IT will be a massive game for us tomorrow, but there is only so much we can control.

We know that we have to beat Gloucestershire if we are to reach the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy and we also know that we need Glamorgan to defeat Somerset.

But that is something that is out of our control.

The win against Glamorgan on Sunday has set tomorrow up very nicely, we owe Gloucestershire one for the two games we have played against them already this season.

It has been a very strange week for us, but it has been one where we have been able to recharge our batteries.

It started with the defeat down in Hampshire last Tuesday and, while it was nice for me to have a bit of time out in the middle to play an innings, I would have been a lot happier to score nought and win the game.

We got home at two in the morning and when you have lost it felt a very long journey.

We had a lot of time to reflect on what had happened, but it was a positive reflection because there were a lot of good things we knew we could take into our next match.

We did that at Swansea on Sunday against Glamorgan. With St Helen's being an out- ground it can be reasonably easy to score quick runs -- Northamptonshire scored well over 400 in a day in a Championship game earlier in the week.

That just shows how well Steve Magoffin and the others bowled on what was a bowler-friendly wicket.

It has been an interesting week for Kabir Ali as well. On Thursday he was judging the Miss Worcester competition down at the races.

To be honest he put himself forward for this very quickly, but I think that he was more nervous about how he was looking than the girls.

We had a fitness session with Dave Lowe as well last week and he had us bowlers doing a lot of pre-hab, which is to do with injury prevention, while the rest of the squad were doing runs and boxing.

On Saturday, we all watched the Ricky Hatton fight in our hotel and when we were doing our boxing warm-ups on Sunday it was taken to a new level with a few different jabs coming in.

Graeme Hick celebrated his 50th birthday this week - seriously it's amazing he is in the condition he is in at 42.

The seconds had a good win against Warwickshire and Chris Whelan took 12 wickets in the match.

All us senior bowlers know what an incredible talent Chris is, but sometimes that can put added pressure on a player. In team sport, to have an individual match-winning performance is something to be really proud of.

But it wasn't just the wickets he took, it was the way that he bowled too. He was quick and aggressive and it bodes well for the rotation policy that we have with our seamers.