Steve Evans and Stevenage up for League One play-off battle

They sit sixth in the table, in that last qualifying position, and Evans knows the fate of their season is in their own hands.

The belief in his troops is unquavering, however, even though he knows the size of the task ahead. 

"We're going to have to be good now," he said. "I went to have a look at Peterborough on Tuesday as we play them on Wednesday on the TV. 

"They were exceptional. They have got automatic promotion written all over them.  

"They made a Northampton side look like they’d never seen each other before the game. 

"But if that's the benchmark that we need to achieve ourselves to stay in that play-off group, then we’re going to try everything we can to do it. 

"It is in our control and that’s unthinkable [to many], that the glamour of the League 1 play-offs campaign can kick off in early May and we're not on our jollies.  

"If we don't achieve it, we'll have magnificently overachieved for the season and in in the words of Barry Fry, who I spoke to the other night when I went to Posh, 'you are the team of the season’. 

"That’s not me, that’s the boys in the dressing room and I do believe that if we make the play-offs, we’ll win them. 

"As a manager you always look at the shape of your army before you go into battle and we've got a lot of individual battles in this war to get into that play-off group. 

"But our so-called big players, the ones who have been delivering the performances, are predominantly fit.  

"We've got five good strikers to choose from, we've got a plethora of good options in the middle of the park and we've shown at the back that we can play different shapes and mix those shapes and systems up. 

"It's going to be tough. Look at the quality of Oxford, they dominate Portsmouth for half an hour at the end of the game last week. 

"There are probably four or five teams fighting for one place, and at the minute we've got a hold of that place. 

"We want to do our best to keep it." 

The first of the 11 remaining games is on Saturday when Fleetwood Town arrive at the Lamex.

And while they may second from bottom, the last three games have brought a win and two draws and Evans knows they are fighting for their lives.

The Boro boss said: "What we have to do is keep on the level. We will win games in the run-in, we will lose games in the run-in. 

"We just need to focus on Fleetwood. We can't do nothing about Peterborough on Wednesday or nothing about going to Carlisle next week until we’ve dealt with Fleetwood. 

"And they've changed. They've brought Charlie Adam in, a fellow Scotsman and I used to play with Charlie's dad, but Charlie has got his team playing, as Wigan found out last Saturday.

"Charlie's put staff around himself and brought a togetherness into that group.

"I know one or two the their boys and they've said they have gone from not looking forward to going in or playing matches to cannot wait to train and cannot wait to play.

"It makes it makes Fleetwood a very, very difficult animal to be playing. 

"Our job on Saturday is to be really professional. We know we need to produce a real top performance, but every time we win a game, it brings another opportunity for that league table not to move."

Fleetwood represents one of six home games in the final run-in and they will be key as far as Evans is concerned.

"Very much so," he said, "because it's very difficult to win games at home, never mind win games away. 

"We have a run of games that doesn't frighten us. We have a run of games that I think my dressing room embraces.

"Do we embrace a rejuvenated Fleetwood? We have to, we have to be able to deal with that, but we're looking forward to that and all the games.

"It's exciting, isn't it? Our troops are assembled on the battle line and we're ready to go, don't worry about that. 

"We respect every one of our opponents to come but we fear none."