Last night’s fine home win against one-time Premiership big hitters, Coventry City, will undoubtedly go down as one of the stand-out performances of the season.

Having seen our long, unbeaten run ended by the Sky Blues back in October, the O’s gained ‘revenge’ in what could be described as a ‘relentless’ display, with the visitors proving to be stubborn in defence and always likely to hurt you on the break.

It what was somewhat a relief to discover that their ‘main man’, Leon Clarke, was missing [injured], Cov showed on the night they still had players who could hurt us in the impressive Carl Baker – who should be playing at a higher level – and the lively, Franck Moussa, who – on another night might have bagged a couple – only for our loan keeper, Eldin Jakupovic, to underline his Premier League pedigree with several fine saves.

Pleasing also was the fact the O’s showed no ‘ring rustiness’ after their enforced break due to their non-involvement in the latest round of the FA Cup. Indeed, they went straight for the proverbial jugular and on another night they might have had a hatful of goals before the break.

Football – as we all know – is a funny game – but when you’re up, you’re up and when you’re down, you’re down as Kevin Lisbie’s penalty miss proved. I’m sure had we been struggling at the foot of the table the spot kick failure would almost certainly have proved costly. But, within seconds of Joe Murphy’s save, we were still on the offensive and Coxy pops up and scores an absolute ‘belter’ – and not for the first time in this burgeoning season.

And, then having banged on the door – albeit surviving some scary moments – as Cov valiantly tried to get back in the game – Moons comes on and, with barely his first touch, scores and is now only four goals away from the magic 20 mark.

But, football can also kick you in the teeth – so it will be important to go to a big and physical Rotherham with not only the right attitude, but also with the belief that we can edge closer to the Holy Grail of Championship football next season.

Keep the faith,

Up the O’s.