I’m really looking forward to today’s home game against Sunderland.

We have had two really good matches against them this season and it’s a chance for us to bounce back and start winning again after a difficult little period.

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People have possibly made more of our form than necessary.

Since New Year’s Day we have only lost twice and those were games against the top two.

But we have drawn a few too many games as well and I do accept that we haven’t been playing quite as fluently as we were before Christmas.

Factor in some very difficult pitches and conditions, though, and I think we have done OK.

We have hung in there and now it is time to start making our move up the table again.

We fought very hard for our point at Burton Albion on Tuesday night and I was pleased with the effort.

It was frustrating to see Liam Kelly pick up a hamstring injury and then Alex Gorrin got booked and reached ten yellows for the season – both of them miss today’s game.

We’ll also probably be without Jamie Hanson, who has to be the unluckiest player around.

He has had terrible luck with injuries this season and woke up feeling ill on Wednesday.

Not for the first time, the strength of our squad is being tested, but we just get on with it.

Recovery becomes key and after Tuesday night we stayed up at St George’s Park and then trained there on Wednesday morning.

The recovery facilities there are second to none and everyone got a good night’s sleep, rather than travelling home late on Tuesday and feeling drained the next day.

I am sure our fans who travelled will identify with that feeling, especially after a freezing night at the Pirelli Stadium!

I always want to applaud the fans who come out on nights like that.

There were more than 400 Oxford fans there, almost 20 per cent of the crowd, which is a great effort.

There will be plenty more at the Kassam Stadium today and it should be a terrific occasion.

Come along, get behind us, and let’s see if we can keep our good home form going with another win.

In the middle of a busy schedule I don’t know how widely reported it was, but we trained down at Oxford City on Monday night.

We used the 3G pitch before our Under 9s, 10s and 11s started their training sessions.

I loved seeing the interaction where the youngsters were cheering every goal in our session and then the senior players joined in and helped with their warm-ups.

It was refreshing to see and brought home to me why we all got into this game in the first place.

I never lose sight of just how lucky I am to be doing this job.

There was an enthusiasm and an energy about the whole thing and it took me back to kicking a ball around as a kid when I was just starting out.

There is a board outside my office with 104 names on it: the players who have appeared for the first team after starting in our academy.

I wonder, in the years to come, how many of those kids on Monday night will get to see their names on those boards?