WE were up at the crack of dawn for the 7am coach from the Macron for the early kick-off at Swindon.

For once the motorways were clear with the only queue being for the full English breakfast at a packed Strensham services.

As we approached the County Ground we encountered Swindon’s Magic Roundabout, five mini roundabouts around an anti-clockwise sixth roundabout. Our drivers enjoyed it so much, they had multiple goes at it.

At the ground, we were invited into the Bar 71, reserved for away fans only. It is named after the year in which the Arkells stand was built.

It was a bit basic but the Arkells bitter went down well. All the talk was about stopping the slide in form and getting back on track. But where were the goals going to come from? Tom Thorpe came in for Liam Trotter as the only change.

The lads worked hard and put in one of the best away performances for a long time.

We dominated play and the defence comfortably dealt with anything Swindon threw at us.

Mark Howard had very little to do. At the other end, we created multiple chances with their goalkeeper, Lawrence Vigouroux deservedly getting the man-of-the-match award, single-handedly keeping us at bay with at least four great one-on-one saves.

We cunningly solved our goal-scoring problem as we got Swindon to score our goal and we almost felt sorry for poor Lawrence, who was understandably distraught at the end.

Naturally we celebrated a just reward for a great performance.

In football, you are as good as your last match.

So in that respect, we are back in business.

Phil Parkinson is building a team that can compete at this level. The defence is looking tighter than it’s been for years and not giving much away.

The midfield is developing and it was a much more positive display from them. It’s up front where we are struggling at the moment.

The effort is there; we’re getting into goalscoring situations but none of the forwards have discovered their touch yet this season.

I look forward to when they do and maybe the bit of luck with the goal on Saturday might be the turning point.

It certainly restored the confidence of the fans. Let’s hope it has restored the confidence of the team.

Come on Ken, sort our finances now.