I have never seen our gaffer Steve Coppell as animated as he was during the half-time interval in our FA Cup replay with Preston on Tuesday.

We had found ourselves 1-0 down after a 45 minutes in which we had not done ourselves justice and he was not happy.

We knew the ability that was in our team and it really did not match the performance of the first-half.

The boss told us to go out there and salvage some pride and I think it woke all of us up, I'd like to think that everyone thought “he is talking to me”.

Unfortunately for us no sooner had we started the second-half than we found ourselves another goal down after a mix-up in defence.

The good thing was that we didn't let our heads drop and we kept fighting.

The goal both I and the team had been seeking didn't come until the last ten minutes, and actually I had had a couple of good chances beforehand but failed to hit the target. My initial shot was saved but the ball came back out to me and I lifted it over the ‘keeper to give us a glimmer of hope.

I still thought we could salvage something from the game because there was still four minutes of the 90 left and then what extra time the referee was going to add on for stoppages. The belief in the team was that we could go on and get another.

The timing of our goal meant Preston got a bit nervy and we had a couple of chances but in the end it wasn't to be.

Despite the result there were some positives to take from the match, the main ones being the number of chances I had. Not so long back I was having to make do with one change a game, but on Tuesday I had at least three and one of them saw the ball hit the back of the net.

That bodes well for future games and for our play-off push.

Some people might think that the fact we are out the Cup is a blessing in disguise as our main priority is obviously to try and make the Premiership. But a good run in Cup would have translated to good performances in the league, of that I am sure.

However, we cannot think of what might have been, we have to concentrate on the job at hand and that starts with our visit to Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

We have 19 games left and we know we have to give everything to ensure we are in the play-offs at the end of the season.

Last weekend we drew 1-1 at Ipswich and the visit to Portman Road enabled me to meet up with Joe Royle, the man who took me to Manchester City and who is now their boss.

He spoke kindly of me before the game and when I saw him he gave me a hug and called me his “favourite son”. I have fond memories of my time under Joe and it was nice that he still remembers me.