Day in action against Rotherham at The Rec
advertisement

Thursday 8th January

The freezing weather has meant we haven’t been able to train on grass so far this week — but it’s not affected us at all.

We had a good session indoors in the gym on Monday and then on the astro on Tuesday.

Who knows whether the game at Gillingham on Saturday will beat the frosty weather but we are just busy preparing for the game as normal.

A few of the guys have asked The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] as to whether he thinks the game will be on and he’s said it definitely will be.
 
That way we will be fully prepared, with the right mindset to play.

But it is annoying when games get called off. You make all the right preparation  and then all of a sudden a game is off.

I was fully fit for Saturday’s match at home to Notts County, after missing the Dagenham match, and hopefully would have been selected in the starting line-up.

I was really up the game, as soon as I woke up. Sometimes you can wake up on a match day and feel lethargic but I had a really good feeling on Saturday and was looking forward to the game, as I drove to the ground.

Only to be told at the gates that the game was literally just being called off. It was a ‘bummer’ but what can you do, these things happen.

That said, I was a bit surprised as we had trained on the pitch in the morning on New Year’s Day and it hadn’t seemed too bad.

It was a very sunny day on Saturday too and I thought the sun would have thawed the worst areas a little.

But obviously it didn’t. I don’t think we as players can ever complain when a referee calls a game off for a frozen pitch, as he’s doing it with us in mind. Ultimately, he is looking after the players’ safety. It’s our livelihood.
 
But with the County game off and the one up at Rotherham before Christmas too, we could do with playing at Gillingham on Saturday.

Every game is massive for us from now on in. We want to do something this season and that means taking points from tough games.

Gillingham look like they are a decent team and I think it will be a good game. Their home record is a as good as ours, which means it is not bad at all, to put it mildly.

But our away results have picked up recently. While Gillingham won’t be easy, we always believe we can do well.

It’s great news for Kirk Hudson that he’s been nominated for League Two player of the month for December.

We all know Kirk’s ability and qualities and if he can produce them more consistently then we will have an excellent player on our hands.

He’s young , quick and scoring goals, so I guess it’s inevitable that other clubs are probably looking at Kirk. That’s what happens in a transfer window.

While it would be sad for the team if players like Kirk moved on, you can never stand in the way of the chance for a player to better himself.

But hopefully he will be at Aldershot for a while yet. As for me, I’ve heard people say I’ve been playing well this season, but I’m just keeping my head down and getting on with things at Aldershot.

Actually, I would like to speak to The Gaffer soon about my situation.

I’m not sure if it’s common knowledge but my contract is up in the summer, so I only have six months or so left on it.

It would be nice to talk to The Gaffer about it soon. Hopefully he’ll call me in and let me know what he wants to do and what the club’s plans are with me.

It’s good that Andy Sandell has joined us permanently. He’s already proved himself to be good player for us and can play at this level. That he’s played in the Football League before and been promoted from this level with Bristol Rovers is good too; the more experience we have, the better.

Dean Howell has been back training with us this week, after his loan at Bury.

I’m not sure what his situation is, whether he is staying or going back to Bury, but he looks sharp and fit in training.

Myself and a few of the boys — Scotts Davies and Donnelly, Lewis Chalmers and Nikki Bull — went to the BDO World Championships at Lakeside in Frimley on Tuesday.

It was a good laugh and a good night was had by all. Except for the boys who put a little bet on Simon Whitlock, who lost in his match against Darryl Fitton!

A few more of us went last year, it was a bit more last-minute this time around.

But we enjoyed it. I like a game of darts every now and then, if there’s a board in a pub. But I can’t say I’m brilliant.

Anyway, back to football: we are all raring to go and hopefully Saturday will be on. We’ve yet to play this year!

Talking of the new year, have I made any resolutions? No, I’m not into that sort of thing at all. Life is a case of ‘another day, another dollar’ in my book.

Rhys Day was talking to Charlie Oliver

 

Thursday January 1

I missed the Dagenham game last Sunday after taking a whack on the side of my thigh at Barnet.

I took a knee in it I think, just before half-time, and had a dead leg as a result. I got through the rest of that Barnet game OK but it stiffened right up after the final whistle went.

I didn’t train on Saturday (December 27), I just had some treatment in the gym and I had a fitness test at about 12.30pm before the Dagenham game. Once I got warm I thought the leg problem would ease off — but it didn’t. Usually a dead leg should be OK after having a day and a bit to recover. I don’t know, maybe it’s my old age!

Before the Barnet game we had Christmas Day off — to a point. Like last season, The Gaffer was kind enough to give us the day off but we had to do a little workout on our own again.

We were given a heart-rate monitor and then they download it and they can see what we’ve been doing. Every single one of the boys did it properly and it shows our professionalism and will to do well that we went on to win 3-0 at Barnet the next day.

It’s good news that Junior Mendes has signed a new deal. Junior is always going to be sharp and a little bit of a threat. He’s quick, a good player and works hard. The Gaffer obviously has a little bit of faith in him.

As for my injury, I want to be back involved straight away and, after a day off on Monday, should have been back training on Tuesday. To be honest, Dagenham came just 24 hours too soon. If it had been a Friday match to a Monday I think I would have been OK.

As for losing the game, I’m not so much bothered about the home record coming to an end, to be honest. It’s just the manner in which we lost. They had two shots on goal all game and scored goals from the both of them.

In the first 20 minutes we absolutely battered them. We’ve got to learn to wrap games up when we’re on top. If we score two or three in the first 20 minutes of a game, it just kills teams off. They would just want to be getting out of here and not bother about playing.

So, we should have been more than a goal up. Then Charlesey [Anthony Charles] was a bit too eager to win the ball and gave away a free-kick. The guy had his back to goal. We shouldn’t have given the free-kick away there. Give the other boy his due, he stuck it away well. Bully had no chance.

Strakes [Anthony Straker] was deservedly voted man of the match. He showed some great touches, put in some great crosses and his pace will always make him a threat.

But we didn’t play as well in the second half. In the final third I thought some of our decision making just wasn’t right.

We’ve had four on two going forward, some really promising positions and then the final pass was wrong or we’ve shot when it should have been a pass.

To be honest, as comfortable as the win at Barnet was, it was similar there too as we went in 1-0 up at the break when I thought it should have been 3-0, if we’d taken our chances.

Maybe if we had been 3-0 up I could have come off with this thigh injury and been fit for the Dagenham game!

Dagenham's winning goal was a good move, to be fair. I played against the boy [Peter] Gain in the past a few times and he’s a good player.

He didn’t do too much on Sunday but then showed a bit of class for the winner, picking the ball up, making a few passes and continuing his run and crossing for the goal. It’s disappointing that no-one picked him up, mind.

