A sweet feeling

I WENT back to my old club Cheltenham Town last weekend and the game couldn’t have gone much better for me.

I got a bit of stick from the home fans but if I get grief, I tend to rise to it – I’ve always been like that.

I always tend to score against my old clubs and it was a memorable day for me in the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and scoring the penalty at the end was the icing on the cake.

I also had the penalty situation earlier on in the game, which wasn’t ideal.

It doesn’t matter how you win or how you get there, as long as you do it.

I got a bit upset when I didn’t take the first penalty we were awarded.

But I want to put on record that I didn’t know at the time that Luke Norris had been assigned our penalty taker – that’s why I reacted like I did.

I think I must have somehow missed it, when it was announced to the squad.

I wanted the penalty and I knew that I wouldn’t miss it but I was over the moon that Luke scored and he got his brace.

I got some stick from the Cheltenham fans about the first penalty but there was definitely contact.

We had to dig in and that’s something we’ve done especially away from home, this season.

I stayed down in Cheltenham after the game and met up with my best friends for a meal, so it was a great day and a great result for us.

Bouncing back

I spoke in last week’s column about the importance of us bouncing back from the Northampton disappointment, which is what we did and that’s a great sign for the fans.

It’s a long hard season and we have to get over things like that quickly – it’s very important not to put two losses together.

Shutting out the background noise

WE make the trip to Tranmere Rovers this weekend and I’m sure it’ll be a good atmosphere.

I know James Norwood who’s been on fire for them so far this season and we’ll have to keep him quiet.

But we’re feeling confident too – we’re looking forward to another opportunity to try and get three points and jump into the top three, which is where we want to be this season.

The gaffer will definitely want to get a win against his old club and there’s a lot of people talking about us at the moment.

But we’ve reiterated this week that it’s all about what we do and we can’t listen to too much background noise.

We have some great characters in our squad and we have to concentrate on us.

I'd have loved it to have been a league game

IT was a disappointing night for us in the Checkatrade Trophy, on Tuesday night.

There are definitely lessons to be learned from it but there were both positives and negatives from the night.

The negatives were the result and the performance but the main positive is that things are going very well at the moment and it’s good to keep grounded.

The experienced boys will get back into the mix in training today and we can’t dwell on things like that.

It was also good to see three of the younger lads – Ryan Clampin, Paul Rooney and Aaron Barnes - make their Colchester debut and it’s good to have talented players coming through.

Clamps has come through the academy here and he’s a great lad and a really good talent.

Everyone seems to have their opinion on the Checkatrade Trophy but in my view, it messes things up a bit if I’m honest and I’d have loved it to have been a league game, instead.

When the stadium isn’t very full like that, it feels like a reserve game.

It’s a bit false, if I’m being perfectly honest.

Milestone moment

IT was a big day in our house yesterday as my four-year-old daughter Olivia started school for the first time.

The missus and I got a bit choked up but we didn’t need to worry about her – she’s mixing already and one of the first things she did was go and sit next to another girl in her class and say ‘I’m your new best friend!’ She’s a very confident girl – I can’t think where she gets that from!

Skip's sounds

OUR changing room is a bit of a noisier place now that Pross has dipped into the fines box and bought a boom box.

It’s got disco lights and a microphone - we like to get psyched up and get the music on loud, before games.

It’s great for team spirit - but no-one’s picked up the microphone just yet!

Shaw's a strong character

IT was quite an eye opener hearing Luke Shaw talk about his injury the other day and saying he nearly lost his leg after breaking it in two places, a few years ago.

He got a lot of stick about his weight but he’s shown that the strong characters rise to the top and now he’s back in the England squad.

Fortunately, touch wood I don’t know what it’s like to come back from a long-term injury like that but I’ve learnt a bit more about it recently through talking to Pross.

He made me realise how much he had to do to get back.

It’s not just the physical side of it – it’s the mental side, too.

Just horsing around

I WAS in everyone’s good books, last Friday.

I’m really into my horse racing and I got a tip about a horse called Optical Illusion running in a race, in Ireland.

I told all of the boys about it on the coach on the way to Cheltenham and some of the other staff got on it, too.

We got to the hotel just before six and I got to my room with Pross, so we could follow this race.

He never gambles but I even persuaded him to have a little bet on this horse that I’d been told about.

The horse won, I burst into the corridor and all I could hear was a huge cheer go up - the whole squad was on this horse, too!

Everyone was buzzing!