THE REFEREE from our game at the weekend, Darren Drysdale, gave me a call this week and was very honest in admitting he should have awarded us a penalty against Bury.

I think most people thought the spot-kick should have been given at the time when David Worrall was brought down but I respect Darren confessing he made a mistake.

I tried to talk to him after the game but the referee’s assessor, Paul Alcock, was outside his dressing room and was able to talk me down.

He probably saved me a few bob or two to be honest so I have to be grateful for that.

But not getting that penalty decision probably summed up our luck throughout October.

Results haven’t gone our way and of course we’re looking in to why.

Sometimes you can analyse things too much and that’s something we’ve probably been doing.

However, we’re off to Mansfield Town on Saturday and we will very much be looking to get back to winning ways.

TIME-WASTING CORNER WAS CERTAINLY NOT PLANNED

I UNDERSTAND there has been some criticism from supporters about the corner we took short just before half-time against Bury at the weekend.

That tactic was certainly not something we had suggested and it was something we spoke about at half-time.

One thing I had brought up to the players in the build up to the game was that Bury had been behind at half-time in four matches before playing us and had been beaten in every single one of them.

Maybe that was in the players’ mind but for me set pieces are good opportunities to get a goal.

I also advocate getting your centre-halves forward to attack the ball and it’s something I’ve mentioned again to our squad of players.

BOASTING A FINE SCOUTING SYSTEM

THE scouting system we have at this football club is one that I’m sure is the envy of many other sides, especially at our level.

We’re in the fortunate position to have a chief scout and he now has three other scouts working for him.

People often mention non league players, with Harlow’s Alex Read being one who has been spoken about this week after he scored twice against us in the Essex Senior Cup.

But one of the scouts we have solely watches non league games and keeps us up to date with the players to look out for.

As well as that we also have Graham Coughlan, Dave Penney and I going out to games all the time so we are certainly getting a huge number of matches covered at the moment.

We’re always on the look-out to improve our squad but there have been no developments with any loan signings, either with players coming in or going out, this week.

DELIGHTED FOR GARY ROWETT

I WAS delighted to see Gary Rowett being named as the new manager of Birmingham City this week.

When I was coming to the end of my own playing career at Blackpool, Gary was there on loan so he’s someone I’ve known for quite some time now.

He’s a great lad and he’s a great manager in the making too.

He did a brilliant job with Burton and I think he had already spoken to a couple of Championships clubs this season.

But he obviously has links to Birmingham having played for them in the past and this is a great opportunity for him and one I would certainly like to wish him all the very best with.

Funnily enough, Mike Whitlow is now the caretaker manager at Burton and he’s someone I also know very well from our time together with Bolton.

Mike will certainly be ready for the challenge and I’m sure he will also make a good manager if that’s something he wants to do.