IT’S been a good few days for us and that certainly included being able to extend Tamika Mkandawire’s loan spell from Millwall.

He will now be with us until at least January and that’s fantastic news because I think he’s made a big diffence to us since coming in.

I also think there’s still more to come from him as well because he had been out for quite some time before joining us.

He’s getting fitter and sharper all the time and is now less of a tin man after being involved in the matches.

Tam reads the game well and with Marc Laird coming in too we certainly look much stronger in midfield now.

We’re more solid and I think that has been shown by the fact we’ve been conceding less goals in our matches.

Earlier on in the season when we had something of a makeshift midfield we left ourselves far too open and often got punished.

But it’s completely different now and that has been proven by our improved results.

Winning at Torquay and AFC Wimbledon in the manner we did was very pleasing and now we’re focusing on our home form as we welcome Rochdale to Roots Hall this weekend.

They’re a good side with experienced players and they will also be fresh before they didn’t have a game in midweek.

We’re going to be in for another real test and we want to start improving our home form.

We aren’t alone in that though because of all the matches played in our division on Tuesday night, only four teams at home we’re able to win.

Sides are now enjoying being away from home but if we can sort out our results at Roots Hall and keep the away from the same then we will really start to rocket back up the league.

We’ve been able to work our way back in to contention just recently and remain on the coat-tails of the play-offs.

We have players pushing for a place in the team and that includes Barry Corr, who scored again at AFC Wimbledon in the week.

He has hit the net three times this season now and I read what he had to say after the game about wanting to start matches.

But at the moment it would be hard for me to leave anyone out and I also think we have to be careful with Barry.

He’s been out a long time and we need to ease him back him.

However, we have an FA Cup game at Bury next weekend where I will have to make changes as a couple of our on loan players have not been given permission to play so Barry will certainly be in my thinking when it comes to picking the team that day.

It’s important for him and the other players out of the starting line-up at the moment to stay fit and we could well be holding a match for them against the youth team today.

We also have the Essex Senior Cup game at Hullbridge coming up and it’s important these players learn to play in the new system of play we’ve decided to introduce.