OUR Third Division honeymoon is now well and truly over -- Blackpool made sure of that!

But when we got down to training again yesterday there didn't seem to be a particularly big hangover from last Friday's 4-1 defeat against the Seasiders at Aggborough.

All the players want to do is put it behind them and get back on track as fast as possible -- starting with this Friday's home clash with high-riding Rochdale.

They all realised that whatever Blackpool did came together and we didn't do as well as we could have.

I think you can worry yourself sick after a result like that but the best thing to do is let it go and say we were beaten by a better team on the night.

We just have to get on with it now and make sure we learn from what was a very tough lesson. We'd been waiting for the first really outstanding Third Division team this season -- and I think we saw them on Friday!

But now we've got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and prepare for what will be another severe test against Rochdale who are second in the table because of their impressive away record.

I think it's fair to say that we knew the stiff challenges presented by Third Division football would come at some stage -- and believe me it's arrived now.

I feel certain people, whether inside or outside the club, were trying to run before they could walk.

We tried to tell them it was going to be difficult and prior to the Blackpool game we said they had too many good players to be second from bottom. And they certainly showed that!

Rochdale are a very good Third Division side and, if we are not at our best, we'll get beaten again. I've watched our match against Blackpool on video again and we played our part in an entertaining game but individual mistakes cost us goals.

But how can you legislate for that -- you can't. You can work until you are blue in the face on the training ground, but if people make errors then it's going to cost you dearly.

Some people said to me afterwards that we have got big problems, but I don't agree. We are where we expected to be. You are only as good as your last game but, all in all, we are reasonably pleased with 15 points from ten matches.

There could possibly have been another couple of points in some of the games, but there were others where we thought we could have lost.

We know, though, that we have to improve on what we have shown particularly if we have any aspirations of being somewhere near the top.

I'm still convinced the goals will start to come from Tony Bird because he does get one or two chances every game -- let's hope it's only a matter of time. But Stewart Hadley has gone off the boil and we are still waiting for Ian Foster to come back from injury.

Before I wrap up this week's column just a quick message to our fans -- keep backing us.

Of course we were all disappointed about the result on Friday as there was a fantastic opportunity for the club to show live on Sky what we can do.

Unfortunately, we came up against a very good side. The Cheltenham management team were here and they said Blackpool were the best team they had seen by a long way.

So it was no disgrace and we want the fans to continue to come and support us.

This is not the time to desert us. After all, you couldn't point the finger at any of my players and say they weren't trying.

There was a nice atmosphere on Friday considering that at one stage in the second half we were losing 4-0.

Our fans tried to be as vocal as the Blackpool supporters so that was great.