Right, just to get our priorities in order this morning, I would firstly like to offer my congratulations to Nathaniel Clyne, who yesterday was awarded the Championship Player of the Month award for October, following his "pivotal", (Peter Beagrie's word not mine) performances following his return from injury a few weeks ago.
If anything it just goes to show what a positive league position can do to the media perception of our club, that Nathaniel should be been given this award now, when we happen to find ourselves in the play-off places, instead of last season, when he was arguably performing to a better standard but we were languishing near the bottom of the table.
In other club news, Anthony Gardner has been speaking about how he was pleased at the way the supporters took to him after he eventually decided to commit himself to playing in SE25 on a permanent basis in the summer:
"It took a bit of time for me to decide what I was doing and I'm thankful for the way the supporters have been with me. I know it may have looked like I didn't want to come and play for the club but you can see from my performances that I'm committed to it, like I was last year. I want to thank them for being behind me. Their backing makes it a lot easier. That goes for the support they have shown all of the boys. It's enjoyable to play in front of them and that's only going to bode well for the team. I feel fit and fresh. I had to play a bit of catch-up. I just hope I don't pay for that come March time when the season goes into a key stage."
Anthony's comments go to show that what gets discussed amongst supporters really can have an effect on players. Whilst there was no hiding the fact that his indecisiveness in signing up to the club permanently in pre-season angered a section of our supporters, it was not an issue you would assume would have played on Gardner's mind once he had put pen to paper on a deal.
In truth, the reaction to him, as he says himself, has been extremely positive, no doubt helped by the fact that his presence in the team has seen the partnership he formed with Paddy last season continue to grow and solidify with each passing week. This has lead most supporters to feel that the aforementioned duo are the best central defensive partnership available, despite the dependable performances from Alexander Tunchev in the early stages of the season when Gardner was still on the road back to full fitness.
There was also a piece in the Croydon Advertiser in which Wilf discussed his contentment at achieving the aim he set himself at the start of the season to get on the score-sheet more often:
"I'm really happy with my season so far having got five goals. Scoring goals is all I wanted. All I had in my head was just to score goals. Last season I played 40 games and I only scored one goal and my objective this season was to improve that tally. I have managed to get one or two important goals. That one against Brighton meant a lot to me and the fans obviously. It was such an intense game and to grab the equaliser then see us go on to win 3-1 was incredible."
It is great to see from Wilf's comments that he is feeling more comfortable with his game in general this season, having made it clear that he wasn't satisfied with only scoring once last season and being so driven to make sure he improved on that this term.
It is a well-known fact that attacking players thrive on confidence, and without a doubt, the goals Wilf has scored for us this season in the Carling Cup, away at Watford and, most importantly, away at Brighton will have given him the belief to know that he can do it every week. You only have to have seen his face as he sprinted towards the touch line with Paddy following the equalising goal at The Amex to know that the flood gates were about to open for him in terms of scoring, and both he and the club as a whole are now reaping the rewards.
In terms of the team for today's game against Cardiff, the only major news to report is that the trio of rested players from Tuesday, Mile Jedinak, Jon Williams and Sean Scannell are all in line for a return to the side as we go in search of our fourth consecutive away win, and our ninth consecutive game unbeaten.
Cardiff is an extremely tough place to go, but we couldn't be going into the game in much better form, especially on the defensive side of things, so with that in mind let's hope that Dougie and the boys can return from Wales with all three points safely in their possession, then we really could start to dream.
Until Monday...
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