Bom Dia! and welcome to another Friday in the midlands with Nick and his band of merry Portuguese men. They’ve started season three well, but are without a win in their last three games, so can they get back to winning ways this week? Over to Nick…

We’re currently third behind City and Forest. The goals conceded column is looking about par for the course, but we’ve not scored as many as usual, which is a slight concern. Let’s get cracking to see if we can sort it out…

Up first is our League Cup second leg with Bristol City. We’re treated to some early Dolby Surround Sound when the home crowd sing his name as he puts them ahead. We’re not fazed, and hit back with 3 in a row before a late Goat consolation. Chelsea are next.

The league slump continues at home to 15th-placed Oldham. It’s the standard goalless first half that we’ve become used to, and we do everything except score in the second. What a treat this was for the 20,057 spectators…

I’m beginning to think that we might have turned the corner when we take an early lead against rock-bottom Tranmere, but then all our hard work is undone when we give away a penalty, which of course they score. When will we catch a break?!

This game really can shovel sh*t in your face when things aren’t going well…

But then… Just as we lose one midfielder, another returns from injury with a bang and opens the scoring as we thrash Walsall in their own back yard, hitting four goals without reply for a first league win in 6 games. Finally!

The resurgence continues at Pride Park midweek, where we Ram home four goals, courtesy of Sa Pinto, Coelho and a Manarte double. Our old boy Deano tried his hardest to get revenge on us, but his joy was short-lived…

Our sweeper is injured early against Norwich, and Barroso fills in, but we hit another four, with Coelho and both Pintos chipping in before we receive a bit of Flack from the hosts at the end, but that’s now a hat trick of wins!

It takes us just a minute to get going against Charlton, and all looks set for a comfortable afternoon at The Valley, until a brace from Tore Andre Flo (not quite sure how he’s ended up here) halts the mini winning streak.

Things quickly pick back up at Stamford Bridge in the league cup though, as we come from behind for a famous win to keep our cup run alive. We’re rewarded with a tie against league mates Bradford in the next round.

With an ageing Bully, and misfiring Jorge Vicente as our backup striking options, Jorgey sorts me out with this man for just £140k. The move is well-timed, with Coelho now banned for 3 matches.

We take the lead and lose a man in the same minute against a Boro side slowly climbing the table. But we cope reasonably well, and Barroso doubles our advantage to make sure of the points and get us back to winning ways.

Well this was unexpected… My first award since my very first month in charge. Yippee!

This however, was expected… It seems to be every 10 games with him at the minute…

Mickey proves that he really is so fine at QPR, where he blows our minds with a brace to accompany earlier goals from Manarte and Afonso as we hit four for the fourth time in under a month. Tony Basil would be proud…

I can normally tell if it’s going to be one of those games, and when Gary Walsh saves shot after shot in the first 20 minutes against Bradford, I can sense it, until we get a penalty and Cavaco converts. Save that, you b*stard!

A week later, it’s a forgettable day at The Dell against a Southampton side who are so poor, they have to rely on us to score them a goal in a drab 1-1 draw. The optimist in me says it’s not a loss, but it’s also not a great point either.

A wet weekend in Stoke takes us up to the halfway point of the season, as we come out on top in a five-goal thriller as the own goal from the Southampton match evens itself out and sees us climb up to 2nd in the table!

And while we’re on the subject of Stoke…

A second successive manager of the month award?! Things must be going well…

Our League Cup adventure continues at Valley Parade, where after taking an early lead, we just about manage to fend off ten aggressive Bantams to progress, and set up a quarter final with top flight Sheffield Wednesday…

We finish this week by starting the second half of the season at Port Vale. The Blog Squad’s own Rob Tait’s poker mate, Gareth Ainsworth opens the scoring, before we hit our fifth four this week to soar to the top of the table!

This was the only negative from that result, but at least it’s only a couple of weeks..

So after an early season mini blip, we’re top just after the halfway point! We’re unbeaten in our last 6 league games, and have lost just once in 12. The goals against column is looking healthy after 10 clean sheets, and perhaps I’ll take back what I said about the formation stopping you from scoring goals!!

I reckon that’s a great place to leave it for this week. We have a monumental next game against Man City, who are just a point behind us with a game in-hand, so that alone is reason enough to join me next week. Adeus!