Stevenage manager Steve Evans is taking a trip back in time as he prepares to welcome "the one special club in League Two" to the Lamex Stadium.

Boro lost for only the second time in the league when they went down 3-0 to Bradford City in September.

Since then though, Boro have lost just once in 18 games, catapulting them up to second in the table.

And while he doesn't feel like they have a point to prove, Evans says what happened at Valley Parade will help them prepare for this scrap.

He said: "Sometimes you have to accept that a team is better than you on the day and they had some big players, that will play here on Saturday, that really stood up [in September].

"We learnt lots at Bradford and you could see that from our run of form when we left.

 

"The first thing we'll do is properly review what happened at Bradford because a lot of the personnel will be the same.

 

"You then review your last couple of performances, you review your training programmes and you then think our team will come from a particular shape that we want to play on Saturday because there are certain players suited to better shapes than others.

"I thought I knew the team before the training game [in-house match on Tuesday] and then two or three in the training game were very good and the staff were in here this morning before you guys and they're saying the same things.

"But we'll come in [Thursday] afternoon and we'll have the best debate ever.

"I've got an idea what I'm going to play. It'll be interesting if the staff think the same after training."

One of those selection headaches will be who starts at the back.

They were without both Dan Sweeney and Terence Vancooten for the 0-0 draw at Sutton last time out but the clean sheet, earned partly thanks to replacements Jonathan Tomkinson and Michael Bostwick, was their eighth in the last 12 games, all of which have ended without defeat.

"Wasn't it good?" purred Evans. "You lose Vancooten, you lose Sweeney and people would have said 'well they're going to struggle'.

"But we brought Tomkinson in and we brought Bostwick in and it was seamless. There was no difference who played in that back three.

"Matt Gray [Sutton manager] says we are the only ones who can make a goalkeeper change and two centre-back changes and still be strong as what we were.

"If it's those guys on Saturday, I don't think anyone is going to raise an eyebrow because they were terrific."

And the Boro boss knows that every game from here on in will have huge significance, if Stevenage are to go on and actually win promotion to League One.

He said: "Every game from now until the end of the season is going to be a big game for us, isn't it? That's whether we're in second position or first or 10th, every game is a big game.

"If you look at Bradford City, they are the one special club in League Two that everyone says could be playing a Premier League fixture on Saturday and no one would blink.

"We have an opportunity of getting three points and that's our sole focus.

"Everyone's trying to jockey for position to beat each other. Last Saturday showed how tough it is to win in League Two.

"Leyton Orient win, deserved winners against Wimbledon, but other than that, nobody else took advantage of us not winning at Sutton."