TODAY we welcome leaders Portsmouth to Grenoble Road.

At the start of the season people were talking as though Sunderland would romp this league, but I always had a feeling that Portsmouth would be their biggest challengers.

I know the hard work Kenny Jackett and Joe Gallen have been putting in there over the last two or three years.

It is no easy task to manage at a club of that size with huge expectations from their fans.

But they have built with each transfer window, grown a proper identity throughout the club and done an amazing job.

Hopefully we are able to put a massive dent in all that today!

We are only just starting to build things how we want them and it has been difficult at times this season, but this second transfer window has been good so far.

Mark Sykes, Jordan Graham and now Ahmed Kashi are all really exciting signings and have that mix of youth and experience.

Jordan in particular was almost unplayable in the second half at Fleetwood last week.

It was probably as good a performance from a winger as you will see.

I mentioned competition for places and Kashi will provide that for John Mousinho, just like Mark does for James Henry and Cameron Brannagan or Jordan does for Marcus Browne and Gavin Whyte.

I don’t like people to feel comfortable, knowing they will play every week.

They have to earn the right to start each game.

Marcus’s loan is now confirmed until the end of the season and with Samir Carruthers almost fit again, we are looking stronger.

But I know what you’re going to say – you are all waiting for a striker!

We are all very aware of that and we are working so hard to make it happen.

Jamie Mackie was excellent at Fleetwood but he needs help and proper competition and we have been doing all we can to get the right person in.

The problem is that so is every other club.

We won’t sign someone just for the sake of it, but are having to be a little bit patient to make sure we bring in someone who will give us that extra cutting edge in the second half of the season.

I GUESS with the way our luck with injuries has gone this season it was inevitable we would pick up another last week.

But I wasn’t expecting it to be me!

We trained up in Blackpool ahead of the Fleetwood game and myself, Shaun Derry and Dan Bond decided to jog back to the hotel.

Somehow I misjudged a kerb and went over on my ankle and ended up in A&E. What a nightmare.

You can imagine how busy that was in Blackpool on a Friday night!

For some reason Shaun and Bondy found it hilarious.

Even I could see the funny side later, but it was really painful and has left me hobbling this week.

The one consolation is that I’d much rather it was me than any of the players.

Hopefully that’s one more bit of bad luck out of the way and we have now used all of ours up for the season...