ALTHOUGH we are in the middle of a period of more than two weeks without a match, life still goes on as normal at the football club.

We get a lot of requests at the club, for example for players to go out and visit schools to make presentations, and we also get inquiries about use of the ground.

We try to support disabled football and one of the letters we have received asks if we would be prepared to stage the final and closing ceremony of a European multi-disabled championship at Edgar Street later on in the season. We're now talking to the organisers to see what we can work out.

It's all part of the club's role within the community and to emphasis this we have now taken on another full-time football in the community officer. We are now working with over 60 schools throughout city and county.

The office staff have also been busy with enquiries for tickets for the forthcoming match against Shrewsbury and for the gala dinner at the Three Counties Hotel on February 19 when former world champion boxer John Conteh will be the guest speaker.

Anyone wanting tickets should call the club on 01432 276666 or visit the office in Blackfriars Street.

Tickets will also soon go on sale for our match with Chester on the last day of the season. If anything is at stake on that day, then the early sale of tickets will give our regulars the chance to get their place without getting caught up in the rush.

This has shown the advantage of our monthly liaison committee meetings for it was that committee which suggested getting the tickets out early for those games.

When we realised that we were going to have a blank period between games this month, Richard O'Kelly and I worked out a programme for the players. This involved a certain amount of weekend work and a private practice match at Oxford so that all the pros could get involved in some part of the action.

There has also been a more intense mixture of endurance work, ball work and power work with weights.

It's been unusual, rather like a mini mid-season break, so we have to be ready with recharged batteries, rather than ring rusty, for the trip to Scarborough next Tuesday.

But these players are as enthusiastic a group as I have ever worked with and, whether it's the hard work of running to keep up their endurance or ball work, they just adopt the same attitude to everything they are asked to do.