TIME to breathe again U’s fans. The January transfer window has closed and with a few key players in mind, such as Junior and Noah, for the time being we have not lost their services over what will be a tough and crucial next three months.

Also, unlike some previous seasons, there has not been a late influx of names that has the fans crashing search engines to find out exactly who they are and what they have done.

Last Saturday’s vanquished opponents Hartlepool United have been the last minute dot com dealers this time.

There has been some damage though. Tom Eastman, perhaps one of my all-time favourite players has gone to Harrogate to shore up their defence, and Ryan Clampin and Luke Hannant have left us too and have made the trip to Scotland to get some football with Dundee.

I really hope that enjoy themselves and do well.

Maybe their loan will turn into something more permanent, and several ex-U’s have found their way North of the Border to experience some good times.

Likewise, they might yet come back our way. Who knows but for me, the most important thing is that they are good guys who want to play football, so best of luck to them.

And so, with perhaps a larger squad than Matt Bloomfield thought he would be left with, he can start planning our gradual rise up the table, away from the bottom two, with a continued level of performance that had brought us great success, particularly on the road.

It is at home tomorrow against Barrow that I would give everything for to see a U’s win.

The Gillingham defeat was hard to take, albeit part of it was out of our control, and the Salford draw was pleasing and a good comeback but I want to see our home fans celebrating a win at the final whistle.

Barrow were hammered midweek by Carlisle, we are playing well and buoyant after winning last week, so there is a good chance that the three points can be ours if we can play to the standards we have set this last month or so.

Therefore, I would like to see two forwards up front please. Tom Hopper looked great for us on his debut, and with Samson, John and even Freddie as part of our attacking group, this should make most defences think again about what they might have experienced before from us up front.

From back to front, the U’s just look and feel right now. Great acquisitions complementing some really good current players who are perhaps even raising their own games because they can see the levels and quality have increased across the team.

It is really nice to be talking about how well the U’s are doing on the pitch again. If that same chat can continue for the vast majority of these last 17 games then I will be a very happy U’s fan indeed.

A special mention to Kieran O’Hara who has shaken off some early difficult moments in a U’s shirt to deliver at least one world class per game recently.

And whilst we are on the subject of keepers, I suppose that every silver lining has a cloud and that’s the bad luck of seeing both Sam Hornby and Ted Collins being ruled out for the rest of the season. So sad, and I hope that they both make strong recoveries.

And how about our new goalscoring machine in Fiacre Kelleher? Quite some start to his U’s career with two in two.

Seems quite a popular chap too and that’s always important in any squad.

I am sure that many of you can remember some real oddballs playing in the blue and white over the years. I know that I can.

Back in the day, perhaps before the days of “media training”, some players also struggled with “dealing with another human being” training, so encased in their football bubble that as soon as you took them out of that comfort zone they would turn into a completely different person.

Anyway, it’s all about a win tomorrow over Barrow. I really hope that many of those less frequent visitors who came to the last two home games will also come along to support the team.

They will need your help. They will also need the noise from the South Stand too, so let’s hope the drummer has had his three Weetabix in the morning!

Good luck U’s and thanks again to the fans for all of the support you can give.