It was a question that brought plenty of thought but also an answer that could have gone on for a long time - Alex Revell has learned a whole heap of things while working under Steve Evans.

The 40-year-old has been placed in caretaker charge at Stevenage following his mentor's decision to rejoin old club Rotherham United, the first of at least two games at the helm ending in a 1-1 draw at Oxford United.

He was once the sole occupant of Boro's big chair, managing the club for 18 months in 2020 and 2021, but was brought back into the fold by Evans as first-team coach in 2022.

Evans had said then that it would be a series of teachable moments for Revell and that is exactly what it turned out to be, with his answer also revealing a lot about his new thought process when it comes to being manager.

"Wow, what have I learned?" said Revell. "I've learned so much.

"The gaffer’s obviously huge on standards, everything we've done is in terms of standards. 

"That’s massive and when you set something, you have to stick to those standards. The minute you let something slip, the minute the place falls [apart] slightly. 

"I learned from that and thought that is definitely something I’ll grasp onto. 

"I think going with your gut, you want to have opinions [given to you] but ultimately you want to do it your way. 

"Like at Oxford, we thought do we go there with one up front? We don't play one up front, we play with two. 

"You can't just go for teams all the time willy nilly, because there are good teams at this level, but we play with two up front, whatever we do around that. 

"And we work and we try and win it back and we try and score as quickly as we can and that's what we try and do 

"We tried to do that at Oxford, we tried to carry it on because that was my gut and that's what I've learned over the time [with Steve Evans]. 

"The biggest thing for me is trust. Get people around you that you trust and that are all in the same boat, that all want the same thing as you. 

"[Paul Raynor] has been with him for I don’t know, however many years, but he is a massive, part of why the club has had success as well. 

"They are a duo and I’ve been lucky enough to come along. He’s allowed my work to increase to the point now where he can now sit back and watch and let me do my thing. 

"But if I did it wrong he'd tell me and that's what I need.  

"I could keep going, he has a sleep before games. I can’t do that to be honest with you. He has a 15 minute catnap and I couldn't do that. I might do when I'm his age.

"I’ve learned that too but that's not happening," he added with a smile.