Captain's Log - Star Date 26th August 2006

[davieG]

OS ......

With Paddy McCarthy

The City skipper says he is happy to have got his first home goal in a Foxes shirt under his belt and looks ahead to the challenge that faces his side when Southend are the visitors this weekend.

Now I know some of you might have thought my celebrations were a little over the top on Tuesday night.

But I'm always desperate to win and always desperate to score.

So the fact that it was in the dying minutes of a Carling Cup first round tie with Macclesfield is not going to take the shine off the occasion one bit.

It was also an extra special moment because it was my first goal at the Walkers Stadium.

My previous two goals last season both came on our travels - at Brighton and at Hull City.

So, I've finally broken my Walkers duck and here's to a few more goals in years to come.

Just as pleasing - if not more so - has been the fact that we've been able to keep two clean sheets in our recent matches with Coventry and Macclesfield.

As a defender you always take extra pride in a shut-out but defending is all about defending as a whole team. And the credit should go to everyone in the team for what has been achieved.

Congratulations too to the other scorer Chris O'Grady on his full debut for the club. I'm sure he'll remember the night for a long time to come.

Against Macclesfield, fans were able to get a glimpse of the future of the club.

I'm told the average age of the team was only 22 and I felt, despite that youth, we turned in a very mature and disciplined performance.

I never felt we were in any trouble and while we're not going to get carried away by the scoreline we should not forget that many of our Championship rivals did encounter difficulties against lower league opposition.

All you can ask for in a cup competition is to advance into the next round. And there are some big Championship clubs who won't be in the hat for the second round this weekend.

We've won two and drawn one of our last three games and we're establishing a base for us to build upon.

Southend United on Saturday is going to be a tough challenge, make no mistake. They've surprised a lot of people with two successive promotions.

And they've hit the ground running again this season with some good results - credit to them.

But, as always, it's our home turf and it's up to us to impose ourselves on the opposition whoever they might be.

We have looked solid in recent games and the good news is that we are making consistent improvements in our form.

We know it was a difficult start but that's behind us now and we're looking forward to the future with confidence.

Our aim is to climb up the table and see what we can achieve.

There are no rash promises but the boys are buzzing and really looking forward to each game.

We've got a two-week break after today and it's always good to go into these mini-international breaks on a high.

I understand that Iain Hume has got to make the long trip over to Canada for an international in Montreal against Jamaica.

One or two of the other lads are on standby but I'll be staying a lot closer to home.

The lads really appreciated your backing again on Tuesday night and, please, let's have more of the same again on Saturday afternoon.