But the Dagenham game was just the way football can go. We’ve had a good run in the last ten games. We’ve now lost one and the important thing is that we don’t drop more points and that we crack on straight away.

Notts County are up next at home and we all remember we played all right up there and should have won — or at least got something from the game.

Hopefully we can turn around losing to the last kick up there and make an assault on those play-off places again.

Happy New Year to all and looking forward to another successful one for The Shots.

Rhys Day was talking to Charlie Oliver

 

Thursday 18th December

When I woke up on last Saturday I wasn’t really aware just how much it had been raining. The idea that our match against Rotherham might be off just hadn’t even crossed my mind.

We were all ready to go for our pre-match walk, as we normally do. That was at about 11.30am and none of the boys really wanted to go on it in the rain.

We were about to set off, nonetheless, but The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] held us back and said we might as well wait for the referee to call back. “What do you need to speak to him about?” I asked. “There’s a pitch inspection,” he  said.
I was pretty surprised, rain rarely causes games to be off these days but The Gaffer seemed to think the game would be off.

I’m not sure he thought Rotherham were too keen to play us so soon after we’d beaten them in the FA Cup, what with them having a couple of suspensions. I’m sure they are keen for revenge for that defeat.

No, it really did rain hard and the referee made a quick decision. We never actually got to see just how bad the conditions were, anyway, as our hotel was 40 minutes or so from the ground.

Talking of waterlogged pitches, my dad has managed teams back home in Wales down the years and he’s been known to use the old trick of getting the hosepipe on a pitch, when he wasn’t so keen for a team to play!

While you can’t help the weather, we were certainly disappointed not to play. We were confident and are on a bit of a roll and wanted it to continue.

That said, with our away record from earlier in the season maybe it’s a good thing that we now won’t have an away game from the Chester one last month and the Boxing Day trip to Barnet!

I think all the boys were expecting time off as soon as it was confirmed that the game had been postponed.

But The Gaffer and Martin Kuhl were having none of that and had us working hard in the gym in the hotel. But it was a good session and worthwhile.

It was strange having a Saturday afternoon free. I didn’t head back on the coach and headed to Manchester with a couple of the boys as we had Sunday and Monday off. I have some friends up there.

But it must have been odd sitting on the coach heading back to Aldershot and keeping up with the Saturday afternoon scores as they came in.

Marvin Morgan is still suspended on Saturday after the postponement, so someone will get another chance to stake their claim. There was the reserves game against Reading before that on Wednesday afternoon.

I don’t expect many of the regular first-teamers to have been involved, it’ll be more the players who are short of games.

Some of those players did not take their chance in the Hampshire Cup loss at Basingstoke last week and yesterday presented them with another chance to do well.

That second chance has come sooner than they might have thought. That’s the beauty of football, chances do come again. I hope one or two players took their chance yesterday — and then do the same on Saturday against Grimsby.

Grimsby had a good result last Saturday, beating Shrewsbury, but our home form speaks for itself. I don’t expect many team to come to The Rec — sorry, the EBB Stadium — and get anything. We will be confident again.

My brother Ryan was in action in the UK Championship in Telford on Saturday but lost out in the first round to fellow Welshman Matthew Stevens.

I didn’t see it myself as I was driving but I did speak to my dad after a couple of frames, when Ryan was already losing.

“He’s got no chance of winning,” said dad. Quite how he knew that after two frames of a best of 17 contest, I don’t know, but he just said that Ryan’s body language was not right.

To be fair to dad, he’s normally right and Ryan went on to lose 9-5.

Dad claims he can tell the same with me. Just by watching me as I run out onto the pitch, he says he can tell by the way I run whether I’m at the races or not.

I’m not sure about that but thankfully so far this season I have mainly been at the races!

We are all raring to go for Saturday and there hasn’t been a problem with keeping fit.

In fact, after having so many injuries already this season, I’ve been able to do a bit more work in the gym and strengthen myself up a little bit more, to try and ward off further injuries.

We all had a double session to welcome us back to training on Tuesday too, so we've been kept busy and now can't wait for a game.

Rhys Day was talking to Charlie Oliver

 

Thursday 11th December

The first half against Wycombe was, for me, the best we’ve played this season. We seem to make a habit of it against Peter Taylor, what with the game at home to Stevenage last season too.

We sat off a little in the second half and we weren’t so dominant, but even at 2-1 I didn’t think they would equalise. I thought we were pretty comfortable.

To be honest, I think the way Wycombe play suited us. That was why I was so confident before the game. I thought our pace and passing could hurt them and a final score of 3-2 flattered them a bit.

It was great to see youngsters like Kirk Hudson and Danny Hylton do so well and score some great goals. It could be a bit scary for us in the January transfer window, however. I’m sure there may be clubs interested in some of our players, if we keep performing as we have in recent weeks.

I guess it’s brilliant for the club in some way, but young, exciting players might be difficult to replace. But that is football and we’ll just have to see what happens.

I won pretty much everything in the air in the first half and put some good challenges in. But I was up against two small guys. Matt Harrold came on after the break and he’s a decent player, to be fair. He won a couple of headers and I thought: “Hang on, I’ve work to do here.”

As a defender, it was good to see Ricky Newman come on when we were 2-1 up on Saturday, to use his experience and sit in front of the back four. He knows how to kill the game, like when he fell over Tommy Doherty and bought us time, a free-kick — and a booking for Doherty.

That said, I think Newmo got a bit excited at times and was charging up field and ended up at centre forward at one stage. I was screaming ‘Rickaaaaay’ at him. It was like being in EastEnders.

Talking of a bit of acting, it was good fun to model the new blue away kit last week.

I hear that Christmas sales are high already, which is no surprise with me modelling it! No, I was a bit surprised to be asked, to be honest, but myself Ben [Harding] and Marvin [Morgan] enjoyed plenty of banter doing it.

There was one picture where Ben and I were facing the camera but Marvin had his back to it. Quite right too: Marvin is only good for modelling clothes from behind.

It’s always nice to do something a little different for the club and we had the children’s party after the game on Saturday. It’s important players show their faces at events like that and that we can show our thanks to families for their support and please the kids by signing things and the like.

We had a skittles night on Monday too, which was well attended. The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] was impressive and stayed in the competition for quite a while. Anthony Charles did not.

I went along to the Hampshire Cup game on Tuesday at Basingstoke. How was it? Very cold. I took my girlfriend with me and we braved the first half but by half-time she was not happy. Not at all. It was not the best of games and it was freezing.

So we left and I didn’t know that we’d lost until the next morning. From what I saw, the players involved did not take their chance.

We were out of the other cups and reserve games are few and far between.

