IT seems I caused a few raised eyebrows when it was announced who would be in goal for us in Saturday's game with Cheltenham.

With Stuart Brock starting a three-match suspension for being sent off in the recent match with Swansea, most people thought that our number two Brendan Murphy would be between the posts.

Everybody knows now, of course, that I decided to bring in Eric Nixon, who is a goalkeeping coach at Tranmere Rovers.

When your first choice keeper is suspended I admit it would suggest that the next in line gets a call-up. But I just felt we needed something else. We needed experience -- and that's what we got.

I know Eric well, but apart from that he's a very good goalkeeper and he's experienced. I think we saw that on Saturday and he couldn't have done any more than he did.

He came for a couple of crosses and made the one save he had to make. He also organised his defence well and there was never any panic or misunderstandings. Everybody knew what they were doing.

My decision to bring him in, of course, begs the question of whether Murphy will ever get his chance. And you can never say never in this business, but obviously we have brought in Eric to help us with this particular spell while Brock is out.

What happens if a similar situation arises again I don't know, but I hope that puts people in the picture over my reasons.

Since Saturday we have been reflecting on our performance against Cheltenham and I thought we played OK. We dominated the first half, but there's still the last little bit missing -- the goals.

But, as I said after the Shrewsbury and Swansea defeats, we just need to be solid for a little bit longer.

Whereas in the past we have been waiting for one game to change the season around, I don't think that will happen, so we have to be solid.

In the last two matches against Macclesfield and Cheltenham we have never really looked like conceding a goal. Cheltenham had one effort on Saturday and that was it really, so that's good. But we still want to offer more going forward.

We tried to do that at Shrewsbury and got beaten 4-0 so we have got to be careful. It's a catch 22 situation.

As it stands right now we are only two points off tenth place and had we won on Saturday that's exactly where we would have been.

But, obviously, we have got to start winning games soon although, as I say, we want to be solid and improve.

Colin Larkin is staying with us for another month from Wolves, but I don't want to put too much pressure on him.

He's only 19 and not only is it beneficial for him to get some League experience, I also think he's beneficial for us because he's a handful.

He puts defenders under pressure and he can also play a bit. There's more to his game than just pace, but I think it's unfair to put all the scoring responsibilities on his shoulders.

There are other older strikers and none of them have scored yet. Hopefully they will tonight when we visit Doncaster in the LDV Vans Trophy.

JAN MOLBY was talking to reporter CHRIS OLDNALL.