The manager and myself are making a quick return to Cheltenham this weekend after enjoying a day out at the racing festival last week.

Mind you, we’ll be arriving a bit differently for the match on Sunday. Last Wednesday 14 of us went to the races in a limousine, complete with flashing lights and karaoke.

We had a few winners but didn’t lose too much as we were only betting for fun. It is the enjoyment and atmosphere which we like best.

On the way back we had a sing-a-long and I completely outdid the manager, who hasn’t got the best of voices.

‘Sweet Caroline’ went down well but we couldn’t find any German songs for the gaffer to sing!

We are on the road back down to Cheltenham on Saturday and we are lucky that the Kings Ferry coach we use has Sky so we can watch the England-Wales match on board if we don’t make it to the hotel on time.

The game will certainly be an interesting one for Gillingham fans following Matt Jarvis’ call-up.

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It’s great news as he is a fabulous lad and deserves his chance. Our phones haven’t stopped ringing since with people asking about it.

It is good publicity for the club and great for the young talent out there to know that one day that could be them. The most important thing about Matt was that he had the right attitude.

During the close season, while most players were away on their holidays, Matt’s father would take him to the athletics track to do sprint training and work on his pace. I really do hope he gets on the pitch on Saturday because he is a lovely lad and the club wish him all the best, as do I personally. He could even be facing Andrew Crofts so it could make for great viewing.

Since Matt left we haven’t really replaced him. The nearest we have come is with Andy Barcham. He is quite similar to Jarvo, in that he started off at Tottenham as a kid and dropped down the leagues.

He also plays on the left and is right footed so there are similarities there.

‘Barch’ should be looking at that situation and use it to drive him on to try and follow in those footsteps.

We will obviously be concentrating hard on Sunday’s game in Cheltenham and trying to get three points.

The gaffer hit the nail on the head last week at Burton when he said that it was a missed opportunity, but that is gone now and we need to make sure we are hard to beat otherwise we will come unstuck.

The game has gone potty in recent years with managers and coaches losing their jobs and none more so than this week.

I feel really sorry for Ronnie Moore (Rotherham) and Jim Gannon (Port Vale).

We had our wobble at the start of the season but believed in ourselves and have turned it around. Our chairman here believed in us and stuck by us.

We need to make sure we don’t let all of the hard work go by the wayside now.

The visit to Burton may have been Gillingham’s first but when I was playing for Nottingham Forest we went there and opened the stadium.

It is a nice little set up, although quite strange with just one main stand and then three sides of terracing. I thought they were trying to do away with terracing.

There are fans that do like to stand up though, and I remember when I was being brought up in Middlesbrough I would watch games at Ayresome Park and the atmosphere there was fantastic. It was an amazing experience but obviously the new stadiums now are a lot safer.

This week myself and the manager took in some local football.

We’ve already seen one big player slip through the net (Chris Smalling) and that is such a shame for a club like ourselves.

We are keeping our eye on the ball because there is a lot of local talent out there and the non-league scene in Kent is as big as anywhere.

We’ll be trying to keep a few irons in the fire and keep a close eye on things.

It’s important for a team like ourselves, who haven’t got a massive amount of finances, and also for players locally it is good for them to know they could get a chance with Gillingham and have a trial.