WE averted the possibility of another major cup exit with a 3-0 win over Mangotsfield United in the FA Umbro Trophy on Saturday.

It was an unspectacular performance but at the end we were pleased to go through with a 3-0 scoreline.

At kick-off time it presented a potential banana skin for us. I think people would say they were disappointed with Mangotsfield, but I would look at it as us doing our job better than they did, and certainly better than we did the previous Saturday.

Mark Owen scored a great hat-trick, and he is probably having as consistent a spell now as any since I have been at the club.

The biggest criticism I have had of Mark is that he hasn't listened to what people have to say. But certainly this season a lot of things have been discussed and they have been put into practice, and we are seeing the fruits of those actions. He has deserved a pat on the back.

He has aspirations to play at a higher level, and to achieve his own personal objectives he has to show what he is capable of on a more consistent and regular basis.

You have to work hard for it, catch people's eye and make a name for yourself. He now looks fitter, has a higher work ethic to his game and we have seen the benefits of that -- long may it continue.

We were struggling to name good performances from the previous week at Hampton, but we could roll off quite a few on Saturday and I thought Carl Heeley did very well.

There is no doubting his commitment to the team and to himself and he has probably had as clear a run free from injury than he has for quite a while. He looks as fit as I have ever seen him and that reflects in his game.

Mark Tucker has also done very well and Martin Weir is also a very valuable player. It would certainly be nice to have a choice between those three when Martin is fit.

Ian Cottrill and Steve Lutz did particularly well in midfield.

They picked up a lot of second balls in and around the middle third of the pitch that allowed us to get into attacking positions.

We now get back into league action at home to Dorchester on Saturday and it is another example of a fairly quick turn-round of reverse fixtures.

I have voiced my disappointment at that without knowing the circumstances and the implications of the league's fixture planning.

But when we have gone there only a month ago and got three points, perhaps the opposition still have the smell of revenge in their nostrils.

Dorchester are a better side than their league position would suggest. We have had some tough encounters with them, and once again we anticipate nothing less than a keenly-fought encounter on Saturday.

Hopefully we can secure the points that we want to help secure our position up at the top end of the table.

We have had a decent run although there have not been too many league fixtures in that, but we lost the crucial one with the most hype and interest surrounding it.

The disappointment of that will stay there for a while but we just have to get on with the job.