Just three games in five days last week to write about so that should be simple - except that in the league game we lost 8-4 to Hull and on Sunday we beat the same team 5-2 to win a place in the cup final against Coventry.

Let's start with the last game. It was a great feeling to know we'd made the final and to have shared that success with the large number of supporters who made the long trip to cheer us on. I hardly need to say how proud I was of the whole squad.

Right from the start of the season I said that we had a bunch of honest players who wouldn't ever give up and who'd work hard for each other. Nothing has happened to change my opinion. Those qualities make them formidable opposition against any team in a cup competition so we're really looking forward to the final.

With injuries to Derek Campbell and David Vychodil we were given a real lift after our defeat by Cardiff on Saturday when Steve Thornton told us he would make himself available for the cup game.

We're the kind of team for which the first ten minutes are crucial. We'd adjusted our system and that was working well. We'd taken an early lead but we were also taking penalties.

We're not a team with a reputation for foul play and we've learned how we can be hurt when we take penalties playing with a short bench. I just want to say at this point we ran into the same problem in Newcastle, with the same official.

Curtis, in the biggest game of the season, deservedly won yet another man of the match award This month a supporter renamed him Chokeshank. This gave us all a laugh in the locker room. You're welcome to join us any time, Glovesave. Bring your kit.

Will we lose again to Hull in the league by a large margin? I don't think so. That's a Riddle we look forward to sorting out in March.

We're just as determined to make it to the play-offs so Saturday is an important match for us against Edinburgh. If you can stand the pace, join the stampede.

Ryan Writes appears on the Follow the Herd page in the Thursday's Basingstoke Gazette.