Stevenage's run of games finally caught up with them at Southend United according to manager Alex Revell but he was still happy to leave Essex with another point.

The 0-0 draw was their 15th in a little over seven weeks and at times they were pinned back by a home side scrapping for their very lives in the Football League.

But that run has also seen them lose just three of those games and they are now undefeated in the last eight.

Revell said: "We started on the back foot. We couldn’t get out of our half in the first two minutes and that showed their intention.

"We are at the end of a really tough run of games and the performance probably looked like that.

"The players put a lot of effort into Tuesday’s game [at Leyton Orient] and didn’t get the result we deserved but we just had to ask them for one final push.

"We’ve played a lot of games and it is the same players were involved in those games.

"Those moments where you’re on the ball and maybe needed to keep it or needed to work, it maybe looked a little bit of a struggle at times.

"But the most important thing when you don’t play well is you don’t lose. That’s a big improvement because before Christmas we would have done that.

"It’s another clean sheet, another point on the board and we would probably have taken that before, away from home at a club who are fighting for their lives."

The boss also said there was never a question of a lack of desire among the players but he is now delighted to be able to get them back for a full week of training, even if there is still worries over how they will recover.

Revell said: "It has been relentless but the brilliant part of this football club at the minute, there is never a lack of desire.

It may have been a lack of legs.

"We haven’t had i[a week of training] for a long, long time. It is really important to get back there.

"Nobody knows what this run of games does to players as we have never had it before so we will have to see how they are and how they recover.

"For some players it may not catch up with them for a few more weeks so we’ll have to look after them.

"But we also have to get information to them to make sure that when we play [the remaining] games, we are full of energy and back to playing to our plan.

"We’ve got two home games coming up and no travelling so we can really prepare to get some good performances and wins."