WE travelled north yesterday to take on Scunthorpe United in our second away game of the season.

After training in the morning we headed up the motorway for an overnight stay before a difficult game against a club who have been building very solidly over the last few years.

They were in the mix for promotion for most of last season so it’s not going to be easy.

But we have trained very well this week and are full of confidence after a good start to the season.

It has been good to have a full week on the training ground with no midweek match.

That’s a bit of a luxury at this stage of the season when games are usually packed so close together.

The players had a day off after the win over Portsmouth – they certainly deserved that for a very encouraging performance.

Then on Tuesday we played a friendly against Wimbledon at the training ground where some of the players who haven’t been involved too much were able to gain match sharpness and get some minutes on the pitch.

I was very happy with the attitude of those involved and the way everybody approached the game.

I’m really lucky to be working alongside these players and my staff and we’re going to continue to do our all to get three points in every game.

But if anyone is already thinking about promotion or the play-offs at this stage of the season, I’m afraid they’d be mistaken.

We need to take things game by game, bearing in mind that each match is a real battle in which we have to give 200 per cent to get the three points.

We’ve only played two league games so far and I’ve come here to build a new project that takes time to develop, just like any undertaking in life.

Saturday’s match was my first experience of a big crowd at Grenoble Road and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After a steady first half I thought we responded to the crowd in the second half and took control of the game.

That’s a great sign – fans don’t always stay so patient, but our supporters are very knowledgeable as well as passionate and it was a collective effort between the players and fans to win that game.

I hope we can do the same next Saturday when we welcome Shrewsbury Town.

The one thing that has gone against us so far is a serious looking injury to Ivo Pekalski who will be out until the new year with a knee injury.

It happened in training and he went for a scan this week to assess the damage.

We tried to play it down a little rather than give Portsmouth any team news that might help them last weekend, but it is a terrible shame for Ivo.

He is a very good player who now has to wait until he can prove that to us all.

Ivo is part of the Oxford United family now and we will look after him and make him feel involved throughout his recovery.