THERE'S nothing like a spot of 'R and R'.

The boys have all been swimming, undergone massages and had a couple of days off before getting back into training today after what has been a hectic time.

I think the number of games over Christmas and New Year culminated in a tired performance at Charlton in the FA Cup on Saturday.

There were a few players carrying knocks and niggles so it's good we've got this seven-day break between games.

We've been playing our hearts out but you could see we were tired against Charlton.

We weren't fluent at all.

The gaffer talked us through things in the dressing room afterwards and sometimes if a couple of results don't go your way you can start to panic.

We've had a bit of a set-back but it doesn't mean we're suddenly doing everything wrong.

We've just got to keep going as we have been and the results will come.

The mood wasn't good in the dressing room after Charlton and the gaffer got our heads up.

No-one is down and everyone still believes in what we're doing.

Everyone will be ready for Hull on Saturday and we need to get a result there.

It's going to be a very difficult game against a team in ninth place and just a point outside the play-off places.

But everywhere we go is going to be difficult because we're top of the league and we're there to be shot at.

I'm sure Hull will play their hearts out to get a result.

We have to be prepared for that.

It will be hard mentally and physically - but we'll be ready for it.

The fact the game is on TV doesn't even come into my head.

It's just part of the game.

Once we've come through the KC Stadium clash, we're lucky enough to have a second chance of getting past the Addicks in the cup on Tuesday, with a fourth-round tie at Peterborough awaiting the winners.

We owe the fact we earned a replay to Deano, who made some important saves at The Valley.

It's great playing with Deano - he's Mr Reliable.

He's got loads of experience.

That's another way of saying 'he's a bit old!'

Mind you, he still delivers those type of performances, which is unbelievable.

It's great to play with players like that.

He still trains very hard and is one of the best trainers at the club.

You have to give him credit for that and it's everybody's dream to play for as long as he has.

Another one of our more senior pros picked up the Championship's Powerade Player-of-the-Month award this week - and Kev totally deserves it.

If you're out for almost two months with injury and still top scorer in the league after that, it's amazing.

He finishes the work of the team off and it's great to know if you put a good cross in he'll be on the end of it.

If you put him in front of the goalkeeper, 99 times out of a 100 it will be a goal.

He has a natural instinct to score.

It was also great to see Ishmael get back on the scoresheet on Saturday with his first goal since coming back from injury.

That will do him the world of good and it's great for the team as well.

He's still a young lad.

He's not used to having to work so hard to get his fitness back after injury.

Hopefully, he can keep scoring now - and I'm sure he will.

He makes every defender shake because he's that quick and strong.

It's great to have such young talent as him at the club and another boost over the last week was seeing Sherjill sign a permanent Hawthorns deal.

He has got loads and loads of quality.

If you see him in training you'll see he passes people with ease.

He's that quick and has so much talent.

Now he has to put that into games and learn that training is totally different from matches.

When he picks that up I think he is going to be a massive, massive signing.

The future will prove that.

I've rarely seen players with that much quality.

It will probably help him that he knows his future lies here now so the pressure is totally off.

He can only improve.

Once he does in a game what he does in training, people will really admire him.

Of course, being January, it means players also go in the opposite direction and yesterday saw Chappy move to Preston.

I'd like to wish him all the best at Deepdale and I'm sure he'll do well there.

He was great in the dressing room when he was here but he wasn't getting much game time.

He always worked hard in training and did his best for the club.

But there is so much quality here in our midfield it was hard for him to get in. 

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