GETTING back to basics did the trick for us at Rochdale on Saturday and has set the scene for an intriguing clash with Scunthorpe at Aggborough tonight.

There's no doubt our fully-deserved goalless draw at Spotland did us a power of good after losing our three previous games against Lincoln, Blackpool and Cardiff and conceding 12 goals in the process.

Obviously, that kind of unwanted run meant we had a lot said and written about us regarding the way we were performing, although in fairness I thought we did come out with some kind of credit after the Cardiff game.

All of a sudden, though, that gets thrown back at you because it was part of letting in 12 goals in three matches.

Also, I think there should have been a little bit more credit given to Blackpool and Lincoln because you only have to look at what they are achieving in their other games. But that's not trying to hide the fact that what we were doing just wasn't good enough.

But we have started to address that and it was very important to go to Rochdale and keep a clean sheet. Obviously, we would have liked to have won the game, but the clean sheet was important.

Everybody comes in for criticism when you go through a run of conceding goals like we were. Apart from the Leyton Orient game we hadn't had a clean sheet since Boxing Day against Mansfield, so you can imagine how nice it was to get one as comfortably as we did on Saturday.

It's common knowledge that we decided to play a 4-5-1 formation. I fully believe in that system and as the game wore on we got very comfortable with it and we got stronger.

As a team effort I thought we did exceptionally well, and especially in midfield where people like Dean Bennett, Paul Webb and Tony Bird really did us proud.

It's time now to look forward and we've got two home games coming, against Scunthorpe tonight and Darlington on Saturday.

In an ideal world that would be six points for us, but whether it's four or just two we need to keep away from losing.

There's no doubt that the atmosphere in the dressing room was boosted by Saturday's result and training yesterday was based on the way we are going to play tonight.

Whereas we have been doing a lot of general coaching we'll now spend the majority of our time working on the way we will play and that will change from game to game.

With us playing at home tonight we'll obviously line up 4-4-2 and that's what we concentrated on yesterday and hopefully we'll see the benefits of that against Scunthorpe.

But we are aware that if we do get beaten tonight then people will be jumping on our back again, so we need to put in a solid performance.

Games are coming at us thick and fast. If we had carried on the way we were against Blackpool and Lincoln you wouldn't have perhaps wanted another match so quickly.

But now we've taken our first step back on the right road at Rochdale I think you'd want to return to action quickly. Also you'd want it to be at home because the next step for us is to see if we can be as disciplined as we were at Spotland and create a few more chances.

After the Blackpool game I must admit I thought that with Lincoln being our next fixture, and with them having a bit of a bad time, we would be able to football our way out of it. But, as we all know, it was not to be because every time we lost the ball we looked so vulnerable at the back.

So, we needed to get back to basics and that's exactly what we did at Rochdale.

But now it's tonight's game that we have got to be fully focused on. Hope to see you there.