IT has been a tough week for me personally with a couple of funerals and I am very much hoping that the football today can put a smile back on my face.

We are now in the middle of September and after a fantastic pre-season, which I really needed after missing out a year before, it’s pretty gutting for me that I still haven’t started for County in the Football League.

I hope there is a chance that record ends today, because I’m fit and ready and Lee Minshull is suspended.

But the thing about us is that we have competition for every position in the team and I know I am not alone in hoping for a start.

Whether I play or not, the most important thing is that we as a team perform better than we did against Mansfield.

It was pleasing to not play well and not be beaten, but we know we were below our best last weekend and there is a desire within the team to improve and ensure we produce our best.

If we do that, few teams are going to outplay us, that’s my belief.

I don’t know too much about Morecombe other than the fact I don’t think we’ve played them before, but it’s clear from their league position that like Mansfield, they will arrive in good form and confidence.

We don’t want to keep harping back to the Mansfield game, but I am surprised to hear one of their players called us a rugby team on Twitter.

I am not on Twitter myself, but there is no way I’m having it that we don’t try and play good football.

Mansfield were very physical on Saturday and we had to match that, but if anything, we got too pre-occupied with that side of it and didn’t play our usual game well enough.

But I think there’s a case to say it’s the kind of game that we might have lost last season.

The camp remains extremely positive and though I wasn’t in training on Thursday because of Philip ‘Dickie’ Waite’s funeral, I know Billy Jones impressed the lads.

Billy is a good player and will give us a bit of a boost while Andy Sandell is out injured and it’s pleasing that the board have once again been able to support the manager.

I guess it helps that he has really earned their trust when it comes to judging players. I don’t think he’s got too many wrong in his time at the club.

I said it’s been a bit of a depressing week and that certainly hasn’t been helped by the fact I’m a proud Welshman and football fan.

Things haven’t gone well for the national team this week and that’s a real shame. Had I not been at a funeral I planned to go and watch the Serbia game on Tuesday and it’s fair to say I haven’t watched the game back.

By all accounts it was a really bad performance and it’s a shame that things have gone so pear shaped after the good results against Scotland.

But I don’t think its all doom and gloom, we’ve got some good players and that extends beyond Gareth Bale.

I thought Wales played well in Macedonia, a game I did get to watch and that could’ve easily gone either way. If Bale had been playing...

I wouldn’t be too critical of Chris Coleman, it’s time there was more long-term thinking at the FAW and I believe that’s been put in place.

I’ve seen first had doing my coaching qualifications with Osian Roberts that the future is in safe hands as he’s an incredibly sharp football mind.

For me it’s vital that the Wales set-up is working towards a plan and you don’t need to look too far to see the exact blueprint to try and follow, and that’s with Belgium.

Around 2001/2 they were nowhere and started putting long-term plans in place about their entire footballing philosophy and just look at them now. It’s not because of the great strength of the Belgium league is it?

While on Wales, I should quickly mention my very good mate from school, James Collins, who is involved in this spat with Chris Coleman.

I like Chris, I’ve met him and think he’s a good guy, but I think there has been a case of crossed wires.

I know James is exceptionally proud of playing for Wales and loves doing so, and you’d think with a small country like ours, while he’s playing well and in the Premier League, he still has a lot to offer his country.

Hopefully it’s a situation that will be resolved and he’ll be back involved in the next squad.