The John Barton column

WE ended the year on a high with a brilliant last minute winner against Weymouth to send us into the New Year with our third win in four matches.

The aim for the rest of the season has to be to try and improve on our points tally and position from last year. I must admit I was disappointed with our finish last season having got to 50 points fairly quickly we then petered out at the end and ended with 62.

We had put everything into winning the Dr Martens League Cup but it did take a lot out of us.

This time round I think we are capable of notching up a points' tally in the late 60s. We are roughly averaging one-and-a-half points a game but I think you need to be taking two points a game to be seriously contesting the outcome of the championship and even that is not enough to guarantee you success. It was a great win at Weymouth but unfortunately it doesn't cancel out the previous 22 games. I'm confident that if we had a full squad to chose from we could have been challenging.

As a result of the injuries we have not made the progress we were hoping to make so far this season but with the recent signings I can see, for the first time, some sort of shape taking place to the squad. We needed new blood and we've done that but it doesn't stop - the process is ongoing.

One thing I am pleased about is the quality of players I've got. At this level I know that if any were available for transfer the phone would be ringing non-stop.

The Weymouth win in many respects summed up our season to date. I thought we were poor in the first half but in the second half we just showed what we could do and the threat we could have been to the top sides.

I hate to keep going back to it but we haven't had a chance to realise our full potential yet because of the injury situation.

As poorly as we played first half their keeper had to make three great saves. Losing Allan Davies and Mark Shepherd and being without Leon Jackson meant we had to change the side and we looked like we might concede two or three goals.

But we got through half time just one behind and were always in the game and started the second half with exactly the right response.

Weymouth were unhappy with the Darren Bullock penalty but I talked to one of their players afterwards and he thought it was a foul. The goal gave us belief and then Bullock hit a screamer of a cross which was just crying out for somebody to get on the end of.

Stewart Hadley deserved the goal and his ability to hold the ball and bring other players into match, which enables us to spend more time in the final third of the pitch, has been priceless.