THAT certain time of the football season has arrived. The hat, the scarf and the gloves are all out of their summer hiding place and are now packed for every game coming up.

It is possibly also the time for me to consider a purchase of the fabled “long johns” for the very first time.

Thankfully, watching football can also provide a certain degree of warmth, and the U’s certainly did that on Tuesday night by delivering one of their best performances of the season to demolish the high-flying and confident Exeter City outfit.

It is easier to forget the falling temperatures when you are focused on your favourite players working incredibly hard on the pitch and getting the reward of that hard work through three very good goals and three very crucial points.

The big question now is, can they build on that fine win and performance, and use it to help them through the next month or so of fixture-laden football? The U’s could not quite achieve that after the excellent Barrow away game, so let’s hope they can this time.

The signs are promising though. I hate to use the word as it could be deemed as derogatory when it is not meant that way, but I think Jasper is maturing with each and every game for us.

Gazette:

He no longer wants to beat every defender in his path. He is working with the team and delivering more in the build-up play and also in front of goal, not forgetting that he could have had one or two early goals at Stevenage but for some fine saves.

The excellent Dobra is now filling a berth in the middle of the pitch and is not looking out of place at all. His through ball to Freddie for the third goal was superb, as was the finish from our important centre forward.

In addition, despite losing George and Eastman to the starting line-up, their replacements were right on the money.

The U’s will need excellent cover all over the pitch with almost two games a week on the horizon.

Our squad size is not the greatest, but if you also add in the good players in the U23 arena, I do think that if and when called upon, they can provide the quality we will need. These are all positives. We just need a string of results to prove their validity.

Compare the two games this week, where we could not break down Stevenage in the second half and looked frustrated and void of ideas, to the Exeter game, where the U’s were allowed to play and express themselves a little more.

Since I was a boy at Layer Road, the word was that the U’s play better against the better teams. There is perhaps a lot of truth in that theory.

So onto the visit of Newport County tonight. I have moaned long and hard about travelling on Friday nights this season so I will spare a thought for their supporters.

I do wonder if it is getting harder for football fans with long midweek journeys. Exeter could not rally a supporters coach, which was apparently a very rare occurrence, so I wonder if Newport can manage one.

The CUSA is planning to take fans to the Papa John's Trophy Swindon game on Tuesday night, despite low numbers being able to go so far. Perhaps if you fancy it, you might want to get in touch.

For tonight, I do hope that a few more U’s fans will be able to come along to support the team. If they can find their winter woollies first, of course.

Friday night football used to be a special occasion back in the day. Let’s hope that it is again this time and that the U’s can carry on turning that corner to take them further up the table.

Up the U’s!