How quickly things change in football.

Last week I wrote about the strain of constantly playing Saturday-Tuesday and now we’re in the middle of an enforced mid-season break!

We should be at Bristol Rovers today, but they have concerns over Covid and have cancelled two games.

There’s nothing we can do about that and we always respect the rules around such things, but it leaves us with a blank weekend.

I’ll probably still go to a game, although even that’s not straightforward these days.

Many clubs are only letting scouts in from teams they are playing in the next couple of matches, just to limit the numbers attending.

Again, that’s sensible but it can be frustrating.

Nowadays technology means we always watch and analyse teams we’re playing against, usually looking at their last two or three games.

We break that down and look closely at everything, from set pieces to shape and individuals.

But there’s nothing quite like going to games and seeing teams in person.

The frustration today is that we once again miss out on the chance to build momentum after a good win.

It’s incredible how often that has happened to us this season.

Every time we win a game the next one seems to always get called off!

I don’t think that helped us early in the season, because it disrupted any rhythm we might have had.

That’s not an excuse by the way, we should have enough about us to overcome that sort of thing, but I thought Tuesday was our best display of the season and ideally we wanted to play straight away.

Instead we’ve been able to use this week as a bit of a breather.

As I said, playing so many games so close together leaves you mentally and physically tired, so we gave the squad two days off and then got them in yesterday for an in-house 11v11 game.

Cameron Brannagan was involved, Sam Winnall as well, and having those two available again in the new year will be a boost for us.

One or two players have had knocks: Rob Atkinson, for example, so a free week will allow aches and bruises to heal and I hope when we resume on Boxing Day against Wimbledon we’ve recharged our batteries and are ready to go.

I felt a bit guilty on Tuesday night, because there were a couple of fans hanging around outside the ground when I arrived for the Northampton game.

I had to politely say that I couldn’t sign things or pose for pictures.

We’re usually really good at that as a club and it’s heartbreaking to have to say no, but we are so cautious and have to adhere to all the protocols and rules.

It has been amazing to have fans back at games and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that since they returned we have put in our best half of the season, against Hull, and then got our best result so far on Tuesday.

There’s just that extra buzz, that extra little bit of encouragement and support, even with 2,000 people there.

I think, at the end of 2020, the air of positivity and sense that things are starting to get back to normal is exactly what we’ve all needed, whether we’re on the pitch, in the dugout, or in the stands.