I WROTE last week about how we had gone over to St George’s Barracks in Bicester for a bit of team bonding and a chance to meet everyone in the DEMS regiment.

It was an excellent day and we enjoyed it very much.

Today we get the chance to return the favour as we host branches of all the Armed Forces for our Military Day.

Obviously our main focus will be on beating Gillingham and keeping our decent form going.

But before the game our fans will get the opportunity to meet people from the Army, navy and RAF and have a go at a few demonstrations and displays.

It all adds a bit of colour to what should be a fantastic day.

But there is a serious side to it as well.

Every morning when we wake up somebody, somewhere will have risked their life to keep our country safe.

I am very patriotic and will be proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with those in uniform this afternoon because they do a heroic job and I hope the fans will recognise this and give them a fantastic welcome.

Today’s game ends a very busy week at the football club.

We may not have had a midweek game for the first team, but the under 23s and under 18 teams have been in action and both played very well.

The 23s travelled up to Hull City for their Premier League Cup match and were a little bit unlucky not to get something out of the game.

They remain in contention in a group that also include Wolves and Swansea City, and their next game will see them play Wolves at Thame United – join me in coming along to watch them in a couple of weeks’ time.

I was at Court Place Farm on Wednesday night to watch the under 18s go through in the FA Youth Cup in what was a really enjoyable game to watch.

That seems to be the norm in that competition because teams really throw everything they have into every match and it often goes very end to end.

Credit to the boys because a Slavi Spasov goal got them through to face Burnley in the next round.

Take a look at the teams I have just mentioned: Wolves, Swansea, Hull and Burnley.

Just to see our youngsters playing against clubs like that every week is massively encouraging for the future.

WE will make the short journey over to Forest Green Rovers on Tuesday night for our Emirates FA Cup replay.

Watching last weekend’s game back just confirmed a few things for me.

I felt we played pretty well but turned down a couple of chances to shoot, trying to work a better opening.

Sometimes that’s the right thing to do, but we have worked hard this week on our decision-making and trying to sharpen up in those situations.

It is not a massive issue – we had scored nine goals in three games before Saturday.

But you are always striving to improve and if we can turn our possession into goals then hopefully we can win at the second attempt and go through to face Plymouth Argyle in the next round.