IT'S been a good start to the season but we've had a roller-coaster seven days with the Crawley defeat leaving us a little shaken.

Prior to the Havant & Waterlooville game I would have settled for four wins and a draw from the opening six games - there's no question about that.

However the Crawley game might have affected us a little bit more than I realised.

You can take these games as a wake up call but on reflection I think it went a bit deeper than we thought and as a result against Hinckley United there was a bit of tension and fear in our approach and we didn't play particularly well.

The Crawley match was, for whatever reason, a very bad day. We just didn't get close enough all over the pitch and it also highlighted a persistent problem which has been the fact we give the ball away too easily.

David Foy and Pat Lyons are the two men in our squad that are there to keep possession and certainly both will come into the reckoning on Saturday against Dorchester.

I would consider starting with David because as we saw against Hinckley when he came on that we keep the ball better.

Pat was on the bench for the first time on Monday night but after reserve games the previous Thursday and Saturday, including extra time, he was a little tired but we had him there just in case we needed him for a spell.

Against Hinckley we asked the lads to get the ball in behind their defence for the first 20 minutes to help us establish position in the game but it was taken a little bit too literally with a few too many long balls.

Ultimately it wasn't that good a performance but we showed character to bounce back and take the points after Saturday's defeat.

Carl Heeley was the only change for the Hinckley match, coming back in for the injured Barry Woolley.

The one thing about Carl is that he will never let you down. He started tentatively, probably due to the fact he was a little rusty from lack of matches , but actually got stronger.

Barry meanwhile showed a lot of courage on Saturday playing as it turned out with two cracked ribs picked up in the opening minutes but he's another that will bite on the bullet for you.

He insisted he was alright at half time but I suspected he might have done something like that and now we just have to hope Barry can heal quickly.

I don't know how long ribs take to heal but we want to get him back as soon as possible because he's had a pretty good start to the season but there is still more to come from him.

One player who we won't be seeing at St George's Lane, apart from with Bath City when they visit, is Mitch Counsell who left last week.

Keeping a squad of players happy when you've got quality and quantity is all part and parcel of a manager's job and it's part of management practise.

Mitch wasn't pushed out, in fact far from it, I would have gladly had him stay with us because he was a valued member of the squad.

I totally understood his situation about wanting to play more regularly but just thought it was worth him giving it a little bit more time.

There had been improvement in his play, and though I felt he still had further to go there were opportunities here for him.

However looking at it from his point of view he could see John Snape, David Foy, Darren Middleton, Adam Wilde, Pat Lyons and Adam Webster in midfield and thought his chances of playing reguarlarly would be limited.