In his exclusive weekly column, the club captain reveals the upbeat players can't wait to get stuck into high-flying Tranmere.

THE international break has come at exactly the wrong time for us.

It was a fantastic performance against Gillingham last week and the lads just want to get out and play the next game because they are full of confidence at the moment.

Nobody is going to brush the result against Cheltenham under the carpet. I'm sure Paul Sturrock will analyse it.

But the bottom line is the players will still be feeling upbeat by the time the Tranmere Rovers game comes around.

The league is our bread and butter.

Tranmere are top of the table and flying at the moment so I'd imagine there will be a big crowd and all the fans will be looking forward to that one.

In the meantime the lads will probably use the time off to recharge, mentally if not physically, and spend some time with their families.

I know I will be watching the England matches. I always do. Some of the other lads like a complete break from it - it's each to their own really.

I said we wouldn't sweep the result against Cheltenham under the carpet and we won't.

The manager may have made a lot of changes but it was still a very disappointing result because the players who came in are more than good enough to do the job.

From my point of view, whichever 11 players we put out we should be strong enough to win but the lads didn't really do themselves justice.

The manager had a few choice words at half-time and the second-half display was much better, but I think we left ourselves with too much to do.

There are some managers and chairman out there who don't pay too much attention to the small competitions, but I don't think that's the case at this football club.

We always want to perform and we always want to win. This was a decent chance for us to get to Wembley.

You can't win every game but as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and say you played your best, nobody can ask any more of you.

I don't think the lads could look in the mirror at half-time on Tuesday, but the second half display was much better.

Finally I would like to say good luck to our club chaplain Simon Stevenette who is running the Swindon half marathon this weekend.

He will be running in club colours so I want everyone to cheer him on.

Also, my friend's mum is doing the race in aid of breast cancer so good luck to her too and everyone else taking part.

9:58am Thursday 11th October 2007

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