AFTER victories in the FA Cup on Saturday and then in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday, it’s good to get back to the league today when we make the short trip to AFC Wimbledon.

I think the two cup competitions have been great for us again this season.

Any win is always certain to get a bit of a buzz going among the players.

Beating a Championship side like Rotherham and then Scunthorpe, who haven’t been out of the top-three in League One all season, should give the players a real boost as we turn our attention back to our main priority, the league table.

We have put in two excellent performances this week and I am delighted to announce that the players have given me a bit of a headache!

I got into them a few weeks back and said those not in the team were making my job too easy.

I could pick the team each week without having to think too much about it.

I needed anyone who came on as a sub to pick up the pace straight away and make a contribution.

Then if anyone got into the side in the cup games they had to make my job difficult and make it hard to leave them out.

Ryan Taylor did exactly that at Rotherham, then Kane Hemmings came in on Tuesday and scored a hat-trick.

Liam Sercombe, Joe Rothwell, Josh Ruffels and Joe Skarz have all done great in the last two matches and I have a few very tough decisions to make.

The players aren’t stupid.

By the time they finished training yesterday they had a pretty shrewd idea of the starting XI, but whoever I pick knows they have someone breathing down their neck for that position.

Those that are on the bench today will be desperate to get out there and impress again.

Is it tough being a football manager in that situation? Absolutely not.

It is the ideal situation – to have competition and to know that you can pick anyone in your squad knowing they are a good player and going to give it absolutely everything they have got.

It will be a battle today.

Wimbledon are a strong, physical side, but we are playing well, are on a great little run again, and we know we will have a sold out away crowd right behind us.

I can’t wait.

I HEAR the expression ‘a great football man’ a lot, but it can rarely have been applied more aptly than in the case of Graham Taylor, who so sadly died this week.

Graham had a fantastic passion for football and so much experience and knowledge, but he was also a great innovator and thinker about the game.

He was given a hard time by the media after his time with England, but showed tremendous dignity to move on from that and continue a successful management career and then become a big success in a media role.

I think everyone in football was saddened by his death and all of our thoughts are with his family.