IT’S going to be a great atmosphere for our game against Portsmouth this weekend and we cannot wait to sample it.

I would imagine Portsmouth will be bringing 1,500 to 2,000 supporters and I’m sure our fans will also be bringing their noise to the party so it promises to be some afternoon.

We obviously also want to get the win we need to kick start our season and I truly don’t believe that’s very far away at all.

September was always going to be a testing month as we played Oxford and Portsmouth, who were both among the pre-season favourites for promotion.

Cheltenham have been a surprise package but York and Shrewsbury are both strong so this was always looked upon as a difficult month.

I’m still confident of doing well though and scoring the goals we need too.

I’m not a patient man, by any stretch of the imagination, but I am trusting in the strikers we have at the club and believe they can get the goals for us.

Myles Weston has shown signs and he can certainly deliver a great ball in to the box.

It may well be that he might have to play in that position he doesn’t like (out wide) because with the crosses that came in from Myles and John White against Oxford I think we might have done better with a Barry Corr or Lee Barnard in the box.

There’s food for thought too as young Jason Williams is also pulling up trees in training and in the development matches so he’s also in my thinking.

For me he’s slightly ahead of the other young strikers we have at the football club because physically he’s already a man.

He also has that attitude and desire to succeed and he’s certainly pushing to be on the bench for the first team soon.

PENALTY WAS EMBARRASSING

I MUST have watched the penalty given to Oxford against us last weekend about 30 times on the DVD now and I still think it’s embarrassing.

Danny Hylton is known for going down easily in the opposition penalty area and we did actually highlight that to the players before the game in the 10 to 15 minutes of highlights we put together on our opposition and told our defenders to stay on their feet.

I cannot see why it was given and can only imagine that the referee got swept away by the waves of Oxford attacks at that stage of the game.

It was with great interest that I therefore heard of plans to introduce more technology in to the game to allow managers the change to challenge one decision per half.

Being honest I don’t think I would have challenged the penalty decision that went against us with Jack Payne in the first half when he went down and the referee waved play on.

But I would definitely have challenged their penalty and if it stops that happening against us again then I would be 100 per cent behind bringing in more technology!

ENGLAND PRODUCED A VERY SOLID DISPLAY

BOB Shaw, Graham Coughlan, Dave Penney and I went up to the Rendezvous Casino together to watch the England game against Switzerland and I thought it was a very solid display.

It was a good game that both teams went out to try and win and I was very pleased to see it going our way.

We could have lost but thankfully it went our way for a change and it was great to see Danny Welbeck score a couple of goals too.

LOAN PLAYERS PICKED ON MERIT

WE’RE looking in to the loan market at the moment to try and sign a left-back.

But I would never be held to ransom by any club and would certainly not agree to any clauses which state the player has to play no matter what.

They will only be picked on merit and that will always be the case.

Funnily enough I spoke to one of our former loan players, Cauley Woodrow, at the weekend.

He text me to say how good it was to see Jack Payne banging them in so I gave him a call and we had a good conversation.

Cauley was very complimentary about what we did for him while he was with us and it was very nice to hear.

I'M EXPECTING A TOUGH POMPEY TEST

I WENT to watch Portsmouth play at Burton at the weekend and it was a very strong display from the home-side.

Portsmouth kept on changing things around and local lad Ricky Holmes must have played three or four different positions.

He played on the wing, just behind the front man and up front as well and ended up looking a bit confused.

But we certainly saw enough from Portsmouth to know it will be another tough test against them this weekend.

OUR DEVELOPMENT GAMES FULL OF GOALS

OUR development games certainly seem to full of excitement at the moment.

Having already been beaten 6-4, we had a 5-4 defeat to Dagenham on Tuesday and we’ve been winding ex centre-back Graham Coughlan up about the defensive record!

However, Graham is extremely contentious with the way he takes charge of the development matches and I’m sure he will be sitting down with one or two of the youngsters and going through the DVD with them.

I used to the game to have a look who might be ready to come in to the first team, especially after Ben Coker got injured.

There were one or two promising signs but it is the fact we conceded five goals that is most in my mind and maybe more of the youngsters aren’t quite ready to be involved just yet.