I RECKON it's going to be a case of 'win the battle and win the match' against QPR on Sunday and Stoke three days later.

I'm sure the fans remember from last season that both those teams are quite physical.

Then again, every team in this league seems to be and we know there are going to be hard games.

The Rangers match is massive.

I'm really hoping they will take the brunt of our midweek disappointment against Cardiff in the Carling Cup.

There is a togetherness and spirit among the group that nobody is going to break us this year.

We're working hard and striving for better things.

That spirit came through in Saturday's 3-2 win at Scunthorpe after we went behind to a penalty we felt was an injustice.

But these things are all part and parcel of the game and we just got on with it and won the game.

It shows the great belief in the squad at the moment.

Glanford Park is not a place people relish going to so it was a great result.

If you look at the draw at Bristol, and take the whole of last week in, four points from two tough away games is commendable.

There are a lot of teams that will struggle to come away from those two fixtures with four points.

We can take great confidence from that and the first league away win will ease the pressure and doubt in people's minds.

The only thing that put a dampener on the Scunthorpe win was having to listen to 'DJ Albrechtsen's' music in the dressing room afterwards!

He's got some pretty bad 70s tunes on his ipod.

Credit to him for being big enough to plug it in but I may have to start bringing my own in soon.

His bad taste in music was only topped by Sherjill MacDonald's singing, which is something else!

I don't think he'd win any prizes on the X-Factor.

Sadly, we were missing something as a team last night against the Bluebirds.

I started on the right wing and, in a strange kind of way, I enjoyed it.

I played once before in that role for Celtic against Barcelona.

Unfortunately, we conceded four quick goals, which was down to a mixture of poor concentration from us and great finishing by Cardiff.

It all happened very, very quickly and I don't think you'll see that happen again this year.

I'm absolutely gutted to be out of the cup.

We're every bit as disappointed as the fans.

Whoever the manager picks at the weekend, it's up to them to bounce back and put things right.