky with the volley, he just didn’t catch it a couple of minutes from time. 

"But it’s not just our strikers, Carl [Piergianni] should score 10 minutes from time but he puts it wide when it should be on target."

And the Boro boss resisted the suggestion that the pressure would be mounting on his team now they are the ones doing the chasing.

He said: "You either embrace pressure or you don’t. Our group still feels the pressure. but we’re three points off this and eighth with five games to go. 

"We all look at who each other has got when it gets to the stage of the season, it's squeaky bum time as we know. 

"Other than a couple of halves in games where I don’t think we’ve shown up, we've dominated and should have many more points. 

"That might be the same as what others are thinking but all I'm thinking is if we go to Exeter and we win the game, we get the opportunity to come back into the dressing room and see if others have looked after themselves. 

"I think we've been the better team [at Charlton] but they're significantly better than what they were earlier in the season without Nathan."