FOLLOWING our 5-0 demolition of high-flying Oldham last Saturday, I watched the goals on Central TV on Sunday morning and the comment was: “Nobody could have seen this coming.”

While perhaps the emphatic scoreline was not foreseeable, I certainly thought that we were playing well enough in our recent matches that, sooner or later, the goals would start going in for us.

And fortunately it all happened against a side that humiliated us up at their place.

That situation just added a little more enjoyment to the events of Saturday afternoon.

Most pleasing of all was that the players finally got the reward for putting in a lot of hard work both on the training ground and in matches.

We have come off at times as gallant losers with people paying compliments to us for the style in which we have played. But, with no points, it can get very frustrating.

It can lead to a loss of confidence but fortunately the players have kept faith in each other and in themselves and they deserved all of the accolades that went to them after such an outstanding performance.

When we come to analyse that display, it was impressive in the amount of movement that we had, particularly from our front and wide players, and the pace that we played at.

In no way did five goals flatter us.

In fact I was disappointed that the scoreline was not even higher.

It was very briefly mentioned before the game that it was the start of the second half of the season and we now have grounds to believe what we have been talking about for some time. That is that we are good enough to survive in League 1.

There is always some conjecture about false dawns. What we have to make sure of is that we follow up with more victories and by picking up more good points, starting at Walsall on Saturday.

But, deep down, I’m sure supporters felt the same as we did, that we have put in some very good performances away from home and, if we continue to do that, there can be no cause for complaint.

We will not get carried away by the victory, we still need to strengthen the squad, we still need to keep working at the team shape and reminding players of their obligation to the team.

But the boost for everyone, players and supporters and staff alike, was as high as it could have got.