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Every Friday, Town Assistant Manager Peter Shirtliff keeps you updated on the week's goings on at The County Ground.

Today he reflects on another productive week's training, and looks forward to a meeting his former club on Saturday.....

We had a little hiccup on Saturday with the draw against Southend, but if someone had offered us four points out of the matches against Leeds and Southend then I think we would have taken them.

So it's important we don't get too disappointed. It was a bit unfortunate with a few of the things that happened during the game, and we could have been three or four up by half time, but we've got to put that to bed and move on the Charlton game - for which we've been preparing this week.

It wasn't necessarily a case of picking the boys up on MONDAY because they were still good spirits, but they were a little bit tired having had a massive game against Leeds the previous week, and then the tough match at Roots Hall on Saturday.

We still got a lot of good work done on what was quite a solid surface at the training ground, as the temperature dropped quite dramatically at the start of the week.

We decided to give the players a rest on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY this week as opposed to just the usual one day off.

Obviously a lot went in to the Leeds and Southend matches, and with the training pitches being so heavy at the moment, we decided to take the opportunity to give them a break, especially considering the fixture pile up that is on its way.

The lads that didn't play on Saturday played in the reserves, but unfortunately that was called off at half time because of a frozen pitch, which was disappointing because it would have a good chance for them to get some game time.

As for Danny and I, we were off watching a couple of different matches. Danny went scouting to Walsall to watch their match against Charlton, and I was off at a reserve game watching a couple of players.

They said...

It's such a long time since I was there.....it is a totally different place so to me it is just another game......

Shirtliff on his Charlton connection

I managed to have a bit of time off on Wednesday, which was a nice luxury to have, as it was a good opportunity to recharge the batteries, because we're going to be very busy between now and the run-in.

We had a good session on THURSDAY, and the lads looked nice a fresh again, which hopefully they can take into the Charlton game on Saturday.

There was a little bit of everything for the players during this session and it was a little bit harder than it normally is simply because they'd had the days off.

We did a lot of sharp and intensive play especially, and it was quite a varied session, and the lads got a lot out of it which was good.

There will be some work done on FRIDAY on team play and the like, ready for the visit of Charlton tomorrow.

The pitch will be soft and heavy again, which is a shame because the surface at The County Ground is absolutely superb and we haven't got that sort of pitch to train on week in week out, but at the end of the day there aren't many teams at our level that do.

We're looking forward to getting back to winning ways tomorrow, with one of my former sides Charlton Athletic the visitors to The County Ground, but to me it's just another game.

It's such a long time since I was there - it was '86 to '89 I think so there's hardly anyone there I remember, apart from one or two of the directors, so it's just a totally different place and it's just another match as far as I'm concerned.

We've got two home games in a short space of time now, with Oldham on Tuesday night , and I'm confident we can get a couple of good results from them, and continue this excellent run of form we're on, especially at home.

See you there,

Peter Shirtliff