Stevenage midfielder Michael Doughty spoke to his club’s official website ahead of his side’s League One game against Carlisle at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon, the on-loan QPR midfielder talking about an upturn in fortunes for the Boro’ recently:
“In the last few games we’ve had a level of consistency that we haven’t shown before. There have been parts of our performances in the past which have been strong but in the last few games we’ve brought a lot of those things together and showed them on a consistent basis. We all knew it was within us, it was just a case of having the self-belief, confidence and making sure we do the basics well. In previous games this season individual mistakes have cost us and I think to a man we’ve been much more concentrated on the jobs we have to do.
“From a squad mentality aspect it makes a big difference to see us climbing up the table rather than lingering in the bottom four. The squad’s naturally quite thin but it’s good to have competition for places in key areas. Bira’s been phenomenal considering the cultural change he’s had to go through - he’s really seamlessly fitted into the team. Curtis also, who hasn’t played a lot of football has done excellently. But then the guys who’ve been here all season such as Jimmy and Ash have really stepped up to the plate and that’s showing with our results.
“They’re big players for us, big players in the dressing room and players with experience at this level. Certainly for a person like myself, who’s relatively inexperienced in footballing terms it’s great to have those guys next to you on the pitch, telling you what to do and along with guiding you off the pitch, also. Any good side has good competition within the camp in every position. The midfield area is blessed with a lot of talented individuals. There’s obviously a lot of competition for places but that just puts the emphasis on all of us when we get our opportunities.
“I think now we’re in a position which is much more favourable in the sense that it’s in our hands and we’re out of the bottom four. We’re very much looking upwards rather than downwards as we don’t need to rely on other results. I think the manager [Graham Westley] has always been keen to stress the importance of preparation and getting us in the right mental and physical state.
“From that point of view I think we do have a natural advantage as on Thursday we were training and getting our prep done for the game whilst Carlisle might have been cooling down. What we’ve shown this season though and something the manager always tells us is that there are many aspects to winning a game, so we need to get all those right along with the performance on the day to get three points.”
In team news for the visitors tomorrow they look likely to have two players missing through injury with winger Filipe Morais hopeful of a return following a knee problem. The two absentees being Roarie Deacon and Joe N’Guessan, striker Deacon and midfielder N’Guessan both out with unspecified injuries. One the positive side of things for Boro’ boss Graham Westley though is able to call again on central midfielder John Mousinho after the on-loan Preston man had to sit out Stevenage’s 1-1 draw with his parent club on Tuesday night.
The referee for tomorrow's match is James Adcock from Long Eaton on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border and he will be assisted down the lines by Martin Coy from Darlington and Ben Toner from Darwen in Lancashire. Meanwhile, the fourth official is Paul Kettlewell from Lancaster.