Temporary Relief

Five wins out of five is certainly one hell of a start by Dean Saunders, and although a couple of the recent performances ahve been scratchy, there's no question that the Gaffer has made a fantastic impact on an ailing squad.

Indeed, he's in with a shot of challenging the club record for most consecutive league wins in a row-three more wins would do it!

And frankly, if he made it I'd feel very confident that we'd be in a position to challenge for the title as we'd not only have terrific momentum but would have earned tremendous victories at promotion challengers Stevenage and Kidderminster in the process, illustrating our credentials perfectly.

What he does in January fascinates me though, because our revival is built on peculiar foundations. Saunders has wisely chosen to raise the quality of the squad by bringing in young talent from the Premiership and Championship, but with the youngsters clearly not likely to stay with us on a permanent basis, the question remains whether he can build a successful side of players who will actually stay with us the long term.

Not that using the loan market is a bad thing. The transfer window, which I feel is a farcical idea in so many ways, restricts managers like Saunders who come in part of the way through the season, and anyway, I've been feeling for a while that we don't exploit into the loan system like some other do; after all, Hereford United built their side around a core of on-loan players from a higher level last season and were promoted impressively.

Mind you, when you take a look at how they've fared this season now the loanees have returned offers evidence that temporary moves doesn't bring lasting success.