I haven’t wrote one of these for a while, so it’s time to cover a fair bit of the last few weeks ahead of tonight’s Carabao Cup clash with Premier League side Luton Town.

Since I last put pen to paper, we’ve lost to Leyton Orient and Oxford United in the league, had a 9-0 thumping against Reading in the EFL Trophy and got a win against Cheltenham Town. Injuries are starting to take their toll on the squad, and this was illustrated at Oxford on Saturday when Harry Kite was asked to play in the RWB position. Ryan Trevitt went off injured in that game unfortunately to add to the ever-growing list, but all in all I think we’ve done ok so far all things considered.

As Gary Caldwell said after Saturday’s game, it wasn’t a 3-0 game. For me, the two penalties were rather soft and whilst I’m not saying we deserved to get anything out of the game, we were starting to get in the ascendancy just before the first penalty was awarded and when that happened, it was the nail in our coffin for our afternoon. Oxford scored an early goal with their first attack after Kite was beaten on the wing, and it set the scene for a frustrating afternoon. Hopefully we learn lessons from it, and we have the ideal opportunity to put it right with the game against Luton in front of a sold-out SJP this evening.

As for the other games, of course against Leyton Orient we were undone in stoppage time after going 1-0 up early in the second half, and in this game we were missing both Vil Sinisalo and Ilmari Niskanen who were both on international duty with Finland. It wasn’t the best of games all in all but it was frustrating not to get at least a point out of it. Niskanen sadly added to the list of injured players after coming off early in Finland’s game against Denmark, and with Dion Rankine also out it leaves us vulnerable on the right hand side of the pitch.

The following Saturday against Cheltenham saw us pick up a hard-fought win, with a goal from debutant substitute Caleb Watts, who had signed for the club the previous day along with former Oxford and Wigan man Yanic Wildschut. After winning the auction for Hospitality for 2 in the Heritage Lounge, my wife and I took up this for the game, which made for a very pleasant afternoon. Ilmari came in for a pre-match interview, and mentioned that he would be having an MRI scan in the coming week – this brought back memories of my time in hospital last year as it took me three attempts to have one due to the claustrophobia I felt at the time!

I also had the pleasure of meeting David Earl in the flesh after interviewing for his ‘My New Football Club’ podcast earlier in the year, and it felt a lot more intimate compared to the normal hospitality fare in the John Lewis suite. No taking away from that as that is also a great experience, and I’m sure we’ll book in for it later in the season, but it was nice to try out the Heritage Lounge for the first time as it’s normally only reserved for local businesses and their clients/staff.

And of course we move on to the last game to cover – the 9-0 defeat to Reading in the EFL Trophy. I know that this competition is only really a run-out for youth players and those on the fringes of the first team, but to concede nine at home in any competition is embarrassing. I didn’t go to the game, nor did I watch on iFollow, but the highlights I witnessed from the game showed some alarming schoolboy defending from our youngsters, and as frustrating as it is hopefully it’ll be a big learning curve for them going forward.

We have a great chance to end the month on a high with tonight’s game and of course the visit of Northampton Town to EX4 on Saturday. Unfortunately on Saturday I won’t be there as I’m heading to Spurs v Liverpool with my Spurs-supporting Dad and Brother to tick off their new stadium (should be a great game with both teams unbeaten in the Prem at the mo), but of course I will be keeping a beady eye on things and will be at the park in spirit. Normal service will be resumed the following week for the visit of Barnsley though – and of course we’ve got tonight to look forward to before then. Luton will be a tough nut to crack – the media are heavily focusing on the fact that they haven’t won a game yet in the Prem, but I think it’ll only be a matter of time to be honest. I just hope that their next win doesn’t come this evening!

Before I sign off though, if you haven’t seen it yet I implore you to read this article from the Guardian about the club. It really encapsulates for a wider audience what our club is about.