I’d like to think the players saw the Hampshire Cup as a chance to play and have more games later on too. To stake a claim. That's how they should have viewed it but I’m not sure all the players thought like that. Some of them will be hurting right now after losing, I’d imagine.

Yesterday was a day off, so I had a bit of a lie-in. The missus went out to get her hair and her make-up done but then she was planning to drag me out Christmas shopping, much to my joy.
 
Marvin has a day off on Saturday — because of suspension. It’s a big loss.

I really don’t know what The Gaffer will do. There are the strikers who played against Basingstoke [John Grant, Junior Mendes and Rob Elvins] but there’s always the option of putting Kirk up front and bring Soaresy back in. Whatever The Gaffer and Martin Kuhl decide, I’ll go with that.

Saturday is a big game. Our away form has improved and our home form has been brilliant. We must keep going and get as high as possible in the division. Rotherham are a decent team and will be up for the game after we beat them 3-0 at their place in the FA Cup recently.

We were based at a lovely hotel the afternoon before that match and hopefully we will be at the same one tomorrow night. That way I know we’ll have good food and an excellent night’s sleep before the game.

Rhys Day was talking to Charlie Oliver

 

Thursday 4th December

I’m very hopeful that I will be fully fit and available for Saturday’s League Two match at home to leaders Wycombe Wanderers.

I was busy in the gym on Monday and was then back running at 50% by the end of the day. By yesterday that should have been up to 100% and hopefully today [Thursday] I will be back in training with the boys. I feel that if you are back in full training on a Thursday then you are available for selection on the Saturday.

So, if things go according to plan, I would imagine that I will only not be playing on Saturday if The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] decides to stick with the boys who played in the win over Lincoln City and the 3-0 FA Cup defeat at Millwall.

To be completely honest, I don’t think the boys who played at the back on Saturday were up to their usual standard and I also believe I did well in the side before I got injured.

I’d like to think that The Gaffer would also like to bring his captain back in at the first opportunity. I hope he’s looking to have be back leading on the pitch.

I was keen to play for the reserves at Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday afternoon and asked if I could have 45 minutes or an hour to improve my fitness, rather than just run around a track. But club physio Jim Joyce made the decision that there was no need trying to generate a little match fitness when there was a risk of getting injured again.

The Gaffer sat the back four down on Monday morning and they watched the Millwall DVD back together, so they could find an explanation as to what happened and how the mistakes can be cut out. For all three goals and more crosses besides we appeared to switch off. And that was from players who have done really well this season.

It just goes to show that, being a professional sportsman, you must go into work every day on top of your game or you will get punished, especially when you are playing against a side who are doing well in the league above.

I thought in between the two boxes on Saturday that we had a fair go at Millwall and were more than equal to them. But in both boxes we were inferior. We didn’t take our chances and we switched off at the back. Games are won and lost in penalty areas and we lost out.

But as a defender, I have to say we have it the hard way. Your forwards can miss chances or your midfielders can lack creativity but if you still keep a clean sheet, you have the chance of a replay or a point in the league. But let in goals and there is no guarantee you’ll get something from the game. It is why defenders are often the unsung heroes of football.

Well done to Nikki Bull for making his 300th appearance for the club at Millwall. Bully is an outstanding professional and has scarcely missed a game since he got to the club.

I didn’t go to the reserves’ match at QPR. In fact, after working on my fitness in the gym I was busy doing some Christmas shopping in the afternoon. Not that I ended up buying much.

I was really pleased to hear that Lewis Chalmers had a good game and was on the scoresheet. That should give him a bit of a lift. He has been a bit down lately about not being in the team and a little thing like scoring in a very impressive win for the reserves will be good for him. He’s not in the team but he still gives his all for the reserves — it shows that his heart is very much in the club.

It’s tough on Lewis but Ben Harding and Scott Davies are playing well in the midfield. The Gaffer knows what he wants and I think you do need a base of a settled back four and at least two midfielders playing week in, week out. That solid six gives a foundation to the team and it’s unlucky on Lewis that he was not part of it when it was settled on.

Lewis is pushing for a start and with Andy Sandell back from being cup-tied and Danny Hylton’s suspension over, there is plenty of competition for places on Saturday; it can only be healthy for the club.

I went along to watch Wycombe at home to Macclesfield on Tuesday night. The Gaffer was going anyway but Granty [John Grant] and I fancied going along to see them. I was hoping that they won — or even better, draw [Wycombe won 4-0] — as I want us to be the ones to take their unbeaten league record away from them on Saturday.

If we play like we did last season at home against a Peter Taylor team [Aldershot beat Stevenage Borough 3-1] then we will be very happy.  All I can say is: look out on Saturday if we do play so well again. I remember picking up a bit of a knock in that game — there’s a rarity, me and an injury.

Granty’s been lacking a few goals this season and Saturday was not the best game he’s ever had. But then other players were off too. I’m sure Granty will come through this period. He gets in good positions and he’s a good finisher. He’s set up a number of goals this season and holds the ball up well.

We are out of the cups, so it’s all about the league now. So hopefully I’ll be involved on Saturday too. My Dad is looking to come and support me but he is organising a big night down at our sport club in the valleys at Pontycymer, near Bridgend, so he may not be able to make it.

Talking of Wales, was I especially happy to win on the border of north Wales, at Chester two weeks ago? Not really, a win is a win to me. But, I have to say, North Walians are more scousers than Welsh, anyway!

Rhys Day was talking to Charlie Oliver

 

Thursday 27th November

I am not sure I am going to be fit for Saturday’s big FA Cup clash at Millwall.

I had a session in the gym with the physio on Wednesday lunchtime and then I was due to have another one in the evening. I can’t really see myself training today (Thursday) and while I may make training on Friday, I think that gives The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] a bit of a headache.

I tend to think that if a player is not fit to train on the Thursday then they should not be in contention to start on the Saturday. We shall see. Perhaps the hamstring will suddenly feel better and I’ll be OK this morning. I really want to play.

It will be a great shame to miss out if I do. With seven substitutes allowed in the FA Cup, perhaps I can persuade The Gaffer to name me on the bench, even if there’s no chance of me playing. I want to be involved.
 
I’m confident that we can go the New Den and get something from the game. The aim is still to be in the hat come the Third Round draw and I believe we can achieve that, even if  Millwall are going really well in the league above us.

As for the injury, I felt something go slightly in my hamstring in the second half of the FA Cup replay win at Rotherham.

It’s a slight tear and I didn’t train last Wednesday and Thursday but we decided to give it a go at Chester.

I was OK to start with but I felt the injury after about 15 minutes and later in the half I realised that it was not going to go away and it was better for me to come off.

