I’VE been hearing a lot about this season being similar to last.

But I want the similarities to end right now.

We started off the new campaign with two wins, two clean sheets and a defeat in the opening round of the League Cup so I could understand why people said it was initially the same until the defeat against AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night.

But now that’s happened we definitely don’t want a repeat of last season.

Back then, our winning run was followed by four defeats and two draws and that’s the last thing we want to happen again.

I personally think we have improved since last season though and we now have more quality in the final third of the pitch.

As a result we’re always going to create chances but it’s up to us to take them when they come around.

We did that against Stevenage last weekend but we didn’t against AFC Wimbledon and paid the price for that.

Myles Weston missed a great opportunity after just three minutes and if that had gone in then it could have been a totally different story.

However, we need to remain calm and confident in front of goal because the performance was there.

West Ham’s coaching staff came down to watch the game and they said it mirrored their match against Tottenham at the weekend so they understood how we were feeling.

But I’m sure there will be games we play badly in this season and still manage to win so these things do work both ways during the course of the year.

OUR PREPARATION HAS TO BE SPOT ON

WE have two very long trips coming up now as we travel to Carlisle this weekend before going to Plymouth Argyle the following Saturday.

There are different ways to travel to the games and we have to make sure we get the preparation spot on.

With that in mind, we will be stopping off at Preston North End on our journey tomorrow for a training session which will certainly help in breaking up the journey.

RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN

I ALWAYS think statistics and records are there to be broken but I was slightly shocked when I found out how long it had been since this football club won a home league game on a Tuesday night.

I understand it goes back to 2011 but we will be going all out to make sure we put that right as soon as we can.

Failing that, we might have to move the matches back to a Wednesday!

Echo:

Scott Arfield - came close to signing for Southend

WE CAME CLOSE TO SIGNING SCOTT ARFIELD

I WATCHED Burnley’s game against Chelsea with great interest on Monday, especially when Scott Arfield got the first goal of the game for Burnley.

I’m good friends with Sean Dyche so I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that we actually came very close to signing Scott when he was released by Huddersfield Town.

I met with him a couple of times and he spoke very well.

I was really impressed by him and I thought we were leading the chase to sign him for quite some time.

But, at the 11th hour, Burnley came in for him and he decided to join them instead.

He had a great season with them last year and he’s now playing in the Premier League so good luck to him.

Echo:

Louis Van Gaal

DON'T WRITE OFF MAN UNITED

WHEN it comes to predicting who will win the Premier League this season I’m not going to think too far outside the box.

I think it will be between Chelsea and Manchester City but I’m not going to write off Manchester United.

I think they will have a say in it, even if they did lose to Swansea City in their first game.

Last year they beat Swansea quite convincingly on the opening day and then didn’t go on to do as well as they would’ve wanted to so you can’t read too much in to just the one game.

I certainly don’t think Louis Van Gaal will allow what happened last season to happen again so I expect them to be strong.

As for my dark horses? Last season I went for Liverpool and was proved to be correct so this year I’m going to go for Tottenham Hotspur.