SATURDAY saw another good performance against Cambridge United at the Kassam Stadium, with a particularly strong start to the game that could have seen us four up after ten minutes.

Ryan Taylor added to a run of solid performances of late by scoring a very well-worked goal and the game should have been put to bed early on with the amount of opportunities we created.

It would certainly have made for a more enjoyable second half had we managed to get the game finished off early.

You always run the risk of missing out on points when you are sitting on a 1-0 lead, and no matter who you are playing, the final minutes of the game are always going to be tense.

This is particularly the case when five of the six corners in the game had to be defended in the closing stages.

It was a successful afternoon all round for the club as we enjoyed Military Day, with the highlight being the Royal Navy’s fly-over before kick-off.

If the home bench was anything to go by, it caught most people in the stadium off guard!

The most important aspect of Tuesday night’s FA Cup replay with Braintree was obviously to progress to the next round.

It also helped to have the incentive of knowing the second round tie will be a home game against Forest Green Rovers.

The weather conditions during the match were the worst I’ve seen as a manager and Storm Barney was somewhat of a leveller on the night.

It was good for Patrick Hoban to get on the scoresheet again, grabbing his third goal in three starts.

It is important to have as many players as we can in form as we embark on another busy period of games.

It also puts us in a strong position when we can count on goals from all over the park, rather than being reliant on one person.

Benji Buchel has really taken his opportunity of late and goalkeeping coach Wayne Brown has been happy with the performances he has put in, particularly the penalty save against Braintree.

Sam Long has now returned to training after he was injured at the beginning of the season and it will be a boost to the squad to bring him back into the fold in the coming weeks.

We head to Dagenham & Redbridge today for the second time in two weeks for what will be a very different game to the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy clash.

Both sides will be much changed and I would be surprised if they made fewer than four alterations to the starting 11 in the JPT.

Dagenham’s current place at the bottom of the league is a false position and with the attacking players they have, I don’t think they will be involved in a relegation battle come the end of the season.

They have a dangerous front four who score a lot of goals.

The issue for them this season so far has been conceding.

That said, they will be full of confidence after coming back from 2-0 down at Morecambe in their FA Cup first round replay on Tuesday, to win 4-2.

There is a very good atmosphere at the training ground and we are in a great place having lost just four out of the last 32 league games, which is a statistic we will be looking to improve today.