I have to keep in mind that rushing back on Saturday may put me back further, should I aggravate the injury, and we have to bear in mind that we have a big League Two game a week on Saturday, at home to leaders Wycombe Wanderers.

I don’t think the injury is directly related to my hernia operation, which is good.

However, I did not have a full pre-season and I think that may be significant. Pre-season is very important. It is a chance to get your body ready for a full season, to get your muscles fully prepared.

I missed out on that and I also came back from my operation without even playing a reserves or friendly match. I think perhaps playing six or seven games in three weeks has caught up with me.

Of course, even if I am fit on Saturday, I may not make the team as I missed out on the win over Lincoln on Tuesday evening.

I lost the shirt and Ricky Newman came in and did very well. That is football for you — being out of the team is dangerous.

That said, I’d like to think that I have done well since I came back into the team. You never know but I think my displays have been good enough to install a lot of confidence in my ability with The Gaffer. I’d like to think he will stick with me as soon as I am fit but, that said, I would have no complaints if I am left out. There is a lot to the saying of never change a winning team.

With our current winning streak, spirits are high in the camp. There is a little bit more joking at training in that players are less tense and feel that they can enjoy themselves, which often makes you play better too in games.

Ricky Newman leads the way with his old-school football banter, while Scotty Davies likes to think he has the big-time banter chat.

As for Anthony Charles, if there was a picture next to the word ‘banter’ in a dictionary, then it would be of his face.

Andy Sandell did well on Tuesday night. He’s quite a quiet lad but I’m impressed with him. What I like is that he knows the game. He knows when to pass, when to hold onto the ball, when to make a run, that sort of thing. He’s an intelligent footballer, which is nice to see.

I thought we deserved both the wins over Chester and Lincoln. I thought Chester were quite poor, to be honest, and I was pleased with the way we were patient and dropped a little deeper than in other away games and got our reward.

Bully made some fantastic saves against Lincoln. He is such a calming influence to play in front of. If players get past us, they’ve still got to beat Bully. But I still thought we took a deserved lead and I said that to my Dad at the time. He had come to watch the game.

We are just two points off the play-offs and to get among those places is the next barrier to break. I honestly see no reason why we cannot do that or even go higher still in the table.

 

Thursday 20th November

Tuesday was a long day — but it was certainly worth it after our 3-0 FA Cup win at Rotherham.

Without a shadow of doubt I thought it was our best performance of the season. Perhaps even our best one under The Gaffer [Gary Waddock], although the home win over Stevenage last season is still up there for me.

Although we didn’t start the game too well and they were camped in our half, once Kirk Hudson smashed us ahead we didn’t look back.

It was a great goal from Kirk but his celebration was not so hot. He ran off towards the most empty part of the stadium — I’ve no idea at all what he was up to.

It was good news for us to hear that Andy Warrington wasn’t in goal for Rotherham. That gave us a little lift and The Gaffer told us to pull the trigger whenever possible. Not that their young keeper could do anything much about the goals. Kirk’s first one was unstoppable.

I felt we were really solid at the back on Tuesday and it was nice to get a compliment from Martin Kuhl about the defence after the game — he doesn’t tend to compliment too often!

That’s three clean sheets in the last five games, so I must be making a difference after coming back from injury.

No, seriously, all of the defence has worked really hard in training, on a number of different things, and we’re beginning to see the results.

I think Charlesey [Anthony Charles] was a bit battered after a few challenges with their substitute Broughton but that is just part and parcel of being a defender.

It was unusual for us to win by such a big margin. Charlesey and I were saying at 2-0 ‘come on, let’s just get one more’. And we did and it was game over, so we could enjoy the last few minutes.

I feel a big win like that — let’s face it, we could have won by more — has been coming and I knew that a team would feel our wrath if we play as we can. And we did it on Tuesday.

It is important, of course, that we go on and get something at Chester on Saturday. We will certainly take confidence from the win and now we know we can win away and win well. I can’t see there being too much of a problem on Saturday — provided we play as well as we can.

Marvin Morgan played really well on Tuesday and took his goal well. There’s always competition for places and Danny Hylton must be rueing his red card against Exeter even more.

Danny’s a young kid and you learn from things like Saturday. He may not get back in for a while, who knows, but that is the way professional football is.

I hope Danny does stay out of the team for a while — I don’t mean that in any way to be nasty to Danny but it will mean we are playing well and not getting injuries.

John Grant did well up front with Marvin. I think John can get a bit frustrated when we score three goals and he doesn’t get one but he’s right up there on the assists list this season, which is very important too.

I think Scotty Davies, not Granty, would have taken a penalty on Tuesday, had we been awarded one.

In training on Monday Scott and John Grant were on the same side and Kuhly awarded a penalty for no reason whatsoever.

I guess it was to see who took it and Scott grabbed the ball — although I’m afraid to say he managed to hit the post with his effort.

Andy Sandell is settling in well to the club. We have a little initiation whereby new players have to sing a song on their first away trip.

We forgot to get Andy to sing for the Rotherham game but I think we’ll have plenty of time before Chester — we are travelling up on Friday — to hear his voice.

Talking of singing, I must say something about the Aldershot fans who made the journey up to Rotherham.

They were just brilliant in their little corner and I hope they thought we showed our appreciation after the result. I was clapping away with Bully at the end and we hadn’t realised just how many fans were there.

I think it was a fabulous effort for a Tuesday night, given that most would have got home at 2am and had to work first thing in the morning.
 
I have never played at Millwall’s New Den ground and I’m really looking forward to it.

I think there will be a great atmosphere and we can go and get something from the tie.

However, we have Chester and then Lincoln at home to think of first and we must build on what we achieved at Rotherham.

 

Thursday 13th November

The bad weather forced us on to the Astroturf for training at the start of the week but we’ve had some good sessions.

Tuesday was especially hard, with plenty of fitness. We usually get made to run on Tuesdays, when there is no midweek game — and then the reserves’ match was called off too - so we always know we might be blowing by the end of a Tuesday session.
 
But often get a breather on a Wednesday — as we did this week.

Anthony Charles has been pretty vocal in training this week, on the back of his 30-yard thunderbolt against Rotherham, that crashed against the bar.

He keeps suggesting to Martin Kuhl that if we have a shooting session, then he’ll gladly take it. In fact he’s talked of nothing else but that shot.

I have to keep reminding him that it did not go in, however good it was. I was in the area when he lined up the shot and I said to myself: “Charlesy, what on earth are you doing, that’s heading straight for the train station.” But it was a great effort, to be fair, and very unlucky.

Fair play to John Grant for keeping his nerve to score our injury-time equaliser from the penalty spot. I said last week that I backed Granty to score from penalties, despite having one saved at Morecambe, and he proved it.

