GETTING our first point of the season has got to act as a launchpad for the rest of the campaign.

I think the performance against Basingstoke has given everybody involved with the club a lift, from the board of directors to the kitman.

We were atrocious in the first two games and if it was the formation, which we changed to 4-4-2 against Woking and stuck with on Monday, that’s down to me.

However, the team turned a corner at the weekend and we were desperately unlucky not to get anything from that game. Likewise, we were extremely unfortunate not to get the three points against Basingstoke.

We looked a decent outfit in pre-season but when the campaign started any scouts watching us would have said we were going to be the whipping boys.

But if we play like we did against Basingstoke every week we will be fine and their manager Frank Gray said to me afterwards we would steamroller teams if we played like that, and I hope he’s right.

The fans have stuck with us and appreciated how hard the players worked and that was great to see. It was almost like a win afterwards and this has got to be a starting point to build on for Saturday against Weymouth.

Now we have to get a bit of consistency and I would like to think the lads we have got can do that. Our finishing needs working on but Basingstoke’s keeper made a couple of great saves.

The main reason some players are in this league is because they can’t maintain those levels week in week out.

If we can do it for four games out of five and grind out a result in the other, we have got a chance of competing.

The seeds were planted against Woking, who are going to be up there, and on Monday we played a team who were top of the league and had a 100 per cent record.

Alfie Carter made his debut and he did well because I told him he would be starting and he was worried because he wasn’t fully fit. I would have been happy with 60 minutes from him but he dug in and kept going.

Left-footers are scarce and I have been looking for one for nearly two years. Now we have got him, Shabir Khan and Matt Dinsmore.

Kevin Spencer also did well. He took a bit of stick from myself and some of the players at the weekend because we felt he should have done better for Woking’s goal.

I wanted to gauge his reaction, to see whether he went into his shell, and he was fantastic on Monday and it shows he’s got a bit of character.

Midfielder Josh Emery is on work experience with us and Cheltenham have let us have him for nothing. With the pre-season friendly being cancelled, it would have been easy to lose the link with them but they have been great.

Meanwhile, keeper Jake Meredith is nearer to fitness but we have got Ben Hinchliffe on a game-to-game basis.