Back from international duty

LTLF has returned after a short break (a week in France, if you’re interested) and unlike Simon Cox, the only injury we’ve suffered is to our wallets.

Our parting gift before going away was to warn of the health risks of too much optimism and one eighteensixtyfive correspondent clearly took note, dismissing a Leeds fan’s suggestion that we were ‘dead certs for promotion’. A lot of worrying optimism in the comments though, clearly some of us haven’t been for our realism jabs!

That said, it’s hard not to feel positive at the moment after a transfer window masterclass landed us a total of 11 new players, many of whom have already started making an impact. Still, over the crazy summer that has just passed, our transfer activity paled in comparison to high-spending Blackburn and Udinese – sorry, we mean Watford – when you look at the stats for the transfer window.

And then there was the performance against Charlton, who were passed to death according to Through the Seasons Before Us, meaning this is our best start to a season since 2006.

And so attention turns back to the domestic calendar and tomorrow’s match with Birmingham, a prospect that has TTSBU excited about team selections, and why not? The opposition has the Mansfield Chad guest blogger Craig North thinking about the same fixture last season and the huge impact it had on the club.

Indeed, it certainly is remarkable to think how quickly we’ve gone from despair, confusion and anger to barely being able to contain our excitement about the Reds. It won’t last forever and LTLF still maintains that a healthy dose of harsh reality will ultimately do us all some good, but let’s indulge ourselves just one week longer, eh?