‘Rise To The Challenge’ – Martin’s Pre-Stevenage Message

Next Match | Friday 6 November Fri 6 Nov

OXC

(A)

04 D

17 H

26 M

45 S

Interviews & Features

Heritage

Photos

‘Rise To The Challenge’ – Martin’s Pre-Stevenage Message

Russell Martin expects the level of performance to continue on an upward trajectory heading into Saturday’s meeting with Stevenage.

2026-10-31T08:00+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

31 Oct, 2026

‘Rise To The Challenge’ – Martin’s Pre-Stevenage Message

Russell Martin expects the level of performance to continue on an upward trajectory heading into Saturday’s meeting with Stevenage.

Sam Jones

2026-10-31T08:00+00:00

‘Rise To The Challenge’ – Martin’s Pre-Stevenage Message

Russell Martin expects the level of performance to continue on an upward trajectory heading into Saturday’s meeting with Stevenage.

Sam Jones

2026-10-31T08:00+00:00

‘Rise To The Challenge’ – Martin’s Pre-Stevenage Message

Russell Martin expects the level of performance to continue on an upward trajectory heading into Saturday’s meeting with Stevenage.

Sam Jones

2026-10-31T08:00+00:00

‘Rise To The Challenge’ – Martin’s Pre-Stevenage Message

Russell Martin expects the level of performance to continue on an upward trajectory heading into Saturday’s meeting with Stevenage.

Sam Jones

2026-10-31T08:00+00:00

The Boro are the visitors to King Power Stadium for a 3pm GMT kick-off as our Sky Bet League One campaign continues on home soil, four days on from dispatching Wigan Athletic on Filbert Way.

And while current form may be promising, winning three of the last four, the 40-year-old is not getting carried away and believes there’s plenty of further progression to come from this Leicester City side, as he explained to the media on Friday.

“I think the team’s grown a lot,” our Manager told reporters at LCFC Training Ground. “They are really fighting and working so hard. It’s nice to see some of the hard work pay off.

“We’ve been fairly content with the level of performance over the last four games, but we have so much more room for improvement in so many areas. It’s not easy to win games consistently and repeatedly and we have to keep doing that and wanting more.

“I’ve been impressed with the level of maturity and growth shown by a lot of the players and I’ve also enjoyed the level of togetherness and intensity the team have shown over the last couple of weeks.

“We have to just keep demanding more from them and keep wanting more as well. We’re in an okay place as a group and a team and a club as staff, but now we have to keep improving.

“I think if you look at half of the team who started the game in midweek, this would be like their last pre-season game of learning, or first game of the season usually, with how much time they’ve actually had with the squad and time on the pitch together.

“It’s just a case of relationships building, understanding each other more and what we want and being really clear with what the opportunities are and threats are at this level, because so many of them haven’t played at this level before. Everyone is getting used to the work.

“We want to have more moments ourselves where we are on top and dominant and more chances to attack the opposition goal and limit the opposition to less. Over the last three games, we have limited the opposition to fairly little, but still we want nothing in a perfect world.

“We want to keep growing, keep building and the level of aggression and even increase that in the team and the fight and then to have moments of real composure and calmness, especially in front of goal. We seem to have done that over the last few games and scored a fair number of goals and kept two clean sheets.”

In his analysis of Alex Revell’s Stevenage, who sit 13th in the table, Martin pointed to the Jersey Mike’s Trophy group stage fixture as a starting point, when the hosts claimed a 2-1 victory at SPORTA Arena, but he expects both teams to look very different this weekend.

“They’ve had time now to be together for a while,” he assessed. “Alex has done a brilliant job. He had it before and then he had to work his way back to it. He’s someone I really like. I saw him at our game on Tuesday.

“The amount of goals they concede and chances they give up is not many. They are really organised, solid, strong, aggressive and well coached. We have to be all of those things and more and rise to the challenge.

“We need to try and turn it into the game we want it to be. We have to try and start the game with a lot of intensity and energy and the crowd will feed off that like they did the other night. I’m looking forward to it but it’s a difficult game.

“We played them a few weeks ago - I’m sure Alex has taken a little bit from that and there are definitely bits we can learn from that game, for sure. I’m sure that Alex has used it in the same way. I expect the league game at our place to look different.

“They’ve changed a little bit since then, in terms of personnel and formation. We made nine or 10 changes in that game and actually I was really happy with the level of performance, just not the result.

“[There’s a] mentality of other teams changing because we are seen as a really big team. Games can look very different from the game before that we watched. Their setup and approach can look very different against us, which is something we have to deal with.”

Chasing a third consecutive home victory for the first time since April 2024, after climbing into the top half in midweek, it feels like things may be starting to take shape for Martin’s men, wedding together a development of relationships on the pitch, combined with greater awareness of the tactics being implemented.

“We have to win the game first,” he commented. “It’s really important for us to attack every game and to pick up as many points as we can, because we’re trying to make up for a stop-start start to the season.

“It’s been a little bit bumpy. I said to the players before Tuesday, it’s nothing that I didn’t expect. The amount of change in personnel, the amount of business we did, I didn’t expect it to be all smooth sailing.

“Now we’re in a place where everyone has been here a while so we have to really focus on the work and kick on and really start improving on what we’re doing.

“We’re not in the top 10 so we’re not comfortable. We’re not in the position we want to be in. It’s our job to make sure the players are really comfortable with discomfort. There are going to be moments tomorrow where we’ll be uncomfortable. We have to be really good in those moments.

“We have a lot of young players who are doing it for the first time. We have a lot of senior pros who have done it before but in different circumstances. I think they understand what it takes. We are going to be challenged.

“Whatever position in the league we’re in, my job is to focus on the next one. As coaching staff, we’ve been focused on that the whole time, not getting high or low with the results.

“The league table will take care of itself, we just have to win games and be much happier in a few weeks’ time.”

Purchase Match Tickets and Premium Experiences ahead of our Stevenage clash on Saturday!

LATEST HEADLINES

City's Women Claim Saints Win With Shootout Success

With the scores level at one apiece, we overcame Southampton 4-3 on penalties to claim two points in the Subway Players Cup on Sunday afternoon at Silverlake Stadium.

9 Hours 18 Mins Ago

Martin: We Should Win The Game

Russell Martin came away frustrated with the goals we conceded in our 2-2 draw with Stevenage on Filbert Way.

18 Hours 18 Mins Ago

Stevenage Stalemate On Filbert Way

We were forced to settle for a point against Stevenage on Saturday as it ended 2-2 at King Power Stadium.

31 Oct, 2026

Bid On Signed Match-Worn Leicester City Poppy Shirts

Supporters have the opportunity to own a piece of Leicester City's Remembrance fixture, with signed match-worn shirts from our game against Stevenage available to bid on in an online auction.

31 Oct, 2026