THE GAFFER

Ross Jenkins

Welcome back as we take on Leamington in another important league game. I'd like to offer a warm welcome to everyone from Leamington this afternoon. In this league where we are covering so many miles it's almost a local derby!

It's important that we get a positive result today after two incredibly frustrating games, at home to Southport and then away at Bedford on Tuesday night.

The Southport game was the first time this season where I've really had to spell things out to the players at half time. We were poor in the first half and for once lacked our usual energy. Did we deserve to be a goal down at the break? Probably not but we hadn't created chances and we demanded much much more after the break. Then we got caught by a sucker punch and conceded a second straight after half time. We started playing after that and got back to 2-1 but this is a tough league and you have to start every game in the right fashion.

We did that at Bedford and dominated so much of the game. The stats show that we had over 70% of possession and more shots on target than the home side, but once again we came away with nothing despite a much better performance. There were positives, plenty of them even in defeat but now it is up to us to take those good things and turn them into three points. We are starting to get one or two players back from injury and if we can keep players fit and get into a rhythm then things can change pretty quickly, starting today.

Finally, a good luck message to our Women's team ahead of their big FA Cup game here tomorrow. It should be quite a game so it's up to us to set the tone with a win this afternoon.

ROSS

There is just no pleasing some people.

When we played Curzon Ashton I left home and carefully locked the door behind me. Ten minutes later I got a call from my wife. “Thanks for nothing” she said. “You locked me inside the house and I had to climb out through a window in my work clothes"

“Why do you have a window in your work clothes?” I asked, not really helping myself but enjoying the moment.  Readers, I will not give the current Mrs Williams the satisfaction of printing her reply as it was language she should not be proud of.

 Last Saturday I was more careful. I checked throughout the house and confidently locked the door, 100% sure she was not within. Well. How was I to know she hadn’t taken a key and that I had locked her out? How is that my fault? And yet, inevitably, it was. She spent the afternoon at her dad’s house and shall we just say that the atmosphere was a touch frosty when I finally got home? Lock her in, lock her out? Neither seems to keep her happy.

 To be brutally honest, I’ve done worse. One day I was going up to London to report on an FA Trophy Final at Wembley - Mansfield v Darlington. I was to interview fans, get on the pitch at the final whistle to capture the scenes and then Mansfield would use that footage for their Wembley Triumph DVD. Oh how we laughed when they lost and my entire day was for nothing.

 But it was still better than Mrs Williams’s afternoon. She gave me a lift to Haddenham Station, well, I drove, she was going to drive back. Except, in my haste, as I sprinted across the bridge and just got onboard as the doors closed, I had forgotten to hand the car keys over. Again, I question whether her forgetting her mobile phone WAS my fault, but I found her car keys as we passed  Beaconsfield Station.  Not my finest hour. 

Somehow, despite such minor tribulations we are still married after 30 years. The secret?  I think it’s because deep down she knows I mean well.

Each of those incidents happened on matchdays.I only have a tiny little brain and it gets full of football so no wonder I can’t function in real life. I am properly helpless, whether it’s home or away.

I become very distant, can't focus on anything else.  I have a  set routine: shave my head on a matchday, sit with an early coffee somewhere in Thame, check my day is clear, memorise my routine, start the #positivevibz, get my game face on.  How am I supposed to remember trivial matters like not locking people in or out of houses?

Head shaved. Doors checked. Game Face On. #Positivevibz