The Paul Mullin column

WHAT a difference a win makes.

The mood has lifted so much since last week's 5-0 thrashing of Northwich Victoria.

It was one of those days when virtually everything we hit looked like going in, and I was more than happy to take a back seat for Lee McEvilly.

The first two goals he scored were superb and his hat-trick was just the icing on the cake.

He has a fair shot on him. He's bright, busy and strong - a lot of attributes that you look for in a forward - and when he's on form there aren't many defences that can live with him.

That hat-trick has been coming for a while because he's been looking sharper, and I think we do work well together.

We're similar in that we both go for headers to bring others into play.

But the way we worked in training last week, I stayed more central and let Lee buzz around the channels. He certainly did that to good effect on Saturday and hopefully, as the season goes on, we'll get more and more used to each other's games.

The defence is confident on the back of another clean sheet as well and they're looking a formidable unit.

Ged Brannan and Andy Procter were also outstanding on Saturday, and Ged couldn't have struck the ball any better for his goal. Let's hope he can get another 30-yarder on Saturday.

Barnet had a bad defeat in the FA Cup last weekend so maybe their confidence has taken a bit of a blow and we can capitalise on that.

The manner in which we beat Northwich can only stand us in good stead.

Things are still very tight in the top half of the table, but we've got the ammunition to score at Barnet. To get any kind of result there on Saturday would keep our mini run going and keep us in the mix.

IAN Craney got a bit of a soaking last week after his international exploits.

He came back to training sporting his England tracksuit - as if we could ever forget we had another international in our midst.

So the lads rolled him into the 'initiation' puddle and his tracksuit got a drenching.

He took it in good spirits though, and hopefully we'll be able to do that many more of his England tracksuits in the future!

At Clayton there's an embankment where, if it's wet, there's a big puddle at the bottom.

A few of the lads got hold Ian pristine in his England kit but he took it in good spirit.

It would be nice for Cav to get a run-out because he was unfortunate. It was big of him to put the club before country.

LEE McEVILLY

It's amazing how things change so quickly.

Had a couple of good days training - the mood lifted a lot and just breeds confidence.

Good to get a good win and score a few goals.

I thought we played well in spells on Saturday and certainly a lot of things that people were hitting were going in as well.

I've done all right recently thought we did well together - did some work Thursday and Friday the day before. Similar sort of players in that we both go for headers to bring others in.

Stay central and let lee buzz around in the channels and he certainly did that to good effect on Saturday.

Quite happy to take a back seat.

I got a couple of goals against Barnet last year at home and we got a draw against them at their place.

Bad defeat in the FA Cup so perhaps their confidence perhaps isn't what it was.

Work out how we go to play

If we come away with three points keep us right up there.

Do find sometimes your form does come in patches, hopefully can turn it into a string of good performances.

Still very tight but we've certainly got the ammunition to score at Barnet. Defence has performed well in the last two weeks.

Gary Bravin was brought in did an awful lot of running on Tuesday. The ground was heavy so that put us through our paces.

Set up a programme for us - sometimes a different voice helps.

Was like going back to pre-season at one stage.