A win away at Crawley Town was the perfect way for Alex Revell to celebrate 12 months in charge at Stevenage.

Elliot Osborne's goal gave them a 1-0 win one year to the day since the striker hung up the boots and stepped behind the manager's desk.

And in a year like no other, with a global pandemic and uncertainty over their Football League status, the 37-year-old has no regrets about the switch.

"None, I’ve loved it," he said, "although I did train [on Monday] and I was top scorer so a few have said I should come out of retirement.

"But no, I love working with these players, even in games like Crawley where it can be frustrating because we’ve made silly mistakes.

"That’s why I’m here, to make them better. They are now doing something [playing] I loved doing but now I love making them better and seeing them perform.

"I’m just going grey as I do it. I don’t think any manager in their first year can say they’ve had to deal with what I have but hopefully we are all in a better place and I know we are all working extremely hard to make people come to work with a smile on their face."

The victory at the Broadfield Stadium wasn't without its trauma and stresses, Osborne's winner on 83 minutes almost cancelled out by a 90th-minute penalty, but Revell says it encapsulates his time in charge.

He said: "It was a really good win, not in the manner we wanted with the stress of the game, but what I will say is we knew it would be a difficult game and we are on a gruelling run of games.

"It has tested the group and the staff because it is relentless but these players came through it with a real energy, real desire and a real work-ethic.

"We wanted to bounce back from Bolton where we felt we deserved more and we’ve won the game.

"The biggest thing is the players have a real belief in each other and in what we are trying to do.

"That is one of the things I wanted to create, I’ve always spoken of that togetherness.

"We’ve done that and these players care. If you get a group who care about the club and each other then you get performances like this.

"People are running through brick goals for each other and that fills me with great pride."