AS we go into the Christmas games we are on a nice little seven-game unbeaten run and starting to gather pace at a very important time.

The first ten matches of the season tend to rush past as people settle down and jostle for position, then you start to hit your stride and the league settles down.

Should we be higher? Definitely.

Are we still in contention? 100 per cent.

As there have been seven games since our last defeat, people have finally stopped asking me about consistency!

I think my answer has always been the same on that one.

This is a young group of players, most of whom were new to each other and to the football club The club itself hadn’t played at this level for 15 or 16 years and it maybe took a little while for everything to bed down and for the whole club to gel.

Over the last month or so results have started to go our way.

At times we have had to grind it out, but that’s a great sign.

I’m thinking in particular of our FA Cup game at Macclesfield where we really had to dig deep to even earn a replay.

But I don’t know any successful side who play well in every game.

Those who can mix it up and show a bit of grit and character are generally the ones that do well.

On Tuesday we got our reward with an excellent performance against Macclesfield in the replay.

Even before they were reduced to ten men I felt we were in complete control of the game.

When the match opened up in the second half, I thought that we played some really exhilarating football.

I thought Alex MacDonald and Marvin Johnson ripped their full backs apart and the delivery in the final third was very good.

People will say ‘it’s only a Conference side’, but ask Northampton if they want to swap places with us.

That game was a banana skin and we dealt with it professionally – just as we will have to do again at Bury this afternoon.

They haven’t won in 15 games but sooner or later they are going to beat someone.

We will talk about that, try and get on the front foot, and provided we play like we have been doing in recent weeks, then we are confident we can come home with the three points.

I WAS really encouraged when Christine in the ticket office told me we had sold close to 9,500 tickets for the Boxing Day game against Northampton.

Boxing Day football has become a real fixture, if you’ll excuse the pun, on people’s Christmas calendar and we love to play in front of the big crowds on days like that.

Think of Swindon or Swansea last season and you are talking about matches we will never forget.

We’d love it to be a sell-out so book your place and get behind us.