The keeper may have got a hand to the shot but it was just too powerful. I said to Grant “good minerals” as we were running back after celebrating the goal. As in he showed a lot of “balls” to score after not hitting the back of the net for so long. Fair play to him.

I thought Rotherham’s keeper, Andy Warrington, was outstanding on Saturday — just as Barry Roche of Morecambe was the week before.

Saturday was one of the most one-sided games I’ve ever played in and it would have been a travesty if we hadn’t got something from the game. I thought we battered them in the first half and for quite a bit of the second half too.

Some of Warrington’s saves in the first half were unbelievable. I’m confident that we can go and get a result up there next week. We haven’t seen an away victory for a long, long time but we are going to win away sooner than later.

I enjoyed Saturday. I thought we looked really solid at the back. Charlesy came back into the middle and Chris Blackburn did well at right back. They are both experienced players and have played a fair bit in the Football League and can adapt to different positions.

Once Rotherham got their goal we were all pleased with the controlled manner in which we responded.

As soon as we went behind, The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] said to me to make sure that the boys continued to stick to doing the right things, to keep playing as we had been.

While we had to wait until right at the end, the way we’d been playing on Saturday it was a near certainty that chances would come our way and, thankfully, Granty tucked away the penalty.

We would have all been pretty devastated to go out of the FA Cup after playing so well.

Now we know that, should be get past Rotherham, we will travel to League One Millwall in the second round.

It’s a great incentive for us, knowing that we can win ourselves the chance to take on better opposition, at a fairly big ground.

Millwall have been going really well too — if we can get through it’s going to be a great day out for everyone.

Before the Rotherham replay we have Exeter City at home in the league, however. Their FA Cup loss at Curzon Ashton shows just what strange results the Cup can throw up.

We know that they will be looking to bounce back from that shock defeat but they also know that our home form is formidable.

Of course, Exeter has great memories for us from last season but they have started well in the league and we need another good result at home.

We’re into mid-November and, Dave Winfield aside, we’ve got a fit squad, with plenty of competition, which is great to see.

One man really keen to make an impression is Junior Mendes. His contract is up at the end of the calendar year but he’s been back in full training this week after another niggle and really putting himself about.

It’s been a very frustrating time for him and he looks really determined this week, to try and get a chance to show what he can do. Fair play to him.

I’m sure The Gaffer has some ideas as to what he would like to do with the squad and I would more than welcome any new additions on loan or in the January transfer window. It could only be healthy. But whether or not The Gaffer has the means to do that is another matter entirely. We shall see.

With another home game on Saturday, I’m sure the pitch at The Rec will be looking good again.

We’ve played in snow and pouring rain lately but, given just how wet it was on Saturday, before and during the game, I thought the pitch stood up to the weather superbly.

It was outstanding and allowed us to play our passing football with even more zip than usual. All credit to groundsman Andy Nunn.

 

Thursday 6th November

I haven’t been training all week as my groin has been sore after the Morecambe game.

So, I’ve been busy with Jim Joyce, the club physio, just doing lots of stretching and keeping on top of things. The good news is that I passed a fitness test with Jim yesterday morning (Wednesday) and I should be back in full training today and tomorrow. I am fit for the Rotherham game.

I’m not surprised that I have had a bit of a reaction to playing three full games in a week.

While it was great to come back into the team sooner than expected after my hernia operation, I thought that I would be eased back in, with 45 minutes here and then an hour there, and not necessarily in the first team.

But I’m fine and really pleased to be in the team and captaining it. While we’ve lost at Morecambe and Rochdale — as well as keeping a clean sheet and beating Port Vale 1-0 — since I’ve come back in, I feel I’ve done pretty well.

The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] has some choices to make on Saturday, with Anthony Charles back from suspension and Anthony Straker playing 90 minutes at Morecambe last week.

But I feel Blackie [Chris Blackburn] and I have done fairly well together. I’ve felt pretty comfortable coming straight back in and I think I’ve done enough to keep my place in the middle at the back. I will be bitterly disappointed if I’m left out against Rotherham.

The FA Cup is massive for all players. If you win a couple of games you might get drawn against the big side you supported as a kid — for me it was Manchester United, I have to admit. But when I went to Manchester City as a youngster I had to change my tune, so Cardiff City became my team.

But as well as possibly playing against your dream team, the FA Cup can be good for your future career and personal ambition. There are often more scouts at FA Cup games and you might even end up playing on TV.

So, while Rotherham are a good side, we are determined to get a result. They’ve done really well in cup competitions and to turn around their points deficit so quickly is impressive.

But I think if we play as we can and keep working together and believe in ourselves then Rotherham may just come unstuck on Saturday.

Who knows, we may draw and then win the replay — an away win! Although, to be honest, I’d much rather just win at home and finish the tie on Saturday.

I’ve watched a number of our defeats in our long losing streak away from home and now I’ve got to play in a couple too.

Saturday at Morecambe was so frustrating. I think they had three chances all game and scored from two of them.

I thought we dominated the first half and if Granty [John Grant] had scored the penalty, or if we’d taken just one of the other chances we had, then I think they would have been dead and buried. It would have silenced their crowd and put them on the back foot.

But I back Granty with the penalty duties for the future and I thought it was a good save by Barry Roche. I took a few spot-kicks last season but, while Granty and Scott Davies have missed this season, I won’t be returning to the penalty taking.

I would put my name down for a shoot-out kick, for sure, but I think I’ll leave the ones in 90 minutes to the other lads.

The Gaffer and Martin Kuhl ripped into us at half-time at Morecambe. We’d been the better team but they obviously felt we could give more.

That said, I felt comfortable with the game at half-time and I expected us to go on and win.

I think once we went a goal down some of the team were guilty of trying too hard to chase the game.

Too often we would try and beat three players or go for the spectacular pass, when instead we should have been keeping the ball and doing the easy thing and keeping our shape. There was plenty of time left. We will learn from it.

Scotty Davies got punished in the worst fashion after he tried to bring the ball down and find a great pass and lost possession — they scored their second goal directly from it.

I think there are a few players who definitely are playing better at home than they are away. They would admit that. I think it must be a mental thing.

It’s not something I can really relate to or put my finger on, as, to me, there is no difference between playing home or away.

But I’m sure the players will come through it, with experience. If we work hard and stick together, then I think we can go and win a few games away from home.

We must not lose faith in the way we play. Once you get anxious then you are bound to go into a downward spiral and we must stop that happening.

We haven’t had too much luck on the road and things will change. There are people in a lot worse situations than us, in football and in life in general for that matter. We will be OK away.

Besides, we now have two home games to look forward to, starting with Rotherham. It’s a great one, being the FA Cup, and we can’t wait for the game.

