Since that game, however, I have looked at the video and I think that we played some good football. What we didn't do was take our chances when they came and when we got into good positions to cross, the quality of our crosses were poor.

But we took heart from that performance and that lifted us for the game at Cardiff which we won 1-0. Our immediate response was to improve on our good away record and I thought we deservedly won the game. At times we looked a little bit edgy and nervous but once we weathered the storm, we had a good back-end to the first half which left us on top. The second half showed that we were much the better team. We were compact.

Even though Martin Butler missed a penalty, our spirits were never dampened and the old stalwart John Taylor popped one in right at the end. It's nice for the boot to be on the other foot for a change, because often we are in the situation of losing late goals.

Halifax was a very exciting game and I was pleased with the result. They are a team that can hit you on the break and I can see how they can score goals with their front two. We had to have our wits about us for that game and the sad thing is that we lost two of our goals because we had two people off the pitch - Paul Wanless and John Taylor - who had a nasty head collision.

Paul has had to have five stitches and John had to have six, but both of them are still keen to play against Shrewsbury. Although we had to make changes, I think we showed a lot of character because we were down twice in the game, but we stuck at it and the quality of our goals were as good as you'll see in any Division.

As for our visitors today, I have been watching them and have been quite impressed. They have picked up six points by winning their last two home games. Without doubt it will be a hard game. They are a compact team and I was surprised with their position in the League. We will have to believe in ourselves and will have to improve on the quality of our decision-making and crossing. I feel certain though that we can score goals on the back of the Halifax game and one thing I really want us to do is make our home record as good as our away record.

Ian Ashbee is back, after coming on as substitute at Halifax and hopefully Michael Kyd will be back today and Trevor Benjamin serves the last game of his suspension today.

As for the future, I am looking forward to playing Nottingham Forest. I am looking at it as relaxation and a break from the normal day-to-day football. We have proven that we can knock teams out of this competition from higher divisions and, therefore, I feel we have got a chance of going through.