I came to the game in a positive mood. I guess I wasn’t going to be beaten seeing as it was my birthday and the players came out with the same attitude. I just sensed Birmingham were there for the taking and felt if we went for it, we’d find success.

In all honesty Birmingham showed why they were top of the table. They started really, really well. Some of their football and movement was very good and they fashioned out two excellent chances which yielded two wonderful saves by Radek Cerny in the opening five-minutes.

But after that, we heeded the warning and they never really penetrated us again in the same way. James McFadden showed his class and was a real handful when he was on the ball, but even then, he didn’t really do anything effective apart from looking pleasing on the eye.

It was a terrific performance by Damiano Tomassi on his debut. You really couldn’t have asked for any more from the lad. It was his first competitive football for a long time, so one would expect some rust, but despite a couple of sloppy passes his experience and quality shone through. I loved how he picked and chose his moments to press the play and surprisingly really high up the park at times too. But it was the manner he read the game and intercepted passes with such ease and his passing was exceptionally disguised and clever at times… done in a way that meant we would be more effective and likely to retain the ball.

But, he was pipped only by the current player of the year. I never thought I would say it but at present, Damien Stewart is leading the way big time. It was another colossal performance from him and his progress this season has been immense. I still think the deficiencies in his game are there, but he’s fitter, fresher and able to keep his focus more and with that he’s added maturity and consistency to his performances. Long may this continue and well done to him for his impressive form this year.

I was also delighted for Samuel Di Carmine. What a way to open your account. It was a stunning strike and worthy of winning the game. As soon as the ball came under his control I shouted “hit it” and the interesting thing about him is he has his critics, but up until now, he’s never really had a proper opportunity to have a shot at goal. We’ve seen him scuff a few half chances from wide positions, but he’s never had a clean effort yet in terms of service. Here, we saw the first sign that when the opportunity presented itself, he can hit the back of the net.

I hope there’s more to come, but I was pleased with how many free-kicks he won against the Birmingham defence too. It’s important to relieve pressure off the defence, and he did that intelligently at times even if he went looking for it and was even more crucial when we were down to ten-men.

In terms of our tactics, we looked more composed with ten men in the second-half because we had to think a little more about what we were doing when we got the ball in order to keep possession and not be wasteful and we did that really well. I loved that we went 4-3-2 once Mikele Leigertwood was sent off and I’ve always felt that’s the best way to play with 10. It gave much better passing triangles and angles all over the pitch and allowed us to maintain a more natural shape and possession.

The only issue we had late on, which was understandable, is that when Hogan Ephraim was up front on his own he started to drop too deep into the midfield and give Birmingham too much time on the ball. But this is nit-picking. It was a performance that showed tremendous character and desire to get the result and we deserved to win for our courage alone.

In the meantime, despite Birmingham feeling they didn’t play to their usual standards, after about 9 minutes of play I turned around to Sam and Leonie and said they’d played better in that time than in the whole 90 minutes a couple of weeks ago when they beat us 1-0. So I liked a lot of what I saw, but we’ve proven that even if we haven’t been at our best, or in our best form, that we can rattle these bigger teams and be solid against them when it matters and all that’s required is continuity, maturity and consistency in order to be up there at the end of the season.

All in all, a terrific result on a surreal and freezing evening. I was absolutely delighted with the win!

I’ve found this to be a deeply spiritual ritual. It sounds almost odd to say but it gets me in the mood and focused on the game ahead. There’s nothing like walking into a changing room and seeing those numbers on the wall and your kit ready. I’d like to think it adds a professional touch to the preparation and helps mentally prepare the players and get them in the zone. It certainly gets me in the mood!

I always ask the players and sometimes the other coaches to stay out when I’m doing this as I want to be left alone to concentrate and it’s amazing how much stuff goes through your mind about each player as you put their shirt up on the wall and how it prepares you for the game ahead.

This is of course standard for professional teams, but if you run a Sunday league side or similar, or play in one, then you should start doing this because it really does have an impact. There’s nothing worse than seeing a dozen players all diving into kit bags at the same time and scrambling over stuff in an unorganised and messy fashion. Get to know your players and their sizes and get it all laid out long before the match is due to start!

I admit, that when we’re at home, I leave the door slightly open as the away side walk by and I always can tell if the other team are doing the same by their reaction. It can be really intimidating and indirectly lets them know that they’re going to be in for a game. It’s got great shock value at that level.

