THE long-distance treks to Newport, Exeter and Blackpool brought us two hard-earned points.

The game at Newport was a non-football battle; Exeter was all-football and cerebral and Blackpool was an honest, ding-dong contest with numerous chances for both sides.

No side would have found these vastly different games easy and, collectively, they tested John McGreal’s team in so many ways.

If we don’t know League Two by now, we never will.

The recent battling points at Mansfield, Newport and Blackpool showed League Two in all its grim reality. The lush green pitches of the summer nights in September were a million miles away.

We need to make those performances count by maintaining our good home form.

With our January reinforcements in place, we look capable of having a crack at finishing the season well.

We have suffered just one defeat in the last 11 games. With four of the next five games at home, we now need to build on it. Exciting, isn’t it?

I recently mentioned the advantage of having six excellent aerial players in our team on defensive corners and it is no less true for attacking corners.

Owen Garvan’s set-piece delivery led to one goal at Blackpool and very nearly a second, with Kurtis Guthrie’s powerful header thumping against the crossbar.

All this after we had conceded a disappointing near-post goal by Jamille Matt.

Garvan’s delivery of the ball could hold the key to breaking teams down in front of our own fans.

But let’s look back at Blackpool.

Matt Briggs had a stormer on his return to the side and nearly capped it by scoring with his right foot when the ball stood up nicely for him and he cracked in an effort from 20 yards which had keeper Slocombe at full stretch.

Guthrie’s close-range snaffled goal came from the resultant corner.

Sean Murray’s 25 minutes on the pitch were a blur of action as he exorcised the frustration of too much time not getting a game at Swindon Town.

But things went horribly wrong, meaning that his debut is in the running for the best and the worst debut by a U’s player.

Best because he looked the most complete player on the pitch for the time that he was in action. No wonder John McGreal couldn’t conceal his pleasure when Murray signed.

Worst, because he made a fateful decision to lunge after a ball that had got away from him and ploughed recklessly into Jim McAlister, inflicting a cracked tibia on the unfortunate static Scotsman.

The incident was dealt with well by McGreal and his player after the game and the heat was taken out of the situation.

The hope is that McAlister speedily recovers from the fracture. Murray needs to sit out his suspension and not let the incident play on his mind.

Players out on the pitch usually know what is lying below the surface with incidents such as this and read such situations well.

Other than the initial reactions when Murray was very lucky not to get chinned, the situation soon calmed. It was realised that the tackle was totally out of character for a player who has never previously been dismissed.

Based on the generous statement that Blackpool and McAlister’s family issued on Sunday, we can assume that they understood that Murray was racked with regret and happily the X-rays had showed that the break was not as bad as it might have been.

John McGreal has indicated that all January transfer targets were landed, which is an outstanding achievement.

We are covered for most eventualities. Who is to say that Head of Player Resources Iain Moody won’t be our best ‘signing’ this year?

Results should follow, spanning the four-point gap between us and the play-off places.

This club needs the fun and excitement of a play-odd carnival at the end of the season and the momentum is with us.

Our last two play-off adventures saw us defeat Barnet and Torquay (at Wembley) 1998. In 1996 we tasted bitter defeat against Neil Warnock’s Plymouth Argyle.

Thrilling memories and two of those clubs are in the shake-up this year, so who knows how the season will be remembered when the curtain comes down.