Stevenage manager Alex Revell blamed fatigue after a draining week as his side drew 0-0 with Southend in a drab contest.

The Boro produced a famous win over Hull in the FA Cup last weekend, after extra time and penalties, and also drew with Walsall in midweek before their exertions appeared to catch up with them against Mark Molesley’s side.

And while the result moved Stevenage out of the League Two relegation zone on goal difference, Revell was nonetheless disappointed with his side’s inability to create goalscoring opportunities against their relegation rivals.

“I look at the stats and it was two teams who obviously knew where they were,” Revell said.

“They didn’t want to miss, if that makes sense, and it was a bit tentative. We had one chance from a corner we should have scored from and the frustration for me is that we had opportunities in really good areas to go and do something, but for me it’s tired minds.

“You try and pick them up but it’s been a tough week in term of minutes. The players need to recover their legs and have a nice week of training before the next run of games.

“We’re in a good place as a group. We could have been disappointed after Walsall but we can have a good week now. It’s about getting the lads ready again and I think this was two teams who really just didn’t want to lose.”

The hosts had the best of the chances with Brandon Goodship’s well-struck shot tipped over the crossbar by Stevenage goalkeeper Jamie Cumming and Richard Taylor heading wide from close range.

But Molesley was left to reflect on a sixth point of the campaign which he believes was well earned given he described his team as being ‘drastically short’ of players ahead of the game with injury and COVID restrictions running riot through the squad.

“Under the circumstances it’s a good point,” Molesley said. “You can do the maths with the players we have missing and Tom Clifford added to that too.

“It’s 10 unavailable now but the endeavour and determination of the group was spot on and that’s what we’re looking for at the moment with the position we’re in.

“It’s hard to build a philosophy when there’s so much change and so much upheaval in the team.

“It’s difficult because there’s been no momentum in team selection but this group is working hard and digging in.

“We had chances but that’s been the story of our season and we haven’t punished teams. It was a good battling performance from both teams but it probably wasn’t one for the purists.”