AFTER nine games in a month, it’s good to get back to some sort of normality with a Saturday afternoon at Shrewsbury Town after a free week.

Oxford fans will have happy memories of our last trip there at the end of last season, where Gavin Whyte was unplayable and scored a hat-trick to keep our remarkable form going.

Can we go on a similar run this time?

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Well, we have made a decent start with four wins in a row, but there are easier places to go than Shrewsbury.

I know their manager, Sam Ricketts, will be desperate to get one over us because he started out at United.

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There is always a story like that – next week we play my old team Milton Keynes Dons at home.

Then we have two games against promotion rivals to look forward to – a sold out away end at Wycombe Wanderers, before we end the month against a Portsmouth side in great form in front of what will be close to another sell out, I’m sure.

That’s genuinely exciting for all of us, but I want to call for a little calm.

I heard a Liverpool fan ring in after they lost to Chelsea in midweek saying ‘we’ve blown it!’.

Obviously they haven’t, but people get carried away.

I’m sure you’ll agree that I’ve been pretty consistent in my message all season, haven’t I?

If we win today then people will be jumping around and talking about the Championship, but if we lose then people will say we have blown it!

That sort of thinking won’t be happening on the bus back tonight, or at the training ground in the coming days.

All we will do is start again and get ready for the next challenge.

We will hopefully do that with Ben Woodburn and John Mousinho in the squad.

Both are due to be with us today and if all goes to plan we will have a behind closed doors friendly next week where everyone will be involved, because at last we should just about have two players fit for every position.

That is a very healthy position to be in right now and every one of those will have a role to play before the end of the season.

This week we had a visit from Paul Konchesky, who was a terrific player and now works for West Ham United.

He came down to the training ground to see how Nathan Holland is getting on during his loan.

It’s not just about how he is doing on the pitch, but also to have a chat and check he is OK with life here and in this group.

Nathan is doing really well, so it was a nice easy visit for Paul.

We do a similar thing with the players we have out on loan.

Rob Hall is at Forest Green Rovers, but there are also a lot of our younger players gaining experience.

Chrissy Allen and the coaches are usually busy on a Saturday or in midweek watching their games and we get videos of matches to see how they play.

Our loanees at Oxford City – Kevin Berkoe, Nico Jones and Kyran Lofthouse – have a new manager in David Oldfield.

I’d like to congratulate David on his appointment and I’m sure we will meet up soon to discuss football on both sides of the city.