IT was good to bounce back to winning ways last Saturday after the Dereham defeat.Sam Thacker made his debut in goal and he was confident in his handling throughout.

IT was good to bounce back to winning ways last Saturday after the Dereham defeat.

Sam Thacker made his debut in goal and he was confident in his handling throughout. He made two really good saves in the first 20 minutes to keep us level.

We settled down more after that and two good goals from Russ and Nathan put us 2-0 up at half time. In the second half we were comfortable and had further chances to score, while looking solid in defence as we held on for a deserved three points.

It was good to keep a clean sheet after the Dereham game and it was more of a workmanlike display as James Cole returned to defence to add some strength as Ryan De Coteau was suspended.

On Tuesday night, for me, we then produced our best performance of the season as we continue to go forward. We had to rest Nathan Stone after he picked up a slight knock, so we moved Taz Grint further forward and that allowed Ryan to return at full back. The front three of Chris Henderson, Russell Stock and Taz were a handful all night in what was a really good team performance as we caused them problems throughout.

We got off to a really good start with an early goal then let them back into it by not closing down the ball quick enough for their equaliser, before we moved 3-1 up at half time with two well-worked goals.

But at 3-1 I felt it didn't reflect how well we'd played, and we told the lads this at half time while stressing to them the importance of not conceding an early goal.

Thereafter we created more chances in the second half and it was the right result in the end.

At the start of the season we'd told the lads about the importance of having a good start and putting right results from last season when the side had beaten the top teams but slipped up elsewhere.

Things are going the right way at the moment and apart from the Wroxham and Dereham games we've been moving in the right direction.

Apart from Rob Horton we'll be at full strength tomorrow for what is a massive game at St Ives. We have a few selection headaches but it is a nice problem to have!

They have an extremely good home record and it will be a really tough game tomorrow. But cup games are about performances on the day as form goes out of the window in this one-off tie.

We know they've not lost since defeat in their first two games of the season, but we are really looking forward to it.

Mark Boggis was speaking to Stewart Larter