JOB done is the feeling that sums up Saturday's display against Hastings.

At three o'clock on the opening day of the season everybody wants to chalk up those three points on the board and by five o'clock that is exactly how it panned out for City.

It was a little bit more anxious than we would have liked it to be, but we achieved the main objective which was victory.

Admittedly there is a degree of disappointment in that after a first-half of promising football we ended up on the back foot and made the task difficult for ourselves but we got there in the end.

Without being disrespectful to Hastings, they are not going to be our toughest challenge, so there is still a lot of work for us to do but there were encouraging signs.

One of the talking points about Saturday's team selection will have been the omission of Mark Owen, but as a manager I'm paid to take these decisions and I felt it was the right one for the team.

Disappointed

Mark was understandably disappointed but we had to think about what was best for the team and you can't let personal feelings into consideration.

Because of what he's been through we did actually have a chat before the match to tell him he wasn't starting.

Supporters may wonder why I left it until Saturday before resting Mark, but the simple fact was that this was the first occasion I had all the squad available and the chance of playing the starting line-up I wanted.

As a manager you make these decisions and you hope they come off and against Hastings it did.

Mark is a big part of our plans but when you return from serious injury it is very much a gradual process.

I had a similar injury to Mark's and at the time thought that the hardest part was the few weeks after the injury, when you are covered in plaster and there seems no light at the end of the tunnel.

However, what I learned was that in fact the difficult aspect is when you are actually back in training and trying to achieve the same level of performance as before because after a period of inactivity that takes time.

That has been the case with Darren Middleton, who prior to his injury last season, was in electric form but the injury stopped him in his tracks and coming back he found it difficult to pick up where he left off.

Once again we would have liked to ease him back in gently but he had to stay there because of injuries and it is only now that we are seeing him back to approaching his best.

Two players in form on Saturday were Danny McDonnell and Jon Holloway. Everybody knows how highly I rate Danny, but I was also delighted for Jon who is doing a decent job at right-back and it should be an interesting test between him and Allan Davies.