WE face a huge game on Saturday against Crawley Town and we've a score to settle after they beat us 4-0 back in August.

On the day we were disappointing but you have to give them credit too because they were excellent.

Revenge will no doubt be in the air at St George's Lane but more importantly they are above us in the table and victory would not only give us three points but take points off one of our chief competitors.

It's been a rollercoaster season to date as we approach the festive programme but if we can pick up some good results over Christmas and New Year it can put us in good stead for the final third of the campaign.

Despite being far from convincing we are hanging in there and perhaps this year we can achieve a good finish and do the reverse of what we've done in recent years where our seasons have tailed off.

One thing is clear with us though and that is that it's dangerous to ever say we've cracked it.

At various points this season we've had results that suggested they would be a turning point and a base to build from only to see the good work go up in smoke as it did against Sutton on Monday following a gritty display at Eastbourne.

It was a poor performance and there are no excuses for it.

The Dr Martens League Cup carries with it pitfalls in terms of how motivated players and teams are for it but in our case we want to win it.

I know some clubs have fielded weakened sides in the competition with some managers probably not too unhappy to go out of it as quickly as possible but that is not the case for us. We're desperate to win it.

Saturday's result at Eastbourne was very encouraging but after Monday I was left scratching my head again.

With some of our bigger names not producing the goods it made it difficult for young Dan Parker who came in for the injured Allan Davies at right back.

Dan's waited patiently for an opportunity but he's done most of his training in Ray Woods' academy set up as a centre back and not right back.

He's a super lad and it would be unfair to judge him when he's played in an unfamiliar position.

For the rest though I want to start seeing more consistency. I'm not interested in players that deliver 9/10 performances one week in so many and then drop down to 3/10 and 4/10 displays.

I'd sooner have a straight 7/10 week in, week out because you know where you are with them.

One player who does that is Jon Holloway who had a little setback a week ago but is hoping to put in a full training session tomorrow night and if it all goes well I would like to utilise him against Crawley.

We need his kind of character and commitment in the dressing room.