 

Thursday 30th October

It’s nice to be able to talk about playing, rather than my progress back to fitness.

I knew I would probably get the nod at Rochdale after we’d shipped so many goals, provided I could prove I was fit, if not match fit.

Despite the defeat there, I felt I was pretty solid and even more so on Tuesday night against Port Vale. I felt a bit sore afterwards but no more than that. I thought the clean sheet and win were thoroughly deserved against Vale. Everyone worked hard and it paid dividends.
 
Chris Blackburn and I are fairly new playing together but we are both experienced and I think we’ve been solid as a pair.

We both like to shout, so that’s two voices at the back organising. The fullbacks did really well on Tuesday — it’s fair to say Blackie and I did a fair bit of shouting in their earholes, that's the way we are.

It was nice to enjoy a few good touches against Vale. When I turned out of defence and sent two of their players the wrong way I shouted ‘get me a Bovril, will you’ as I left them behind me!

The crowd reacted well when I did some good pieces of play and that was nice.

It’s good to be back. We were all really pleased to reward what was a good crowd, given the weather. I was cold running about, so it must have been freezing to watch the game.

Ryan Williams came to watch the game, as did my brothers, Ryan and George. Ryan (Day) has been out of the country playing in an invitational event in Austria since he came second in the big Grand Prix snooker tournament in Glasgow ten days ago. It was good to see him — his missus doesn’t let him out that often!

George is only seven and I couldn’t believe it at the start of the second half that he was standing by the dugout talking to Martin Kuhl. I found out later that he was asking for chocolates as Lisa the tea lady gives them to The Gaffer, Martin and the coaching staff. But, unfortunately for George, I think Kuhly had already eaten them!

The Gaffer gave us the day off on Wednesday after Tuesday’s win. Provided the snow had melted then I was planning to play a round of golf with Willo (Ryan Williams).

My handicap according to the boys is about 18 but I reckon it’s closer to 22. Ryan’s a good player, his is six. He’s a short, stocky Welshman, in the Ian Woosnam mould.

Then it’s back to training today and tomorrow morning, before travelling up to Morecambe.

I can’t really put my finger on why our home and away records are so different but hopefully we can turn it around at Morecambe. Perhaps teams are more attacking at home and that is catching us out a little.

At our home, however, I do think a few teams get caught out by the size of the pitch at The Rec. It’s slightly bigger than some and we know we can pass the ball wide with our style of play, as that is where the space is.

With quick wingers like Louie Soares and Kirk Hudson, we can exploit the room, as Louie showed by cutting inside from wide to score against Vale.

I think we can take a lot of confidence from the clean sheet against Vale as we go to Morecambe.

Anthony Charles is suspended, so we will have to make a change to the back four from Tuesday.

We have Dean Howell who can play there but Anthony Straker has been back with us in training for the last couple of days.

Whether or not he’s quite ready for a League Two match, I really don’t know. I guess The Gaffer will know more when we train today and perhaps he’ll get thrown in, as I was at Rochdale.

We are obviously looking to win at Morecambe but after the away run of defeats we’ve had away from home, then a point would be a good result. Look at Droylsden last season; we should have won there but, even so, 2-2 was a good result and kept us ticking along.

We’ll be in yellow on Saturday, a kit I haven’t worn yet. But we won in it at Accrington and I should be OK in it, given that I drive a bright white new Audi, after all. I lost the car in the snow after the Vale game but, apart from that, the car is great.

Apparently the BBC website had my name as Rhys Gay in the Rochdale match report — which did make me laugh. I hope that was a mistake rather than a reference to my choice of car!

 

Thursday 23rd October

Hopefully we will have put in a good performance at Chesterfield last night (Wednesday) and that will set us up nicely for the next couple of days, before the match at Rochdale on Saturday.

It’s a very important part of the season for us, with a run of four league games in a row in a short space of time. If we lose every one then I guess we’ll be near the bottom of the table! But we fear nobody in this league, so I can’t see that happening.

But, with three out of the four games away from home, hopefully we can get an away win after the run of defeats. It’s important to start picking up points away from home and hopefully we will start doing that.

But it’s a difficult league, there are no easy games. That said, we’ve already beaten some of the top teams and the boys can take a lot of confidence from the performance against Brentford on Saturday. I think we’ve been through a little stage when some of the guys were not playing quite as well as they can and, as a result, the team wasn’t at its best. But that is inevitable during a season.

I thought we were unlucky not to win on Saturday. I didn’t think it was a penalty for Brentford’s goal.I thought Dean Howell definitely got a push and we should have had a free-kick before the handball.

But you have to accept that sometimes you get decisions, while other times you do not. Ricky Newman was excellent on Saturday. We looked solid with him in the midfield and he’s got a good voice on him to marshal the team. But it was no surprise to any of us to see him do so well. He’s still a very good player, we see that in training every day, and, above all, he has a fantastic will to win.

With Anthony Charles possibly unavailable for the Chesterfield game last night, after becoming a dad, I may have been involved, from the bench.

I’m certainly back fit now after my hernia operation, even if I am short of match fitness. I’m in full training and I did a little extra on Tuesday too. I just need games. Ideally, I’d like a reserve game or friendly to generate some match fitness, before I play in the first team. But I’m ready, if needed.

We are all looking forward to the few days away up north, which should be good for us all — but we need to make it count on the pitch too. Today and Friday we will be training before the Rochdale game. I think we will be using some university sports facilities up there. Lewis Chalmers is local to the area and spoke to some contacts up that way and the club sorted it out from there.

It was great to see my older brother, Ryan, reach the final of snooker’s Royal London Watches Grand Prix in Glasgow on Sunday. Unfortunately he lost 9-7 to John Higgins, despite a great comeback from 7-2 down to 8-7. I thought he had enough chances to win.

Still, he picked up a few quid for his troubles and, with the ranking points that go with coming second, he should be up to number three in the world. He’s always had the ability to be the best in the world but he still hasn’t won a ranking tournament. He just needs to get over the line and win one and then I think he can be the best there is.

I managed to get up to Glasgow to watch the final. I couldn’t get flights at the last minute to get me back on Sunday night, so I rang The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] and he gave me permission to have Monday off, which was very good of him.

Ryan and I have both really benefited from our father. Dad played football and loves snooker and he’s always been so supportive of both our careers. He went here, there and everywhere for us when we were younger, trying to make an impact.

Dad has also instilled a winning mentality in us. Ryan and I both hate to lose and that drives us forward.I’m not bad at snooker but I can’t say I’ve ever made a break beyond the 40-odd mark. Ryan was not too bad a footballer at all, a fast centre-forward, so the opposite of me! But snooker soon took over and the football was left to me.

