Howarth's Way: Have we improved in a year? I'm saying, Definitely Maybe

FOUR points from the last two games is a reasonable return, and apart from Gillingham at the top of the table, the rest of the division is fairly close.

Although we are 11th in the table we are only four points behind second so we are not too badly placed.

It would be good to extend our unbeaten run of a couple games and if we do we will obviously keep our points total ticking over. That would help us move further towards where we want to be in the table.

I don't think we have quite clicked into top gear yet but we will be working hard to improve a couple of percentage points.

Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk

myprint-247

View details

Print voucher

Our heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.

Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk

Contact: 01858 468192

Valid until: Sunday, May 26 2013

Following on from our Oxford victory we had the long journey up to York to contend with.

York have done very well getting promotion from the Blue Square Bet Premier when there was a handful of teams in that division who you may have expected to have more of a chance of a return to the Football League.

They have started the season fairly well and have shown that they are a decent team.

They played their midweek game against Burton Albion on Wednesday night which gave the gaffer and me a chance to go watching them first-hand rather than having to rely on a scouting report.

We left the game fairly impressed and despite them ultimately being beaten they certainly caused Burton plenty of problems.

On the match itself I thought we did well enough without being quite at our best.

We have spoken in the past about the importance of picking points up even when we don't play the best we can, and I thought we dug in and deserved our clean sheet.

We also created a couple of good chances which on another day would have hit the back of the net but overall I thought a draw was a fair result.

We were given the green light to travel to York on the Friday which considering that it took us over four hours to get to our destination was definitely the right thing to do.

We were lucky enough to train at Leeds United's training ground on Friday afternoon before continuing our journey to our hotel. As has become customary on overnight stays, the new members of the squad had to introduce themselves to the rest of their new teammates by singing a little song for us.

I thought it would have been a good idea for Connor Roberts, Billy Jones, Darren Carter, Chris Zebroski, Sam Deering and Shaun Harrad to form a boy band and belt out one of those type of numbers which may have disguised any blemishes in their respective voices, but no, they were all keen enough to stand up individually, with a banana for a microphone and give us all their best.

Chris Zebroski "lost that lovin' feelin" and I will never be able to listen to Oasis again without seeing Shaun Harrad wearing a blond wig, but overall the standard wasn't as bad as I have heard in the past.

Last season Sido Jombati sung the Portuguese National anthem and had a tear in his eye, so in comparison Sam Deering singing the theme song, and forgetting the words to, Only Fools and Horses was not quite as emotional!

We also had a little quiz for an hour on the Friday night which the lads really look forward to!

But it never ceases to amaze me how some of the louder characters we have in the squad who we can never keep quiet all of a sudden lose their tongue when asked a basic general knowledge question.

The team were split up into teams which were organised by what position they played. The losing team would be punished with a forfeit that means they have to wash the dishes we use for lunch after training for the next three weeks.

Although I didn't fancy Scott Brown and Connor Roberts to do particularly well as they had only had Steve Book helping them in their team, it was left to the defenders and strikers to fight it out at the end of the competition with a sudden death question to see who would be donning the marigolds.

Congratulations to the defenders who got closest to the answer of 14st 2lbs pounds when asked "how heavy is our kit man John Atkinson?"