IT’S been a tough couple of weeks for the team as we have faced a Coventry United side who are top of the league, twice in two weeks.

First time around, we had a home game in the FAWNL Cup and although I felt we were the better side in the second half, we didn’t have enough time to fight back for a result and ended up losing the game 3-2. We had chances and I was encouraged by the performance and hoped we could step it up and avenge the defeat in the league game last weekend.

We travelled up the M1 in a confident mood, but the result wasn’t what we were looking for. We lost the game 4-0 with two goals in each half. Again, we created chances, I can think of at least three that should have gone in and there were other opportunities to create more. In that sense, there are positives we can take from the game but at the same time, to lose ground on the leaders in such fashion is a difficult one to take.

I am not one to blast the officials, but when the opposition players are even sharing the same thoughts of some unconvincing decision making, it is natural to feel a little hard done by. The referee didn’t cost us the game, we did that ourselves, so there’s a lesson to be learnt there and we need to deal with these things a lot better, myself very much included.

We now have two weeks without a game and it gives us and the coaching staff the chance to work on things as a group and further develop our style of play so that we can bounce back as we have some vital games coming up in the run-up to the Christmas break. We have to come together and respond in a positive way.

We have some players returning from injury and enforced absences which can only strengthen our options so we will be working hard to be ready for MK Dons on November 11th.

There’s a long way to go in terms of the title race and all of the top teams are still to face each other at least once before the season is out so there will be points won and lost all over the place. All we can do is keep our focus on ourselves, attack each block of games with the same goal and keep assessing what we need to do to progress.

The benefit of gaps in fixtures is that it gives you more training time, but if you are on a winning run it can also disrupt momentum. It’s the same for everyone, though, so we just have to make sure we make it work for us.

Watford’s next opponents will come into the game in high spirits having secured their first points of the season with a 3-1 defeat of Oxford United last time out.

The Dons’ campaign had been less than profitable before the trip to Oxford, but they were in good form on their travels.

They raced to a three goal lead with just 25 minutes on the clock thanks to a quick-fire double from Alice Hughes which added to Leah Cudone’’s opener.