 

Friday 17th October

Everything is going fine with my recovery from the hernia operation. I’ve started twisting and turning and striking the ball this week and that has all gone really well.

All my little niggles were  connected with the hernia and I’m pleased to say that both my ankle and calf feel good too now, as well as the groin.

I’ve now been through quite a bit of training and I’m pushing it further each day.

It’s a shame that this week’s reserves match against Southampton came just a little too soon for me. Next week there is no reserves match, as we are away at both Chesterfield and Rochdale, so that’s not ideal for me.

We’re hoping to arrange a match for the Wednesday after the home game versus Port Vale (Tuesday October 28), so that’s the match target I have in mind.

Dave Winfield is coming along well too. He’s been running with me today too and he’s a naturally fit guy. I’d say it will be a month at most before he’s back in contention.

We’re both competitive guys and want to get back in the team and the likes of Anthony Charles and Chris Blackburn know that.
In fact, after the goals we’ve been letting in lately, they’ve both said to me if I fancy having a go now!

If I had been on the bench for the last two games, with seven goals let in, then I would imagine I would have had a good chance of playing against Brentford this Saturday, so that makes the injury more frustrating.

But I still can’t get my head around last Saturday. What the hell happened? I thought we did well in the first half and we were really comfortable and should have taken a few chances and led.

But then we just made mistakes all over the park and the game changed. I left the ground straight after the game as I didn’t want to have to talk to my mate Terry Dunfield, who plays for Macclesfield.

Sure enough, as soon as he was out of the shower, he phoned me. I didn’t bother to say hello and just said: “You play for a pub team.”

“Well, that pub team just put four past your lot,” he said. Unfortunately, there was no coming back from that.

Some people have talked about Nikki Bull having a bad game but I don’t see it that way. You can’t point a finger at one guy.

A lot went wrong, it’s a group thing. Look at Macclesfield’s first goal. It was a bad touch from Lewis Chalmers at a throw-in, then Louie Soares got caught and we were nowhere near tight enough in the area. That’s three errors before there’s even been a shot.

I’ve sensed in the last few games that we’ve been a bit tense as a group. Perhaps we’ve been worrying about letting goals in but I think we need to let the management get on with dealing with that, while we, first and foremost, start to enjoy playing again. We love playing and that attitude has served us well in the past.

We will always back each other and I back us to do well against Brentford. I don’t think we should worry about them, we must just enjoy it.

I definitely think we should carry on playing the way we play, rather than change our philosophy and go more defensive. This group of players is at its best when we fear nobody, believe in how we play and stick to it.

People talk about our great home record compared to our away one but I’m not sure players look at that too much. I don’t. I look at each opposition as we play them and, with overnight stays for away games now, our preparation and rest is just as good away as it is at home. We can beat everyone, home or away.

Maybe a few people have had off games but we have good quality in the squad and we believe in ourselves.

And look at Danny Hylton. He’s come in and done well. It’s good to see Danny get a couple of goals. He’s a nuisance and I can tell you that defenders don’t like playing against a nuisance.

The Gaffer has talked about the need for leaders and, as captain, it’s frustrating that I can’t play. I listen to the Gaffer and Martin Kuhl and I know that if I could go back into the team I could provide some of the qualities they are looking for from certain players.

But I’m not too down about the injury problems. Besides, I’ve gone out and bought myself a new car. It's a lovely Audi A4 convertible. I love it. Look out for me in it. And, before you say anything, it’s far too big to be a hairdresser’s car!

 

Thursday 9th October

‘The missus’ and I went to watch Ryan Williams play for Weymouth at Woking on Tuesday night, in their 1-1 draw.

I shared a flat with ‘Willo’ for two years when he was at Aldershot and I keep in regular touch with him — in fact, he’s one of those friends that you just know, even when you go your separate ways, you will always stay in contact with, forever, probably.

I didn’t think he was at his best on Tuesday. He couldn’t get on the ball enough. Weymouth played him up front, which was a strange decision. A little lad like him was never going to win many headers against Woking’s big centre-halves.

But Willo is enjoying it down there and gets on well with the manager, John Hollins. He gets time off to go and see his kids up north and is now fully fit and looking lean — and small!

Talking of fitness, my hernia operation went well last week and I was already back in the gym on Monday, after resting back home in Wales over the weekend.

I managed half an hour on the bike on Monday and wanted to do more but the physio said no. By Tuesday I was doing a bit of running and now it’s just a case of building up the work and hopefully being able to join in with some parts of full training by the middle of next week.

Hopefully the likes of Charlesy and Chris Blackburn will be looking over their shoulders — although they may be doing that already after the 3-3 draw with Bury last weekend.

I was watching some mates play in a local league in Wales on Saturday afternoon, from 2pm.

But my dad was next to me, and he has the Aldershot text message service on his phone.

I couldn’t believe it when it said Bully wasn’t playing, as The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] had told me the expected starting line-up earlier in the week.

I guessed Bully was ill or injured at the last minute but it was still a surprise — and then the Bury goals started coming through. 0-1, 0-2, 0-3.

It was not looking good, especially on the back of the Notts County defeat.

By the time Robbie Elvins pulled a goal back I was tucking into a stew in front of Sky Sports. Once it got to 3-2 Jeff Stelling started paying a lot of attention to the game and there was a fair bit of excitement when Danny Hylton’s goal flashed up.
 
I was hoping a fourth Aldershot goal would appear but it didn’t. But, in the circumstances, by no means was it a bad point, particularly against the league leaders. After all, I spoke to Charlesy on Sunday and he said that for 60-odd minutes we had been atrocious — but we got something out of the game.

I was especially pleased for Rob [Elvins]. I felt a bit for him earlier in the season. Even in reserves matches he was playing out of position, out wide, such is the number of strikers we have in the squad.

But he got the nod from the bench on Saturday and, by all accounts changed the game.

It just shows how things can change overnight in football if you are prepared to be patient and make sure you are ready and fit for when your chance comes along.

But I’m sure Marvin Morgan, John Grant  and Junior Mendes won’t want to be playing in just the Hampshire Cup every week, so Rob and Danny have got to make sure that they take their chance, now that it looks like they have earned it.

The whole squad, including the injured guys like myself, will be travelling up to Macclesfield on Saturday.

We all always travel as a squad and I for one am really looking forward to watching a game live, after having to follow the Bury game by phone and TV.

My best mate Terry Dunfield plays for them in midfield. We were at Manchester City together as youngsters.

I spoke to Terry on Tuesday and I asked him how Macclesfield have been playing, as they’ve had some very inconsistent results, winning a few but losing a lot too.

He said it depends on how he plays — if he plays well, they do!

He has a point, to be fair. He’s the type of midfielder who can run a game from the middle of the park if he’s allowed to do so.

