Hello to everyone.
First of all, I would like to say what great news it is that Pottsy is all OK following what happened to him at Arsenal on Wednesday.
We were all concerned and were kept informed during the night as to how he was doing. We all sent him messages and it was great to get his text back to say he was OK early the next morning.
I am sure you will all join me in wishing him well in his recovery and Pottsy, we are all looking forward to seeing you back around the place soon!
It goes without saying that we were all really upset and disappointed with the result at the Emirates.
The fact was that, before those 12 minutes or so at the start of the second half, we were doing really well and then we were hit with the four goals.
It was totally unacceptable for us with the standards we have set ourselves and I want, on behalf of all the lads, to apologise to our fans and want them to know that we will be looking to put things right again.
The gaffer wasn't happy and rightly so - so he asked for us to come in at 7am the next morning on the Thursday. I think he would have had us in later on Wednesday night if he could, but he told us to be in at this time the next day at the training ground and there were no complaints from any of us - we all need a kick up the backside every now and then and we take it all on board.
The gaffer and all of us wanted to put this result and what happened to bed straight away and it was good that we came in early and got into looking at what went wrong together as a group.
It is one of the best things about the group of players we have here, that we are strong as a unit together whether things are going right or wrong. We have some strong characters in the group and we all went through everything together - we listened to what the gaffer had to say, then we all discussed it all as a group.
Having played under the gaffer for some time and having known him now for several years, I have had a few 7am meetings to attend following a bad result! There has always been a positive response afterwards.
He let us know how he felt. He wants us to be getting the right results and performances that he and the coaches prepare us to achieve before every game and so do we. So we have all taken it on board and on the chin. The outcome is that we are looking forward to putting it right against Fulham next week.
We have no match this weekend but will be in over the weekend to train and are already preparing for the Fulham game.
It has been the same since I got here, that we stick together no matter what. We knew that, this season, we would hit a sticky patch and what gets us through is sticking together and putting it right together. That is what we will continue to do.
I know that all of you, our fans, get disappointed and upset when things go wrong and we don't get the right result. We do as well. We know how much it all means and all we ask is that you stick with us as we look to make things right.
I say every week how fantastic our support is and there is no better feeling than hearing all of you backing us. When you have just had a bad result and are looking to put it right, there is nothing better than having all of you cheering us on.
I would like to finish on a slightly more light-hearted note. Mo Diame was a bit late for the 7am meeting that the gaffer called, which does happen with players from time to time! We all had to wait for him before we could start and when he arrived, we all gave him stick for not only being late and keeping us all waiting, but we said we thought he had left us without saying goodbye!
As everyone knows, there is a lot of speculation in the media about Mo, so we thought we would give him more stick about that! To be fair to him, he took all the banter really well and joined in as part of the group as we discussed everything from the match and looked ahead.
We are now focusing on next Wednesday's match at Fulham and are determined to get the result for you - a result that sees us pick up important points to help us finish the season as high as we can, taking another step further to where this club should be.
Come on you Irons!
Kevin Nolan
Captain