Bluebirds:0 U's:2

On the odd occasion that I take my dad to a game he always makes me cringe by loudly repeating the same inane phrases.

His two favourites are "put your foot on the ball" or "look wide", both of which are skills far beyond the capability of your average Conference footballer. He's a QPR fan of the Bowles & Marsh vintage, so I suppose I can forgive him for having high expectations.

Worryingly though I've noticed that as I get older I'm going down a similar path, and regularly scream the same nonsense in the direction of the players. It's usually manager-speak bollocks like "keep your shape" or "have a word ref" or "how many more times", and while I'd like to stop I seem to be incapable of doing so. Someone please re-assure me that all football fans have their own catch phrases, I hate feeling like I'm a weirdo.

I've also taken to doing a Mourinho-esque double fist pump when we score goals, which is another thing I'm trying to eradicate for fear of giving a fellow fan an involuntary dig in the ribs. It's a bit safer in the confines of my flat (unless I'm sitting next to my girlfriend that is) so I was Jose-ing up and down the kitchen as news of Chrissie Holroyd's two goals filtered through from Barrow.

The Brabinator unsurprisingly found time to praise the travelling fans after the game: "They were brilliant again and they've made a right mess here for the stewards to clean up, so I think they've enjoyed themselves. It was a really tough fixture and it's a long way to come, and the travelling fans have shown how fanatical they are to come this far - I think they deserved to make that mess." Our leader wants to be careful about inciting fans to make a mess; as we speak he's probably being chased round Cumbria by a spade-wielding northern version of Ian Darler.

We're already five points better off than I predicted, and probably only need to win two of our last seven games to make the play-offs. If someone had offered me that back in January, when I was feeling a bit downbeat about our chances, I'd have probably been pretty pleased. Now the players can enjoy their 13-day break and hopefully come back refreshed and ready for the final push.