After a poor start of three consecutive losses, we've now won three on the bounce and things are looking decidedly healthier than a couple of weeks ago.

Having turned in a performance of the highest order at Stockport at the weekend, the Iron were catapulted from mid-table obscurity into the final play-off place. I think that 3-0 success shows that we are back and are firmly in contention to take one of the three promotion places this season.

It was just like the Saturday's of two seasons ago; getting up on a morning in high spirits, and in the late afternoon celebrating yet another quality victory as we romped to the league title. Hopefully that will be an omen and a sign of things to come. It was good to see Gary Hooper back among the goals, three in four games is an excellent start to his Iron career. Another massive bonus was the clean sheet, a second in successive games. It's also good to see Grant McCann chipping in with a goal; winning sides always have goals coming from all over the park so it's nice to have your midfielders helping out the strikers and alleviating some of the pressure from them. McCann could be one of the stars of this season; I have always rated him from his days at Cheltenham and then Barnsley. I think he could hold the key to a lot of points this season.

With no disrespect to Josh Lillis, who looks a decent prospect, I don't think it's any coincidence that the two clean sheets have coincided with the return of Joe Murphy. Krystian Pearce also looks to be a decent loan signing, having played well in his three games since arriving from Birmingham. His loan has now been extended until January which gives us a bit more cover at the back.

It's also good to see Hayesey getting back to his best. He's often a target for fans due to his 'casual' approach to the game, but from what I understand, he was in 'mercurial' form at Edgeley Park at the weekend, and followed that up with a devastating late double salvo on Tuesday against Notts County. Quite how it took until stoppage time for us to bag two goals after having 25 shots on goal is mind boggling, but at least the ball was going in at the right end in the dying stages for once! That late show booked us into the next round of the JP Trophy. More interest will gather should we get to Wembley though!

Next up it's a trip to Brighton, another tricky one as they have started well and sit just two places above us in the table. They're unbeaten so far this season, but then again so were Stockport so we have nothing to fear. Here's hoping we can continue our new found form and get another good result to take us into the home game against Carlisle on Saturday week.

There were no more transfer dealings for us as the deadline passed over quietly on Monday night with no major transfers to rock the footballing world! The loan market is still open for a while yet so maybe Nige will try to secure a long term loan deal. I believe he is still looking for another body to bring in on a similar deal to the one that brought Jack Cork in last season. That could prove to be the one that turns us into true title contenders.

Either that, or we could try and buy the league title with a takeover byfilthy rich Arab investors and the signing of a Brazilian superstar or two...

Up the Iron
Carl MacDonald