A Stevenage XI rolled out 4-0 winners against QPR U21s on Tuesday afternoon as goals from Dale Gorman, Adam Marriott and two from Ben Kennedy put the polish on a convincing display at the training ground.
A delighted Darren Sarll spoke to us after the final whistle.
“I thought it was excellent. I think the culture of the football club is starting to shine through now and you can see that whichever side puts on a Stevenage shirt, they have a strategy, style and mentality to their play that we encourage.
“We try and bring down the best opponents possible for our young players and first team lads that are out of the side. 4-0 is very convincing but it is not in the slightest surprising to me with the quality of young players that we have.
“We had eight U21 players out there supplemented by Dean Wells, Jerome Okimo and Adam Marriott - even Adam could be classed as a young player.
“Their attitude was excellent, Dean Wells said it there at the end and to get the most out of reserve games you need to replicate the environment and adrenaline of a Saturday so I thought it was very good.”
Perhaps the biggest headline coming out of the game was Kennedy’s two goals but Sarll was equally pleased with everyone on the pitch.
“It was really nice to see Ben Kennedy get two goals - he and Adam Marriott have now really given me a headache ahead of Saturday.
“Dale Gorman was outstanding, Dean Wells was excellent, Tom Conlon and Ryan Johnson both very good. Young Nathan Kerr had a few troubles at right-back early on but stepped into midfield really, really well. I like it when I see my club playing with a unity and it adds more to our case that we are going somewhere and we are ready to go somewhere.
“It is funny, I still call Ryan Johnson and Dale Gorman young players but then you have now got even younger players such as Louis Yamfam and Nathan Kerr playing with them. It is a massive learning curve but it is great for them to play together and have those role models. I think it is important that there is a consistency to that journey.”
Stevenage really stepped things up in the second half, scoring three goals and seeing the game out in an impressive fashion.
“It has always been my way of playing. I don’t like wasting time and I want to win the game as quickly as possible so they did that really well and it was encouraging to see.
“We still had to stop some good players - some Championship, borderline Premier League U21 players so it just shows how good our young players are.”
Stevenage XI: Jackson; Kerr, Wells, Johnson, Okimo; Gorman, Conlon, Kennedy; Yamfam, Marriott, Trialist
Subs: Croud, Sweeney, Slater (All used)
GOALS: Unique view of @AMarriott10 & @Ben_Kennedy6's goals in the second half of today's reserves win... pic.twitter.com/uhV3AkPmvv
— StevenageFC Official (@StevenageFC) March 1, 2016