We know we’re in good shape

WE have another big home game to look forward to on Saturday, with Notts County coming to the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

They’re just above us in the table and we’ll be looking to make up some ground on the teams in the play-off positions.

Notts County are pushing hard to get into the top three as they have been doing all season.

They still have lots to play for this season, as we do.

We lost out to a last-gasp goal at Notts County back in November, just when we thought we’d got a deserved point when Sanmi Odelusi scored late for us.

It was very difficult to take at the time as we acquitted ourselves really well in that match.

It was a game where we missed a penalty where it would have changed things in the match.

We owe them one a bit after the last time we played them but I’m sure that they will remember that was a tough game for them and will know that our ground is a difficult place to come to.

We know that we’re in good shape especially defensively, at the moment.

We haven’t conceded many goals at all over the last few weeks and I can’t remember the last time we scored more than once, in a game.

We always go out to keep a clean sheet and if that can’t happen, we try and minimise the number of goals we concede.

I was watching the League Two scores closely on Tuesday night and Swindon Town and Mansfield Town both drawing was the best-case scenario, I think.

It means we’re still only four points off the play-off positions with four games to go and we haven’t lost any ground on the teams above us.

I think of the teams who are above us only Coventry and Lincoln have games in hand on us now and it really is all to play for.

All we can do as always is focus on ourselves and what we’re doing and look to get the win we all want, on Saturday.

Accrington is a romantic story

IT was a tight game against Accrington Stanley last weekend and I don’t think we did ourselves any injustice with the performance we produced.

But credit to Accrington – you can see why they are where they are in the league and why they’re going to be heading up to League One.

They were very well organised and they have two very good strikers who score goals.

Having had an OK first half without either side creating too much, we came out in the second half with a bit of momentum and they got a bit of luck with what proved to be their winning goal.

Billy Kee was in the right place at the right time and on another day, the ball would have gone somewhere else.

Good teams like Accrington come to our place and try and grind out results and that’s exactly what they did.

But they also played some decent football out from the back and they do try and play the right way.

They’re a small club with small crowds and a limited budget so there is an element of romance about what they’ve done, this season.

European drama

IT was certainly a dramatic night of Champions League action, on Tuesday night.

I was watching the Manchester City-Liverpool game but then once I got wind of what was happening in Roma’s game against Barcelona, I quickly switched over to see what was happening there.

Barcelona were 4-1 up after the first leg and I didn’t anticipate Roma causing them any problems but they did really well and saw the game out well.

Barcelona are the team that everyone sees as favourites every year, before the competition starts.

Within the framework that they work within at that football club, they probably feel that they have failed in the Champions League, over the last few seasons.

It sounds ridiculous to say that but Barcelona are such a huge club with such high expectations.

Reds can go all the way

TOM Lapslie and Sammie Szmodics are both big Liverpool fans and they both said they were feeling a bit nervous before the Champions League quarter-final second leg, even though the Reds were 3-0 up after the first leg.

But all they needed to do was score a goal and that’s what they did – two, in fact.

With the likes of Salah, Firmino and Mane in your side, you’re always going to be capable of hitting the net in any game.

Manchester City did manage to get an early goal and had Sane’s second been allowed to stand as it should have been and not disallowed, it would have made it very interesting.

But Liverpool did ever so well to win both legs to go through, especially as they scored five goals in total against the Manchester City defence and the team that they have.

Hopefully now Liverpool can get a favourable draw tomorrow in the semi-finals, although there won’t be an easy tie.

They’ll be full of confidence with their history in the competition and the only English side remaining in the competition, I for one will be rooting for them to do well.

Hopefully, they can go all the way to the final and once you’re there, anything can happen.

Reed was on par

I THINK I watched pretty much every shot of the Masters, this year.

The golf has been a very popular topic of conversation among the boys in the changing room.

It was a great tournament but it was a bit of a shame that it didn’t come down to Rory McIIroy taking on Patrick Reed in an epic showdown at the end.

Rory’s putting deserted him a little in the end and Reed was a worthy winner.

I neither like nor dislike him as a golfer but there’s no doubting that he played the best golf, over the four days.

It was good to see Tiger Woods competing again at the highest level.

The expectations are always going to be so high for him given all that he has done in the sport and he’s slowly looking like the old Tiger now.

In his prime, it was really only him and Phil Mickelson competing at the very top but now there are 20 world-class golfers who are genuinely vying for the top spot.

Ray was such a gentleman

LIKE so many other people, I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ray Wilkins, last week.

Ray was a coach at Chelsea when I was there as a young player and he was always great with the young lads, whenever we trained or travelled with the first team.

He was such a gentleman and a real football man.

The tributes that have been paid since he died have been richly deserved.

My old Colchester team-mate Lewis Kinsella also worked with Ray at Aston Villa and he only ever had kind words to say about the influence he’d had.

It’s been a very sad few months in that we also lost another former Chelsea coach in Dermot Drummy last year and now Ray.

I don’t think you’d hear a bad word said about either of them.

I’m with Pross!

IT’S the Grand National this weekend and I’m sure that much like the Masters, there’ll be a sweepstake taking place.

Luke Prosser won the golf sweepstake after pulling the winner out of the hat, so I think I’ll be backing whoever he gets!

In all seriousness, I’m really pleased for him at the moment because he’s been playing really well since coming back from his long-term knee injury.

He’s had a torrid time over the last few months, so it’s great to see him back and playing well.