Confidence is flowing

WE’LL be heading to the Ricoh Arena on Saturday full of confidence, after our win at Newport County.

Our away form is really good at the moment and we’ll be looking to continue that against Coventry City, this weekend.

Coventry are one of the biggest sides in the league and they’re coming into the game on the back of a disappointing home loss against Forest Green Rovers, on Tuesday night.

They’ll be looking to bounce straight back from that but as I say, we’re feeling confident especially away from home so we’ll be going there looking to get another win.

I’m sure it’ll be a good game and the Ricoh is always a good place to go and play football.

Raining on Newport's Parade

IT was a brilliant result for us at Newport County in midweek.

After the disappointment of losing at home to Carlisle United last Saturday, we put in such a good performance at Rodney Parade and we showed yet again that we can constantly bounce back against a team that are flying high in the division.

Newport hadn’t lost at home this season prior to us winning there and we seem to like ending our opponents’ home records, as we did the same at Yeovil Town a couple of weeks ago.

The manager highlighted our resilience after the Newport game and I think it’s played a big part in our recent away performances, where we’ve taken seven points from a possible nine.

It was nice that the gaffer highlighted my save early in the second half when the score was 0-0 but it was a resilient team effort and I felt everyone played their part in the win.

We knew that 11 out of Newport’s 20 goals had come from set pieces or long throws and we set up well to deal with that.

The three centre-halves won all of their headers and all three of them were excellent.

We were bombarded at times in the second half at Newport and they put in some sustained pressure in the second half but we stood up to it really well.

We knew that they would try and put us under the cosh after we scored our goals but we had an inner determination to right a few wrongs after the Carlisle defeat and I think that showed in the manner of our performance.

Last weekend was a disappointing home defeat, especially as it came off the back of a really good result there against Mansfield Town.

We know that we put in a pretty average performance against Carlisle but we have a great spirit within the camp, this season.

We’re together as a squad and we know what we’re capable of.

At times, there will be things that need to be said but we know that we can perform against anyone in our division.

We’ve only conceded two goals in our last four games – it’s something we knew that we needed to address and we needed to tighten up, which is what we’ve now done.

European encouragement

THERE have been some encouraging results for Premier League clubs in the Champions League, this week.

Manchester United beat Benfica, Liverpool thrashed Maribor and although I’m not sure how much you can read into the result, it’s still the Champions League and Manchester City had a great win over Napoli.

For me though, the result of Tuesday night was Spurs’ draw at Real Madrid – what a result that is.

I saw a couple of the saves Hugo Lloris made in the Bernabeu and he played a part in that but his quality has always been there for all to see.

It will be interesting to see how far the English clubs can go in this season’s competition, as it would be good to see a Premier League side go all the way for the first time in a while.

Leicester City reached the quarter-finals last season under Craig Shakespeare – but now he’s out of a job.

It just shows you how crazy football is but I guess you should never be surprised.

I watched a bit of their game against West Brom on Monday night and they looked OK but for owners, staying in the Premier League is imperative.

Time for tee time?

SO former Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny apparently wants to go into interior design once he hangs up his gloves.

It’s an unusual one and I think it’s safe to say that none of the lads in the Colchester changing room have mentioned it as a potential career destination, once their playing days are over.

We have a huge golf community in our squad and I’m sure they’d love to turn pro once they finish playing professional football.

Golf is at an epidemic level in our squad, myself included – Easty, Lofty, Laps, Sammie, Drey, Frankie Kent, Sean Murray, Cameron James, they all love getting out on the course!

I’m sure they’d all love to go and play on the PGA Tour once they hang up their boots, although the likelihood of that is very slim!

An unfortunate incident

IT was a shame that former England goalkeeper Ben Foster reportedly injured his knee while playing with his son in his back garden.

West Brom are understandably concerned, especially as he has damaged cruciate knee ligaments in the past.

But you can’t be critical of people having a life outside football.

There’s of course an element of risk in anything you do and if as a professional footballer you’re going out skiing or motorbike racing, then obviously you’re asking for trouble but this just seems like an unfortunate incident for both player and club.

No ID? You're not coming in...even if you are John Terry!

IT seems that Liverpool attacker Roberto Firmino was briefly denied access to the Maribor stadium ahead of the Champions League game there on Tuesday night – as he forgot his ID.

He got in soon after and scored two goals in the Reds’ 7-0 win but it didn’t surprise me that the security was so tight.

I always remember being the case when I was at Chelsea and the Champions League games are always very well policed and understandably so.

Even John Terry and Didier Drogba had to wear passes around their necks!