Mind games are all part and parcel of football and playing pyschological warfare with your opponents and with your own can sometimes give you that extra belief and edge that you need. It’s the little details that count, but sometimes you have to immerse yourself in that detail and never feel that your boots are too big to do it, especially for the benefit of your own team.

I was pleased that we picked up another three points today but it wasn’t one of our better performances because for some reason or another, we struggled to get going.

Marlborough really should have taken the lead in the first-half and we gave them at least two bites at the cherry before we got our noses in front, which I have to say was against the run of play and teetering on undeserved.

Allana Ashmeil’s low drive in off the post was an excellent finish though and it helped settle us down and as the half progressed we grew stronger and eventually Sarafea Braveboy forced a goal home to give us a 2-0 lead at the break. The two goals came at the perfect time for us in the match and that’s an important ingredient for any successful side to have.

But despite our good fitness levels showing through as the half came to and end, we didn’t really show enough desire and hunger out there and at times too many of them were not putting in the effort they should have been. We spoke to them about this during the break and we came out looking more assured in the second-half.

Marlborough started to visibly fade in terms of their own fitness and struggled to deal with our attacks, especially down the right hand side where they could only clear their lines and conceded numerous corners of which we didn’t capitalise on.

We made hard work of it though and huffed and puffed our way to another three goals as well as hitting the crossbar twice. It was only when the fifth goal went in too that I actually started to feel relaxed and with 20 minutes still to go on the clock, I expected us to finish strongly but to Marlborough’s credit they hung in there and even grabbed a fine goal themselves from a fast counter attack.

At the end of the game I came away feeling as if some of the players weren’t really prepared enough for the roles they played in. We had one or two playing out of their favoured positions and at times it did show. At other times, we learned some more about their strengths and weaknesses and spotted new things we need to work on.

Still, if you don’t play your best and still come away with a convincing win in terms of the scoreline, or even if you just shade it by the odd goal, you can’t complain a great deal about that at all. So fair play to them for grinding out the win.

Team: Syan Armstrong, Alex Lupano, Chloe Julien (Jade Creighton), Nikki Crump, Ellie Sullivan, Melanie Randall, Jade Bowley (Katie Smith), Sarafea Braveboy, Scarlett Hanrahan, Danielle Clare Richards and Allana Ashmeil

Goals: Ashmeil 2, Braveboy, Richards & Smith

I sensed early on that we could actually go on and win this game, but we just lacked that little bit of composure in the final third to create that one golden opportunity that I think we’d have taken had it arrived.

But there’s no point dwelling on what could have been, because this was a very good performance for so many reasons. It’s been a long time since I remember that I really felt like the players were playing for the shirt, or for Gareth, or maybe both!

I came away from the stadium feeling very proud that they were prepared to win as many of those 50-50 tackles as possible and it really meant something to them.

We were playing 4-5-1 again, which seemed sensible given Reading’s home form but we looked a lot more balanced out there. This is the type of defensive performance you want; full of passion and with a tempo that let the opposition know that they were in for a game and that we were ready to pounce if we could.

But we were more balanced too. Martin Rowlands looked a lot better in the holding midfield role and we retained the ball and possession much more freely as a result. Sure, we never really fashioned out any serious chances on goal, but on another day, some of the long range strikes may have come off.

I thought Samuel Di Carmine did well and showed a different type of style to how Dexter Blackstock plays in that system. Di Carmine seems to have a little more tactical movement though Dexter offers more threat in the air at this time. Daniel Parejo also plays better off the frontman, and he can be pleased with his shift even if he did tire a little towards the end.

I thought Mikele Leigertwood was superb at right-back and he set the tone for the team, winning several tackles and along with the others, wasn’t afraid to put his foot in. Stephen Hunt didn’t get a look in all game and even swapped to the other wing for a little bit in the first-half. We seem to have a thing for right-back’s and caretaker manager’s… when Mick Harford was in charge in his first game away to Colchester, he stuck Rowlands there in a surprise move.

With Matthew Connolly being at left-back, we definitely made better use of the ball from our full-back positions and is something that I’ve been going on about for a while. Even Fitz Hall played some lovely inside passes to feet rather than the switch pass he tends to opt for. But the full-backs being better passers definitely helped us maintain our shape and helped with our ball retention too.

