Stevenage manager Alex Revell is prepared to give youth a chance during pre-season and beyond at the League One club - but they have to show they deserve the chance.

Boro opened their pre-season campaign with a behind closed doors match at Luton Town on Tuesday and it included the likes of David Hicks, Owen Cochrane and Louis Henry from the club's academy.

The trio, and others, could all feature in the rest of the friendlies and into the league campaign itself, but they will be tested says the boss.

Revell said: "It's about bringing them in to help with us but it's also about them deserving to be here. 

"We've had a few training with us over the period now to watch them and help them develop. They are at that level where they need to kick on now.  

"But they'll only be involved if they're good enough to be involved. Even though it's pre-season, it's still important.  

"You have your values and that that will to win and you want the [young] players to adopt the same characteristics as the first-team and the men that we have in there.  

"So they'll only be there if they're good enough and deserve to be there. You've still got to warrant being in this squad because it's a team of men that has been together a while, that are strong willed and want to win. 

"We've had some of them and they've come up and done well and on Tuesday they were up against really good players. All of a sudden we've got a 16-year-old against Andros Townsend. 

"It’s their first experience of that and you know they'll be better for Tuesday.  

"They'll definitely feature for us but they'll be in and out. That's part of being a youngster, you have to learn that sometimes you're removed, sometimes you're on the bench and only watch [the game]. 

"It's not personal, it's just to help their development and hopefully, what we'll do over the period is develop them into better players and people to be around these winners and that as the season progresses, we start to see more come through."