With 20 games gone United find themselves in a good position, with confidence levels high and everything to play for, despite the weather doing its level best to prevent us from reaching the halfway stage.
It’s hard not to think forward, that’s human nature, isn’t it, but there’s also a clear realisation that there’s still a lot of work to do.
“I think it’s gone very well, but I don’t think people will judge me after 20 games,” manager Paul Simpson said. “I don’t think if on December 20 we suddenly start slumping that we’ll all be feeling as positive as we are now anymore.
“It’s my job to make sure we keep going, keep pushing everybody forward, keep driving standards. That’s not just on the grass, it’s everything off the grass.
“I want the whole football club to be better, I think there are massive improvements that need to be made to make it a sustainable football club, a club that can hold its own at the top end of League Two and maybe push onto League One.
“We’ve got loads and loads of work to do, but so far I’ve been delighted from February to the end of last season, really pleased with the response we got from everybody and really pleased with what we’ve done so far this season with the group of players we’ve got.
“We have to just keep looking to improve all the time, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
“What I would say is the support we’re getting from supporters coming through the turnstiles, sponsorship, commercial, sales that go in the shop, there’s definitely a massive improvement going on there,” he added.
“Things are going through the roof with what we’re bringing in on that side of it. I know the board of directors are all enjoying coming to games because we’re winning, or winning a lot of the times, and they’re probably as disappointed as me that we’ve drawn too many games.
“My job is to keep moving the football club forward. I think if we get the football side of it right, that’s what makes people want to go into the shop and buy a new shirt, or the gilets.
“This week we’ve got some new Oddball boxer shorts - I’m a bit disappointed Stef wanted me to model gilets but not the boxer shorts - all those things are flying.
“The stuff that goes on in Foxy’s is really good, lots of positive things are happening. We’ve just got to keep striving at it and make sure the football stays good, so all the other stuff stays good.”
And it’s been a season where the already excellent community work has gone up another notch.
“I think it’s huge,” he agreed. “We had whatever shirts we had in the shop sold really quickly. When they first came in, I went in a couple of nights, the players did too, then we’ve waited a long time for the next batch to come in. I’m told they’re flying out again, stock keeps going.
“We are getting more visibility in the community. The truth is, that only comes with winning games of football and a positive feel, that’s why we have to do everything we can to keep winning games, and making sure in the January transfer window we try and improve the squad even more to go again, and that’s what we’re working towards.
“Greg Abbott’s really busy looking at all sorts of different things, making calls here and there, checking on availability of players.
“We’re hoping we can go to the board with a problem and say look, this is what we want to do, we think this will help and hope they back us, as they have done so far.”