THIS week has been a tough one for me with four friends of mine passing away and I’d love to get a win for them against Mansfield this afternoon.

Fans probably don’t think about players having things happening in their lives that might affect them on the pitch and sometimes it can be difficult.

I will certainly be thinking about the four guys who have left us if we have a minute’s silence before today’s match and even during the match if I’m involved.

The first one I want to mention is Cllr Ron Jones – someone I knew very well and so did a lot of other people in Newport.

He was a good friend of the family and I was talking to him at the Pill Carnival not so long ago. He was in good spirits and he was an avid follower of the club. He’ll be missed by a lot of people.

Chris Carvell died abroad recently and I know he was a big County fan in the 1980s and 1990s. He was only 46 or 47.

And John Breads, a close friend of mine, suffered from cancer for a long time and the only comfort we can take is that he is at least out of his suffering now.

All his friends will remember him fondly and we’ll never forget all the good times we had with him.

And last but not least is Philip ‘Dicky’ Waite, who was also a good friend of mine. I carried his brother Viv’s coffin ten years ago.

He was a big County fan as well and a great friend. He’s got a young family and it’s hard on his missus, Amanda, who’s been left behind after a sudden death.

It was a blood clot and it is just really sad. It hits home with me because me and Pipey had a photo done with Philip, Amanda and their baby at the open day we did before the start of the season.

It just shows how valuable life is and as a club we’re all thinking about the families who have lost people.

That kind of thing puts football into perspective but life goes on and we have the usual concerns about injuries.

Andy Sandell will be a big miss for us because he’s been superb ever since he came into the side.

He’s a great left wing-back and his set-pieces are second to none.

We’re going to miss him but Ryan Jackson came in last week and did really well on the left at Scunthorpe and hopefully he can carry that on and save the gaffer from spending money on wages in the loan market.

We’ve got two home games now against Mansfield today and Morcambe next Saturday and if we can win them then it will set us up brilliantly for the local derby at Exeter in a few weeks that everyone is looking forward to.

Another one struggling with an injury is Christian Jolley and he has been doing a very unselfish thing for the team, one that us players really appreciate.

Hopefully he can get a few more goals before Aaron O’Connor returns and then he can have his operation.

Christian has been taking it easy away from training this week because we need him for games but Azza won’t be too far away and it will be great to have them both fully fit and firing as soon as possible.

That is the kind of kid Christian is and that is the kind of people we need – people who put the club ahead of themselves – and that is why we’ve got such a great team spirit.

Personally I’m feeling better with every game now. I played a reserve match against Exeter and came through that fine.

That also gave me the chance to get to know our new signing Ryan Burge as well and it was good. He’s a nice lad and he looks good technically so hopefully he can add something else to the midfield and ramp up the competition for places.

He and Tom Naylor will have to sing us a song at some point because Tom didn’t perform at Scunthorpe.

There were a lot of other guests and functions at our hotel so we had to respect them and not be too rowdy.

But there’s no hiding place for them and if they think they’ve got away with it then they’ve got another thing coming!

Finally I also wanted to mention an event I went to in Chepstow last week with our new community development officer Norman Parselle.

We attended a kids football tournament up there and it’s good to see the club forging links and hopefully building the fanbase around the county.