We may have lost at the Conference South leaders Eastleigh on Saturday but it’s another performance of which the boys can be proud.
We’ve had all sorts of tests thrown at us and this was another one, with Anthony Furlonge sent off in the first half.
To come away from Eastleigh disappointed to lose 1-0 with 10 men is a statement in itself. We’ve taken a couple of scalps recently and we could have taken the biggest of all on Saturday – their goalkeeper made two world-class saves.
As I’ve said before, the boys are growing up fast and perhaps this defeat will reap benefits for us.
But we’ve now won four and lost four – that’s mid-table form. After relegation from the Conference Premier and then last season avoiding relegation by four points, this year is about consolidating and planting your feet in this division.
It’d be easy for me to plead poverty and how I haven’t got the resources that other clubs have, but I’m not like that.
I’m ambitious and the club is ambitious – we want to be a Conference Premier side again and if you can get up and stay up for a couple of seasons, then you can build up your resources and go from there.
This Sunday we play Tonbridge Angels in the FA Cup.
In all honesty, it may be that this game has come at the wrong time for us. The lads are disappointed with the Eastleigh result and are keen to put the league form right and that’s credit to them.
But the FA Cup is a fabulous competition and it’s worth £4,500 to us if we win, which is a lot of money for a club like ours.
We’ve got a tougher draw than some other teams, although Tonbridge Angels aren’t doing as well as they would like.
As we play on Sunday, due to Woking being at home on Saturday, I’ll be getting the lads in for a session on the grass at the Sharda Glass stadium on Saturday.
This hasn’t gone down well with one of the lads, who will remain nameless, who had anniversary plans with his wife which would have gone into Saturday morning.
Now he’s had to tell her the manager wants him in. I don’t think that will have gone down too well!
I was interested to see Luis Suarez back on Wednesday in the Capital One Cup game with Manchester United. It’ll be interesting to see how he fits in from here on in because Daniel Sturridge has done so well.
There is no place in football for what Luis did, although he is undoubtedly a talent and without all this controversy his price tag would be astronomical.
This match reminds me of Eric Cantona’s return when I was at Liverpool. I had my views on Eric’s actions at the time but, like Eric, Luis has served his time and he’s now got to respond in the right way.
Although I had occasional run-ins with Eric, he was a supreme player and we had some great battles.
I man-marked him in the FA Cup final in 1996 and he barely got a kick – until the set piece, where I wasn’t detailed to mark him, and he scored the winner.
Let’s hope my Hayes side have better luck in the cup this weekend!
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This post was last modified on 03/10/2013