AS a player I was never a big fan of having a winter break over January, I was happy to play as many games as I could.

But as a manager I would like to see one introduced.

It gives you time to recoup and assess the season so far, possibly recharge your batteries and look forward to the remainder of the campaign.

Our trip to Spain was great. It ended up more as a team bonding trip, but it came at exactly the right time.

Like many clubs at this time of year, our facilities were taking a bit of a hammering down at Barnoldswick with the weather so it was nice to take the lads away for a few days.

I don't think you can underestimate how important that can be.

It happens quite a lot in higher standards of football and it's good to just break the season up and be able to do something different.

We had a good break and we had a few chats with the players.

We told them that now was the time to kick on and get ourselves away from the foot of the table and they all seem fired up and determined to do just that.

It was also a chance to give the injured players like Peter Cavanagh the chance to get a good work out and ready them for League Two action.

We left to go to Spain after a couple of good games, a win against Mansfield at home and a good draw away at Wycombe, and now we're back into the action against Chester City and Saturday is absolutely massive.

I suppose we've been lucky because all the results have gone for us in the last fortnight.

All the bottom clubs seem to be stuttering so it's a big chance for us, especially at home against a team, I believe, we're more than capable of beating.

But it's in our hands now and we've got to make sure that we get the points on the board as soon as possible.