Midfielder Owen Moxon pretty much swept the board when it came to awards last season, and the accolades continued into this term with his nomination for and subsequent inclusion in another raft of League Two teams of the season.
But as he said himself when we caught up with him on Tuesday, that was then ... and this is now.
Speaking first about the difference in levels, he said: “I think it’s a step up, but I also think we’ve settled in quite well.
“I don’t think we’ve looked in any game like we’re not in it, it’s just the fine margins we always talk about. With the step up teams do punish you more for any little mistakes, as we’ve seen, but I think we’ve been the better team for the majority of the games.
“Each team has spells, but I’m sure it’ll come for us if we keep playing like we are. It definitely does feel like it is coming from us inside the dressing room.
“I think we all knew what we were coming in to and, with the short break we had, we knew we had to get back up to speed a bit quicker than everybody else, but I don’t think we’ve been surprised by anything.
“It’s just about adapting, and I think we’re doing that. You can see by the performances that we’re there, even though some results haven’t gone the way we wanted them to go. Like I say, it does feel like it’s coming so we just need to keep putting in the performances and we know the results will follow.”
And part of that has been managing the disappointment of walking off the field of play without perhaps having gained the end result deserved.
“It is frustrating when you’re not getting the results you deserve, but when you reflect on it you look at it and see we’re doing a lot of good things,” he told us. “We know we need to cut out the things we’re not doing so well because that’s maybe what’s costing us the three points.
“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how well we’re doing if we’re not getting the three points. There are a lot of positives and the more we keep taking those and cutting out the negatives we know they’ll turn into wins. We can’t be negative about it, we have to keep going, keep performing, and it’ll come for us.
“If you look back at the weekend we were up against Derby, a big club, one of the favourites to be up there, but we more than matched them. We were the better team for periods, but they were clinical.
“We need to be like that, more ruthless and clinical when we create chances. They got the one chance in the first half and the boy scored, and we’re seeing that more teams are more clinical. We have to be ready for that and we have to be like that as well.”
Pretty much every time we speak to the playmaking midfielder we joke about the fact that (insert number here – this time we reckon it’s about 18) months ago he was driving a delivery van as well as playing the beautiful game.
“I still wouldn’t say I’m surprised by anything that’s happened,” he insisted. “I put pressure on myself all the time to do well, and there’s a lot of pressure coming from elsewhere as well.
“I just deal with it and go out there and play my football. I just concentrate on that. At the start of the season I had a couple of injuries so I’ve been playing with a couple of tears in my hip, but I’m starting to come out the end of that now.
“That’s annoying when you don’t feel a hundred percent, but I’m back to that now. Everybody in the team puts pressure on themselves because we all want to do well. We demand from ourselves and each other, so that will stand us in good stead.
“Like I said before, we had such a short summer, then we were straight back into it, so it’s hard to sit back and look fully at what happened over the season. When I was away on holiday I thought about it a little bit, but I just get on with it now.
“It’s done, last season is last season, it’s great for your memories and for when you look back on your career, but we’re back in the building and we’re working now. I’m just trying to focus on this year as we try to do it all again.”
“I think we are all learning, it’s a new league for the whole team, and we’re learning how to play against different types of teams,” he added. “Some of them pass and keep the ball, so it’s about us learning when to do it and when not to do it.
“It is a step up so if you do give the ball away, or you try something at the wrong time, they can punish you. It’s just about adapting and I think we’re all doing that very well. The more games we play the better we’ll be.
“Like I say, I just concentrate on the football. Like I said, there’s a lot of pressure put on from different angles, it is what it is, it’s part and parcel of football, so I just get on with it. I just want to play.”
The proof in the pudding there was the start he had, with two goals from his first two appearances – one of them a stunner of a free kick.
“Last year I knew I had it in the locker to do that because I’d scored a few the year before,” he said. “I think I was maybe putting myself under too much pressure to deliver one.
“There was one in the pre-season game where I hit it and I thought it was going in, but that was a great save. That one in the first game, I knew it was going in. I think I’ve only had one more, but I’m hoping to add a lot more of them this season.
“And obviously assists are just as important because we work on them a lot with whether we’re going front post or back post, because it’s different for different games.
“We’re good at getting across the front, and I’d had a free kick just before Luke Plange’s goal the other week, so I told him to make sure he got right across the front and we’d get a goal.
“He did that and it’s things like that we all need to chip in with. The more everybody does that the more we’ll succeed.”
“Look, I wasn’t happy with myself on Saturday in the first half,” he added. “Even though the free kicks and corners were going in that area, they weren’t good enough.
“There are other weeks gone by where you put them on the money and we don’t get anything for it. It’s going to happen and all you need is one to come off, as it did for Luke the week before, and you get a goal from it.
“I do demand the standards from myself and probably in that first half on Saturday they weren’t up to scratch. We go again for the next game and they’ll just be better.
“Like I say, we’re matching every team in every department and it’s maybe just that split second of concentration, and sometimes I don’t even think it’s been a great bit of quality from the other team. “It’s maybe just something we can nip in the bud from our end and hopefully we can start kicking on and picking up the three points. That’s the main thing, start turning it into wins.
“We were three unbeaten before Derby, we’ve put on a good performance and we’ve walked away with a two-nil loss. We need to bounce back and we’re all in training ready to go for Saturday. We just want those three points and to get back to winning ways.”
