He may not have made any changes from the winning side against Wycombe, and it may have ultimately proved fruitful against Lincoln City, but Stevenage manager Steve Evans said there was still plenty of selection anguish ahead of the League One fixture.

Boro won 1-0 at home to the Imps with a squad of 18 showing just two differences from the one that won by the same score at Adams Park.

However, Evans still have plenty to ponder after a fine week at training and a good win over Crystal Palace in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

He said: "I genuinely thought that the performance at Wycombe was really, really good.

"I had been toying with the shape and the personnel but we are very loyal to all of our players and I sat with Ben [Thompson] and Jake [Forster-Caskey] and told them we weren’t going to start them but they were really good in midweek. 

"Harvey White didn’t even make the group today not and as much as I said I cried about Harrison Neal, he was in the match day squad and it was a late call about whether it was him or Louis Thompson. 

"But we were training yesterday and I'm watching Harvey White and I was really sad not to pick him. 

"He was up at the training ground working with the fitness team [on Saturday morning] and that really saddens me because whatever anyone thinks about me as a person, I’ve got feelings and if I’m Harvey’s dad, I’m wondering what does my boy have to do. 

"But it is not just about what he has to do, the other people in the middle of the park have had a bit of a head start so he’s almost trying to catch them up. 

"That’s very, very difficult in football, but he will have to continue to work as hard as he does, the same as Ben Thompson and Jake Forster-Caskey."

The strength in depth was shown when Forster-Caskey and Thompson changed the game against Lincoln, coming off the bench at half-time.

And the former believes that while a large squad can sometimes cause problems, that is not the case at Boro.

Forster-Caskey said: "There’s good competition among every position in the squad and it makes everybody hungry in training and it makes people work hard away from [the Lamex]. 

"It's definitely a healthy thing for the squad and the gaffer can put out any team and it will be very competitive at this level.

"That’s even more [true] in midfield. There's a lot of good players and a lot of players that could play at any time.  

"So when you do get the chance, you need to make sure you take it and put in a performance."

Goal scorer Jamie Reid was in full agreement and said the strikers were in the same position at the midfield.

He said: "Yeah, it's good to have competition like that. I've been there, I've been chomping at the bit before, and when [the likes of Aaron Pressley, Elliott List and Charlie McNeill] get the chance, I'm sure they'll take it. 

"We’ve got a good forward line. I think we all bring different things and any one of us could have played 90 minutes and nobody would have looked out of place."