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09 august 2001
Looking strong for Birmingham.

Another great result Saturday just gone and we are looking strong and solid going into the first test against Birmingham.

David Connolly looks unstoppable and he's finishing everything at the moment. Neil Shipperley seems to linking well with him and Patrick and David Nielsen are also chomping at the bit for Saturday.

Shipps has a slight hamstring problem and has missed training this week, speaking to him yesterday he is confident of being fit and hopes to train Thursday. Trond has also been treated for hamstring tightness but is not as bad as Shipps and I think he'll definitely start on Saturday. The team will be interesting with the gaffer having 35 plus to choose from, everyone has been working hard and hopefully it's gonna pay of in a big way this season.

The boys have been concentrating solely on the football and trying to put the other issues aside for now, I've had a few mails from fans saying they are still right behind the team and manager which is of vital importance if we are going to get promoted this season.

Photo call yesterday and it was the biggest one I've ever been involved in. I think over 40 players were on the main picture not to mention staff, so it was a bit of a squeeze believe me. There was even 4 players without seats having to crouch in front of the front row if you know what I mean. There was the usual messing peoples hair up antics going on but we got through it all pretty quick.

Injury front now, and things are pretty much the same.

Dean Blackwell is closest to joining in again and he's over at the Bank of England most days running with Steve Allen.

Kenny Cunningham was also over there at the start of the week but had slight discomfort in his groin when kicking the ball so he's been pulled back slightly, only a few days hopefully.

Damien Francis is looking strong as ever and he will be raring to go soon. He's made remarkable progress and will be back ahead of schedule all being well. It was a good move by the physio team to send Damo to Austria to have his operation done by one of the best knee specialists in the world.

Lionel is doing well too but still will be out for at least 4 more weeks.

Andreas Lund has begun gentle running this week and Kjetil is still waiting for a very slight stress fracture, on the same leg he broke, to clear up.

I've been trying to get back running but still getting sore after a while, the ankle does improve with time but I am going to have to wait till I'm pain free till I can get back into it, hopefully next week I'll be talking about training again instead of things going on in the medical room.

Spoke to Des today, for those who don't know, Des is on loan for a month at Cambridge United with one of my old managers John Beck. He isn't going to feature in the first game of the season but is hoping to get involved in the games after that. I think it'll do Des the world of good and he'll come back with first team games under his belt and some confidence. I'm sure he won't be the first player to be loaned out this season, especially with the size of squad we have.

Music shop on Tuesday for me Trond and Chris! I bought myself a digital piano to practice on at home- the lessons are going okay but the difficulty will come when the left hand has to play at the same time as the right hand, god help my teacher!! Trond bought an effects sender for his guitar and Chris was looking fondly on a new set of drums but decided against it in the end. Rehearsals have been few and far between during pre season but we should get back in the swing of things now the season is getting underway.

Speaking of music I will be making another CD for the dressing room this year with some new tracks on, mixture of garage(not my cup of tea) soul and rock, not necessarily in that order!

Hope to see you all at the game Saturday.

Cheers,

Gareth.