The latest example of co-operation by the club is the presentation of a 'Player of the Month' certificate each month. Since Will Jones thought of the idea, a different voter each month has presented awards to Shaun Marshall (October), John Taylor (November and February), Alex Russell (December) and Martin Butler (January). Graham Eales arranges for the voter to be in the Harris Suite after the next home game and photographs the presentation for U's Net. From the feedback received it seems the players appreciate the awards and really enjoy reading the selection of voters' comments.

The Abbey Arms chat room received the known first visit from a professional footballer on the night after the Exeter game, although unfortunately he was not a Cambridge United player! Mike Blythe, a young pro from Hull City, joined in the conversation as several jubilant Us were celebrating the fact that we had gone to the top of the division. Mike had been an unused substitute that afternoon for Hull and was looking forward to being involved in their squad for the visit to Cambridge on the following Tuesday. Accurately, he warned that Gary Brabin and Justin Whittle were the Hull players to watch for, said that the spirit in their camp was good and they were confident of staying up, and wished us well in our bid for promotion.

The week of the Hull game, in which we were at the top of the table for the first time all season, saw some incredible visitor statistics for U's Net. It was the busiest week since the site started nearly three years ago and the 'unique' (as opposed to repeat visits the same day) visits exceeded 650 per day for three days in a row. If repeat visits are included, the stats show that the front page of the site was accessed something like 6,800 times last week! The week also saw the landmark 150,000th visitor to the site, Lee Murphy of Cambridge.

Some of the visitors were Cardiff fans who headed straight for the message board to tell us in no uncertain terms that we were only keeping the top spot warm for them. They were generally answered with the sort of reasoned banter and wit that makes our board one of the most varied and interesting to visit, unlike some where fans of other clubs are greeted with abuse and told to depart.

Something I noticed on the Cardiff board last week is that they now have a director who is prepared to read the messages and answer fans' questions. Last year Steve Greenall on the U's Net board and Mike Bateson, the Torquay owner who uses their web site, were the only club officials I had seen using the Internet to get directly involved with fans on this informal basis. With Steve continuing that practice at Norwich, Gary Harwood posting on our board and now Mr Borley on the unofficial Cardiff site, it seems to be a growing - and welcome - phenomenon.