Stevenage set for a season of struggle, Stevenage could go down, Stevenage won't be in the play-off hunt this year.

Those are just some of the opinions being thrown about before the start of the 2024-2025 League One season - and Boro manager Alex Revell reckons they are all nonsense.

And why?

"It's the hard work the players have put in for sure," he said with a firm voice.

"We've really pushed them in training and I'm seeing that intensity in their work. 

"And we've improved and it's got better and quicker. There have been less turnovers and more of what we want to do with the ball. 

"All those little things that we said we want to improve when we first got the job. I've seen them in games. 

"We had the opportunity to learn from the Coventry game when there were certain aspects we needed to improve on. 

"And I've seen that reaction from the last two games [against Braintree Town and Chelsea U21s].  

"We had a really fantastic weekend to finish off our pre-season and both teams showed we're in a good place in terms of fitness levels. 

"But there was also those little moments when we had the ball and the chances created. 

"We’ve created a lot of chances throughout this whole pre-season and we’ll keep encouraging people to do that. 

"I’ve [also liked] seeing the players come out of themselves and show what they can do.

"That's the biggest thing we've seen. Certain players have come out and put in some really top performances in pre-season. 

"It's made our job really tough to pick a team for Saturday but that's what we want. We want competition here. 

"And that's also a reason why I know we're ready. Everybody has to perform every day otherwise you don't play."

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Saturday's opener is a home match against Shrewsbury Town.

It will be the first home game they have had in three years, the last one being a 1-0 success over Barrow in 2021.

Since then two road trips, at Tranmere Rovers and Northampton Town, has seen another two successes.

And in each of the last two seasons, it has been a prelude to a fine campaign, promotion from League Two in 2023 and a good tilt at the play-offs in League One. last time out.

Therefore Revell knows the importance of a good start.

The boss said: "We know we have to be at our best to beat anyone. 

"We said last year that the start was really important and we got a really good one, which set us up for the whole season. 

"In the year we got promoted, we had a fantastic start. After 10 games, I don't think we’d lost at home. 

"The start is that important and we know we've got to go out and show our intent from the word go. 

"That'd be no different if it was the previous manager still sitting here, it would sill be the same and we don’t want to change that too much. We do understand the importance of it. 

"But doesn’t just happen, winning is because of all the hard work you’ve put in over the last six weeks and before that, when they're on holiday. 

"The guys are ready for sure and we're hopeful of getting a really positive start."