Lee Cook wasn’t quite on his game and was a little slugglish and sloppy at times, but really all it needed was him or someone else to sparkle a little and we may well have made that clear cut chance we were looking for. Akos Buzsaky was a little more threatening and I did like the moments he picked and chose to come infield, but we could have got him on the ball in more effective positions to make better use of him.

Still, I’m not going to pick on those details. The defensive display was excellent and Gareth Ainsworth has every right to be proud of the way the team responded in what is obviously a difficult time for us right now.

It was a very good point and a performance full of spirit. Perhaps we didn’t deserve to win the match, but by the same token, we didn’t deserve to lose either and was definitely a performance that everybody at the club should be pleased with as it’s a good platform to build on for Tuesday against Birmingham.

It feels like a long time ago now since we had just one manager in charge for an entire season and I was hoping that we’d get ourselves back on track in this campaign, but the dreaded 15 games in struck again for Iain Dowie.

I’m really sorry it didn’t work out for him, because he’s a bright young man who does a lot of good scientific work on the training pitch to prepare players physically for a long hard season.

What he really needs though is a right-hand man who knows the game inside out from a tactical perspective. A bit like how Ian Holloway made such great use of Kenny Jackett. It may be that Tim Flowers is every bit as capable, but I didn’t really see enough of him to pass such judgement, but that’s the feeling I had looking in from the outside.

Where the hell do we go from here now? It’ll be interesting to see what type of person the club go for to replace Dowie. Will they continue the strategy of finding somebody who knows this division inside out or will they go for a different approach?

Whatever we do, and this is no disrespect to Gareth Ainsworth, but I don’t think we should be leaving him in charge for too long. He’s a terrific guy and a great motivator, but he’s not ready for this level of pressure and expectation and in many ways it’s not fair on him either.

As for Dowie, well, I have to say that I still miss Luigi De Canio’s style and flair. He brought a tactical intelligence to Loftus Road that I’d never seen before in my time as a QPR fan and I felt spoiled by that. I always felt he would have done the job the longer he had with the players and the more he acclimatised to the country.

It’s left me aching and dreaming for more of the same, so whoever comes in, I hope they can do something similar - except this time, I hope the person coming in is a man who is able and capable of sticking around much longer than our last four or five. It’s an expensive and dangerous job to continuously replace the manager and his coaching staff and it’s important to find stability as quickly as possible.

The Board also need to be careful now, because the last thing they need is to give off the impression that they are trigger-finger happy, which presently it seems that they are. A manager and his backroom team need time, and in reality, 15 matches is not a great deal of time when the big picture of reaching the Premier League is supposed to be over a 4-year plan.

But good luck to Iain too and thanks for the time you’ve put into the club as a player and a manager - I hope he stays in the game and finds himself back in work soon enough again.

What was up with the scoreboard showing Nottingham Forest as “N/Forest”? It’s so wrong and odd looking that it probably distracted the players. I mean, come on, “N.Forest” or “N Forest”, but never “N/Forest”! It’s the little details that makes football “football” guys. It’s probably just me. I know, I’m a freak.

But I was also amazed and concerned at how long it took us to turn the floodlights on after half-time. The players were playing in the dark for a good five minutes. That’s hardly professional, and while a spelling oddity is forgiveable, not getting these details right for the team is not. It probably wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but it was certainly strange watching them running about in such low light conditions.

Before Fitz Hall took the throw that led to Angelo Balanta’s first goal, I said to Sam and Leonie: “Oh, we must have worked on something as he’s not usually up here taking them”, and low and behold, we had a move where Damien Delaney flicked the ball on and Balanta went in and poached.

If I was Forest, I’d have been pretty peeved to concede such a soft goal, but they got caught cold twice. The goal gave me a strange feeling too. On one hand I was really pleased we’d worked on something on the other it seemed so basic and such a cheap goal for the opposition to give away because of its simplicity. I was angry on Forest’s behalf for such abysmal defending!

That got me thinking about the international break as well. If you had two weeks, what would you do with the players? Would you go all out preparing for Nottingham Forest? Would you expect them to do the same? Do you think that would end up with a match where each team cancels one another out?

Would it be better to work on our on general play or set pieces? Would it be better to work on fitness and get their sharpness up again? Perhaps they could do a little bit of that and maybe also some preparation work for the two away fixtures after?

It’s such an interesting concept and one I’ve not really thought about in too much detail before and I’ve not made up my mind on what is the best approach.

