I'd like to start by welcoming Kevin Dillon and his staff from Aldershot to the Coral Windows Stadium.

It's only been a short while since we last played so unless all of a sudden Kevin or I have signed a lorry-load of players, then both teams are going to know all about each other.

It happens in football that clubs play each other back to back. Birmingham played Portsmouth last week in the FA Cup and then again a couple of days later in the league. You just get on with it.

We had a very close encounter down at Aldershot and I'm sure this will be another one. But I'm just concentrating on us. We've had three wins and three defeats since I came in but I do think we are slowly improving. Just because we go and get a result against Rochdale and Rotherham doesn't mean we are going to win every match.

There were some negatives from the other night at Port Vale but also some positive things and I think it is going in the right direction. You're never ever going to change things straight away and become a great team overnight. But I'm quite pleased with the progress that is being made.

It's nice to have a home game again. To be fair to the players, it's been hard to have five of the last six matches away. Three on the spin takes it out of you with longer journeys so it's been pretty difficult.

I'll be pleased after this one to have a free week to get some more work in on the training ground. It's not easy to do that when you've got so many games coming up. But we've managed to put a few things to them and the boys have responded well.

We have added a couple more faces to the squad since our last home game and I'd like to welcome Adam Bolder and Luke Oliver to the club.

I'd also like to pay tribute to Keith Alexander, who died so suddenly last week.

We all take football very seriously because it's something we've done for a long time. But when you hear about the loss of such a good man as Keith that shows you the really important things in life. I really feel for his family. I used to speak to Keith quite a lot and his son and it was a very sad day hearing the news. Keith was a brilliant man and a brilliant manager but only in the lower leagues, so it was nice that all the leagues showed their respect.

I'm sure he would have been very proud to know that there was either a minute's silence or minute's applause at every match last week as there should be.

Enjoy the game this afternoon.