Since I last wrote a piece, we’ve played three more games and not done too badly – consisting of a win, a draw and a loss. So far, from what I’ve seen, we’re looking miles better defensively, but as I’ve mentioned before we’re just lacking that little bit of bite up top. We managed to get through to the second round of the Carabao Cup with a 2-1 home win over Crawley Town after going a goal behind in the first half. It was great to see the first piece of competitive action at SJP since May. Substitute Kyle Taylor, who as we all know has had a lengthy injury lay-off (and of course from my personal circumstances I know how frustrating the recovery process can be!), scored a cracker from the edge of the area to level things up before James Scott popped up with the winner to make it 2 in 2 for him. I’m hoping that getting those goals early on may give him some confidence going forward, but as I write this we haven’t scored in our last 2 games.

Blackpool on the Saturday just gone was a game that beforehand I would have snatched your hand off for a point. We put in a decent defensive performance, with Alex Hartridge deservedly being awarded Man of the Match. As the game panned out though, considering the chances we had I was a little disappointed not to get away with all three points, however this is a side that should be challenging come the top end of the season and to take a point from them at this stage is pretty decent in my book.

For all the good that’s been done at the club of late which I have praised in previous articles, considering Saturday was our first home sell-out of the season there’s still a lot of room for improvement, which I will raise with the club. However, some of the changes may require a lot of groundwork and money, which of course as we know doesn’t grow on trees. However, there are changes that can be made that may not cost a lot. For instance, within the disabled section I sit in at the tail end of last season there were extra chairs put in – not everyone in the disabled sections use a wheelchair – some use rollators, or a crutch such as myself, and at times myself and my carer want to sit down. I do stand up a lot, but at times I need to sit down as my feet end up aching. Hopefully as my recovery progresses this will get better, and I hope to be in a position to buy a normal seated season ticket next season. Another issue is the lack of stock in the shop currently. I understand that this may be out of the club’s hands, but it’s disappointing that 2 weeks after the third shirt went on sale and sold out pretty quickly, more stock had not arrived. I’ve been told that this stock should be arriving this coming week, hopefully so as I want to get one as a birthday present for myself and to take with me on holiday to add to the many ‘Grecians on Tour’. I’m sure these issues can be rectified swiftly as the powers that be at the club are always looking at ways to improve.

The ranks were bolstered once again yesterday afternoon with the arrival of Ilmari Niskanen from Dundee United, a Finnish international who will find himself at home with fellow countryman Vil Sinisalo in the ranks too. His arrival should give the wing backs a bit more competition for places, which of course is vital if we want to progress as a club. GC has laboured the point many times that he’d like good competition in every area of the pitch.

Last night against Portsmouth was a decent, battling performance, which although Pompey deserved the win in my opinion, gave us a lot of things to be positive about. We held our own for most of the game against a side that is expected to be challenging at the end of the season, and who put four past Leyton Orient the previous Saturday. In the first half we gave the ball away cheaply far too many times, and for my liking we made a few too many backward passes, which was rather frustrating, but improvement was forthcoming in the second half and to only concede one thanks to an unfortunate mistake from Sinisalo gave me a lot of encouragement. It had to be Sparkesy getting the assist though didn’t it? We had three separate chances to level in the second half, with Pierce Sweeney’s header in the last minute of normal time being the pick of the bunch. In front of the Sky TV cameras, I think we gave a very good impression of ourselves. Again, a special mention goes to Alex Hartridge for his colossal defending (despite being beaten by Bishop for Pompey’s winner) – only four games in, he’s putting in a good shout to be player of the season! Also, Dion Rankine’s workrate and pace never fails to impress me, the only concern for me is that he sometimes runs down blind alleys – but being a young player, he’ll only improve as he gets more game time. One concern for me though is James Scott looked as though he was limping when he came off on the hour mark. Hopefully it’s only a small knock and he’ll be raring to go again on Saturday. We play Carlisle away on Saturday, which coincidentally is the day I turn another year older – a present of three points on the board would be perfect! I won’t be there in person as I’m off on holiday for a week, but I’ll be there in spirit for sure. In that game, we could be coming up against a familiar face in Jokull Andresson – of course, he has the strange honour of having been a fans’ favourite here without playing in front of fans for the majority of his time at EX4!

Early doors, from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think we’ll have any issues holding our own in this division once again. My hopes and expectations of a top-half finish to me still seem doable, but of course there’s still 43 more league games to navigate between now and the end of April, and there’ll be many more twists and turns yet on the rollercoaster ride that is ECFC! This will probably be my last article for just over a week or so, I’ll add some more when I’m back from my holiday – just in time for Reading at home (we arrive back that morning!) – and by then I’m sure there’ll be lots more to talk about from a Grecian perspective.

Onwards and upwards. UTC!