The most important thing needed from the opening of a new season is victory according to Stevenage boss Alex Revell - the fact the 1-0 success at home to Barrow came in front of a crowd was simply a huge and welcome bonus.

New signing Jake Reeves capped his debut with the only goal of the game, swooping in the first minute of the second half to the delight of the supporters.

Revell said: "You don’t really know where you are when you play the first game as we haven’t played this type of football in pre-season.

"So to get a win, and no injuries, it’s really positive.

"The players are smiling, the fans are smiling, it’s a really good day.

"It gives you goosebumps. They were pushing the team through in the last 10 minutes and they deserve that as they have missed watching the team here.

"This is why we do it. We want them to go home smiling, have a good weekend and look forward to the next one."

The game itself won't go into the hall of fame as one of the best ever but the boss won't be losing too much sleep over that, not with the three points in the bag.

He said: "It was a tight game but with everything that this game had on it – the first game back in front of fans and new players – the players probably felt the pressure of all that and it looked a little nervy at times.

"The most important thing was to win the game. We probably didn’t see our style as much as we wanted to although we did at times and should have went on and won by more.

"It’s a great start and everyone is delighted.

"You can’t ask for anything better than that. You hoped it would settle us down but when you are facing long balls from the goalkeeper, you have to keep concentrating to keep in the game.

"They bombarded our box but we had the chances to score more so we have to keep doing that."