Wycombe is a great game to look forward to

WE head to Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday and it’s a great game for us to look forward to.

We’ll be looking to make a point after what happened against Cheltenham Town, last weekend.

We’ve had a really good week of training so far and we’re itching to right a few wrongs, after what happened last Saturday.

I know all about the rivalry between the two clubs and so do the rest of the lads.

They beat us on our patch earlier in the season so we owe them one if you like and it’s a game that we’re all looking forward to.

When we lost to them back in September, it was a bit of a turning point for us as after that we went on a good run.

We played Grimsby Town the Tuesday after and picked up our first away point of the season and we haven’t really looked back since.

The manager has challenged us to go on a similar run now, with 19 games to go.

There were some positives to come out of the Cheltenham game despite the result and perhaps the biggest was Kurtis Guthrie coming back into the starting line-up and marking his return with a superb goal.

I was delighted for him – he’s worked so hard to be back to a position where he’s fit enough to start a game and it was fantastic for us for him to not only score but also complete the whole of the 90 minutes.

He’s put in so much hard work to get to the position that he’s in now and I know as much as anyone else how special a feeling it is when you start your first league game after a long, long time on the sidelines due to injury.

I had a quick chat with him before the game and I could tell in his eyes that he was ready.

He’s always been a confident lad and he knows what he can bring to our team.

Reidy took a lot of flak in the changing room

THE red card changed the face of our game against Cheltenham Town last weekend and it was pivotal to the final outcome.

Admittedly, we weren’t playing our flowing football before that but I still feel that we were in control of the game.

Reidy apologised to the lads after the game.

He took a lot of flak in the changing room but he knew full well what he’d done wrong and said sorry.

Sometimes when a player is in that position, you’re not sure if it’s a sending off or not.

But Reidy and everyone else knew that in this instance, it was a red card and there wasn’t much you could say, so we move on.

It was a disappointing day and one that we have to quickly put behind us.

The most disappointing thing for me about last Saturday was that we didn’t defend nearly as well as we have been.

All four goals that Cheltenham scored could have been prevented in my opinion and there’s work for us to put in to improve on that.

I felt fully confident after half-time that we could grind out a result and go on and get a result even with only ten men on the pitch but it wasn’t to be.

I know that we only had ten men in the second half and it was always going to be difficult but we all know that we could have defended better.

It was out of character really, as we’d kept three clean sheets in a row before that and defended very well in our games.

Great to see Pross back

LUKE Prosser played for more than an hour of our game against Chelmsford City in the Essex Senior Cup on Tuesday night and I’m so pleased for him.

He’s been out for a long time with his knee injury and it’s been very frustrating for him.

But he’s been there supporting the lads in most of our games home and away in the dressing room and he’s a leader.

It’s great that he’s had some game time now and hopefully, it won’t be too long now before he’s back in the matchday squad for the first team.

Nominations are richly deserved

IT was great to see both our head coach John McGreal and leading scorer Sammie Szmodics nominated for the League Two monthly awards for December, this week.

Sammie has been on fire for us with his goals and fully deserves his nomination – if he hadn’t been on the shortlist, I’d have been baffled.

It’s great to see the manager nominated too and he’s the leader of our team.

It’s great recognition for him and his backroom team, who also work so hard to get us all into the best possible condition.

Beware the riches

I HAVEN’T got round to seeing ‘No Hunger in Paradise’ yet but I’m looking forward to watching it.

It's basically a documentary that looks at the academy system and the things that stop young footballers from making it, in the professional game.

There’s been another example that’s come to light just recently of a young player at Manchester City who is yet to make his Premier League debut but who apparently bought a £2m mansion.

The financial rewards for young Premier League players are huge now and it was something I saw a bit more of, towards the end of my time at Chelsea.

It’s a big jump up for any young player when you start earning that kind of money, especially if they haven’t yet played a first-team game.

Looking back, it makes me realise even more how critically important it is for young players to have the right support network around them to help them, whether it comes from parents, financial advisers and the club itself.

They need that network in place to help them deal with the often vast sums of money that they are earning.

You go from having pennies in your pocket to earning astronomical amounts of money all of a sudden.

A pizza of the action

SO the reward for Fleetwood Town keeper Chris Neal after he helped his side keep a clean sheet against Premier League side Leicester City in the FA Cup was… a year’s supply of pizza.

I think if I was given the choice of a free supply of anything, pizza would certainly be up there!

But I’m not sure if it would be too good health-wise, especially if I got a year’s supply for every clean sheet we kept over the Christmas period!

I think after three years’ worth of free pizza, I’d be feeling a little unwell.