I had no qualms about the game being called off because the heavy pitch was waterlogged in many places and the referee was concerned about the player's safety, so the club respect the referee's decision. However, the disappointing thing from our point of view was that many supporters had already left at around 8.30am and were about 90 minutes down the motorway on their way to Swansea when the game was called off.

Ideally, we would have liked the referee to inspect the pitch at 8.15am and if he felt that it needed a further inspection we would have accepted the decision. But, he could have looked at the pitch and maybe saved our supporters the time and cost of making such a long journey.

We were a bit disappointed with the Football League and their reaction to the decision, but it's now firmly in the past and I hope our supporters will forget about it and get behind us at the Abbey today.

We managed to get in a much-needed game against Exeter City on Tuesday and it was pleasing to progress to the next round of the Auto Windscreens Shield after a below-par performance. We were a bit rusty and it helped to blow our cobwebs away. We didn't play particularly well on the night and we were poor in terms of the football we played in windy conditions. Exeter made it hard for us on a heavy pitch and we never got our game going, but despite not playing well, we still created many chances.

I was particularly pleased with the penalties, as we scored five excellent spot-kicks and our goalkeeper, who was excellent all night, made the all-important saves.

We've now won our last eight matches at the Abbey and I've always said that good home form is vital to a successful team and I hope we can continue in the same vein today against a Chester side who are managed by an old friend, Kevin Ratcliffe.

Kevin has done a tremendous job at the Deva Stadium, as he did when I signed him as a player when I was manager of Derby County. It will be nice to see him again and I wish Kevin and the rest of the Chester City staff well this afternoon. They are another of the draw specialists in our division and like Torquay, who we played a few weeks ago, are sure to rnake life difficult for us.

This week has also seen the end of the Billy Beall saga and I'm pleased that the transfer has finally been resolved. It has taken most of the season to be sorted out and we are pleased with the tribunal's decision. The final fee should amount to around £50,000 once Billy has played the required number of games at Leyton Orient.

Finally, following on from the piece of who will finish as the U's top goalscorer this season I'd like to add that the three players in the race for the title, Trevor Benjamin, Martin Butler and John Taylor, have all been very positive in the way they've played recently and I just hope that they continue to score the goals which will lead us to promotion.

With Michael Kyd returning from injury, I feel that we will have a good line-up to choose from in the latter stages of the season, which will be vital if we are to maintain our promotion challenge. On the subject of who will finish top, I will hedge my bets and go for either Trevor or Martin!