Coming into a squad closing in on automatic promotion and with huge characters could be daunting for a young footballer - Jon McCracken though has not only taken it all in his stride, he's even added to it.

The 22-year-old arrived on loan from Norwich City earlier in the month as Stevenage's goalkeeping crisis took another turn.

But he has impressed as Boro picked up seven points from the three games he has been involved in, conceding just one goal in the process.

And his confidence has been a big part of that.

"I hope it comes across as confident and arrogant," he said with a laugh. "No, I just believe in myself and it's what I've done since I was a kid. 

"Playing football is all I’ve really known so I'm probably most confident when I'm on the pitch and being a goalkeeper. 

"The defence in front of me have been brilliant. In three games now, I've only made a handful of saves. 

"They make my job so much easier, having guys with that experience in front of you, but the whole squad has got bundles of experience and it definitely shows.

 

"It's a good club, a good place to be and I’m enjoying it."

Manager Steve Evans had to move quick after Toby Savin was recalled by parent club Accrington Stanley.

McCracken said he had an inkling it might happen but admitted the speed was an eye opener.

He said: "I kind of knew that there might be some interest maybe two weeks before it actually happened. 

"But then it obviously happened quite quick with Accrington recalling Toby and then in a matter of 24 hours I was here, training Friday and then playing the game Saturday against Walsall. 

"It’s a nice place to be, with games to play and every one meaning something. 

"I'll try to help the club get them where they want to be, where they should be, and that’s League One."

And he fancies the club's chances at securing automatic promotion from League Two, simply because of what he has found in the dressing room.

"The mood has been very good since I came in," said the former Hamilton Academical trainee. "They had a tough result the week before [against Rochdale] but three good results since then have helped. 

"Everyone just bounces off each other and carries each other through games. 

"We had a tough game against Carlisle but the squad being together in the way it is gets you through the tough spells in the games. 

"There’s definitely some character in there," he added with another grin. "They are an interesting bunch of boys and you need that in a squad.

"There are no cliques, everyone is together, the patter is flowing all the time between the boys and it's an easy changing room to come into." 

His own career path saw him move to Norwich as a 16-year-old before spending a couple of months at Bohemians in Ireland.

What happens next though is not something he is focused on.

He said: "I don't want to look too far ahead. I'm just focused on these next 10 games. 

"That was the challenge set to me by Norwich and by the gaffer here, to come in and show what I can do. I just want to see how this season goes and then we’ll re-evaluate it, see where I'm at, see where Norwich see me and go from there." 

And he has taken to his new boss almost as well as Evans has taken to him, with plenty of good-natured ribbing between the countrymen.

"Oh he's brilliant," said McCracken," a top man. I spoke quite a bit to him the day before I came in and we were speaking more about Scotland than football. 

"No, he's great and been really welcoming, the same with all the backroom staff, but I do wind him up.

"I’m not really any [fan] to be honest. I just wind him up as he's a big Celtic man, so when the opportunity came to do a wee song in front of him, I thought I’d wind him up and all the boys were egging me on to do it. 

"But he lets me know every single minute of every day that he's a Celtic fan and what the Celtic score is and that they are nine points clear. 

"He just loves the banter."