Forest’s performance actually irritated me. There’s a decent team in there because they got themselves into so many good positions, but their crossing and final ball was atrocious. Had they had any finesse about their play they could have caused us all sorts of problems, but the majority of the time their wingers were happy to run down blind alleys when someone was positioned close by, free and with the whole box to cross into if they just turned around and passed the ball 5 yards to them.

I spent an age watching Andy Cole’s movement and experience. He had a pretty good game and it was interesting to see which pockets of space and positions he picked up. It was ironic that he was starved of the ball when he actually wanted it, and the best cross of the day came from him when he whipped in a ball across the face of the goal from the corner of the box. How he’d have loved one of those from his team-mates. Damien Stewart repeatedly fouled him too by grabbing or tugging his shirt on numerous occasions, though he got away with it most of the time!

I noted Clive wrote in his match report on Loft For Words that Akos Buzsaky was the difference between the two sides and he was absolutely spot on. It’s at times like these when we need just one of our main men to sparkle and show some form, and although he’s not quite at his peak yet, he demonstrated what he’s capable of and he gave us that little something we needed to secure three very important points. I can’t wait until he’s fully match sharp.

Overall it was one of those performances where two well worked throws masked some of our problems which still exist. From kick off, which we took, the ball was played back to Delaney who just hoofed it right up the pitch to nobody. That set the tone of my mood yesterday but hopefully this win will kick the boys on and they can take confidence from taking three points that we really needed.

I came away pleased with Balanta again. I liked his touch and movement and it’s important to note that he didn’t get too much of the ball, but whenever he did, he usually made good use of it or the right decision in whatever he chose to do. That’s the sign of a promising player and it’s great that he got a goal. I still don’t understand why he was bombed out the team when he was looking like our most exciting striker at the start of the season. I know we need to protect our players, especially the younger ones, but sometimes when someone’s bang in form you’ve got to roll with it.

I could say the same about little old Emmanuel Ledesma sitting on the bench. He was playing with a ball for most of it, juggling and balancing it on his head or spinning and tapping it furiously. The kid just loves playing football and when you’re like that, and bring that desire and passion to the pitch, the rest of the lads will be lifted by it and will respond. I hope he returns to the side soon too.

I suppose it would be fair to say we’ve been a little bit Jekyll and Hide so far this season. I missed last week due to having a bit of an accident on my bike and we lost 6:1 to Wycombe Reserves when in reality I think we all felt that would be a much closer game. The first-team also drew 1:1 with Team Bath but didn’t have a game this weekend.

Today we faced a strong looking Aylesbury side that have started the season well, so were expecting this to be a really tough match. And for the first 15-20 minutes it was, although we still managed to miss a couple of great opportunities in that time as we seemed intent on walking the ball into the net!

By the time we scored, it was still an even game, although we took over from that point and sailed into a 4:0 lead by half-time. We spoke to the players during the interval about the importance of continuing the good work they’d put in and their response was a better second-half showing including six more goals.

We changed a few things including bringing on a couple of players to see if we could take the performance to another level and try a few new things at the same time. We came away pleased with the response and I really admire how these players still show total respect to their opponents regardless of the score. We kept on playing our football in the right way with the right attitude, so it’s very encouraging to see us dishing out these strong second-half showings and that the ladies are concentrating on the job they’re here to do.

I was really pleased with our shape throughout the match and the work we did in training last week appeared to provide us with a solid base to start out with. It was certainly a match that some of the players will have learned from and we hope they can continue building on the information we’re trying to get across for the future.

We’ve also been doing a bit of fitness work with the players and that told towards the end of the game where we seemed to pin Aylesbury deep into their own half for long periods and looked the fresher of the two teams whereas they looked slightly tired and drained. There’s still many more improvements we can get out of our players in this area yet, but it was the first-time that I really felt I could see the difference and I think the players realised that themselves too.

Despite the scoreline here, Aylesbury are a decent side and I expect them to be thereabouts at the back end of the season.

Team: Syan Armstrong, Kelly Bloomquist, Melanie Randall (Alex Lupano), Nikki Crump (Stephanie Lupano), Ellie Sullivan, Chloe Julien (Sarafea Braveboy), Anita Afonso, Scarlett Hanrahan, Jade Bowley, Danielle Clare Richards (Jade Thirkettle) and Allana Ashmeil

Goals: Richards 3, Bowley, Ashmeil 3, Braveboy 2 and Afonso