But I told him he won’t be having it all his own way on Saturday as it’s not as if we’re too short of quality in the middle.

If Lewis Chalmers plays — he knows all about Terry — I’m sure he’ll be quick to be in his ear. I think there may be a bit of banter come 3pm.

 

Thursday 2nd October

I go in for my operation on my hernia today [Thursday] at midday.

The op is being carried out by a private surgeon in Leicester. I’ll stay in overnight and then, as I won’t be able to drive straight away, I’m being picked up by my dad. I’ll probably go back to the family in Wales, where I’ll be waited on hand and foot!

So I may not be there on Saturday for the Bury game, it depends on whether I can get driven to the Rec.

To be honest, the plan is to have a good rest over the weekend, put my legs up, and then get back into my training recovery next week.

I’ll need to get some feedback from the surgeon but, judging from people who’ve had the same operation, I hope to be back in full training two weeks after the op. Then hopefully it’s only another week or so before I’m ready to play.

I’ve mentally written off the first two months of the season now and I have a date in mind when the season will start again for me.

As early as this coming Monday I think I can be in the gym on the bike, then I can move on to the cross-trainer a day or so later. After that, it’ll be running in a straight line and then bringing in some twisting and turning, during the next couple of weeks.

Everyone was extremely down and disappointed in the dressing room after Saturday’s late loss at Notts County.

The Gaffer [Gary Waddock] and Kuhly [Martin Kuhl] didn’t really say much in the dressing room afterwards. They just told us what time the coach was leaving and that they would see us all at 10am the next day for extra training.

It was a very quiet journey home on the coach. The game spoilt my weekend — and I was only watching from the stand. It was so disappointing to be the more comfortable team all game and then lose it for ourselves.

The Gaffer wasn’t especially angry on Sunday at training. He just explained the situation to us all. He won’t accept losing in that manner, repeatedly. He said he doesn’t want to be in charge of a team that keeps on losing in that way. It’s fair enough, all that he said, and we must learn and improve.

Before every game — even if say we draw Manchester United in the FA Cup — our mindset is to win that match. But scenarios change during a game and sometimes a point is a good point. If we’d drawn that match at County, we’d have looked in the paper on Sunday and thought ‘that’s not too bad a point at all’.

It’s hard to put your finger on just what went wrong. I think we were a bit naive and we lost our shape at a crucial moment.

The Gaffer has hinted he may make changes for the Bury game. I’m not sure whether or not that will happen but, from my experience last season, the Gaffer always goes about it the right way, when he chooses to leave a player out. He pulls you to one side and tells you first and makes sure you understand the reasons for his decision.

It’s different to some of the managers I’ve played under. I’ve turned up for games on a Saturday fully expecting to play after the week’s training, only to find I’m not even on the bench.

Being dropped is never easy.I for one always want to play. You never know when you might play a game again, football can change so quickly.

When training came around on Monday it was back to business as usual. A few of the guys were maybe a bit down still and sulking after Saturday. But we have a few characters in the squad who made sure that Monday’s training was a bit more fun and that there was plenty of banter.

That got the boys going again. Ricky Newman is excellent at that, he’s an experienced pro and knows how to go about these things. Nikki Bull and I, as captains, help out too.

I think Bury is the perfect game for us to have on Saturday. It couldn’t be better than to get stuck into the league leaders at home, where we have such a great record. If we can bounce back with a win on Saturday it will make another big statement to the league. It’s all set up to be another good game at the Rec.

 

Thursday 25th September

This was already the worst start to the season — on a personal level — I’ve ever had.

And now it’s just got worse. It looks like my hernia has gone again. I had an operation on my right one in the summer and now the left one has gone. I’m off to see the specialist today [Thursday] and I reckon I’ll be needing another operation.

I played for the Reserves against Millwall on Tuesday as, although it sounds strange, we wanted the hernia to be as bad as possible, as that will help the specialist assess the damage better and settle on the way forward.

I’m pretty devastated, to be honest, but now I just hope that, if I need an op, I can be fitted in pretty quickly and then get back on the road to fitness. Normally it’s about three weeks after a hernia op before you’re back fit, so I guess I’m just going to have to write off the first two months of the season. But hopefully the injury problems will soon be out the way — perhaps all the little niggles I’ve had have been connected to the hernia.

I thought the boys did OK in the Reserves at Millwall. We lost 2-1 and their winner was down to a sloppy error from me.

But we had come on strong in the second half to equalise and Junior Mendes did well and got a good goal. He must be close to the first-team squad now that hopefully his injuries problems are behind him.

Saturday against Gillingham was another really good win for us. That said, I would have been devastated if I had been sent off for a challenge like Mark McCammon’s on Nikki Bull. It was not a good challenge, that’s for sure, but I thought it was more mis-timed than malicious.

I must admit I was worried the referee, if he thought he’d made a mistake, might level things up by sending off one of us or giving them a penalty. I was relieved Marvin Morgan only got a yellow for his tackle and he was involved a few little niggles too. I told him in the dressing room at half-time to keep his head and not make any daft challenges.

I thought the game might just drift to 0-0 at one stage. We looked really solid at the back on Saturday. It’s not always easy playing against just one man up front and Charlesy and Chris Blackburn did well to keep their concentration against Simeon Jackson.

We pushed on in the second half, to be fair, even if, in the end, we needed a bit of luck to win it. But Scotty Davies earned that lucky deflection  with his shooting earlier in the game.

I have to say that Scotty is the worst trainer I have ever seen. All he ever wants to do is kick footballs at goal as hard as he can! Still, I suppose it has its advantages when we come to play matches.

But sometimes Kuhly [Martin Kuhl] gets furious when, after he’s put balls down as part of a training regime, Scott just comes along and boots them as hard as possible at the nearest goal. It’s great to have Scott back fit, however. The competition for starting places in central midfield is just so intense. And healthy.

All in all, we’ve made a great start. Thirteen points from seven games, many against the fancied teams, is good. But, let’s face it, we could have done better. We’ve thrown points away by letting in some late goals, even if we’ve scored a few late ones too.

Notts County will be a difficult place to go on Saturday. It’s a part of the world I know well, after my time up the road at Mansfield Town. I’ve been to Meadow Lane a few times and it’s a big ground and they have a decent following. I expect them to keep things tight and compact — but if we play as well as we can do, then I don’t think they’ll be able to live with us.

“It’s another overnight trip for us, which I quite enjoy. The boys can have a laugh, although it’s always a bit harder for the guys who have young kids left behind at home.

“I’ll be rooming with Charlesy, as usual, so it’s a good job I’m deaf in one ear, so I can roll over and won’t be able to hear his snoring.”