It's back to basics at Maine Road following our defeat at Southampton on Saturday.

We lost 2-0 at St. Mary's in a performance that our manager Kevin Keegan said was "as poor as we could have been".

I was named as a substitute but didn't play as the manager started with Nicolas Anelka up front on his own and in the second half brought on Darren Huckerby.

Before the game we had talked about how it was a match that we wanted to go and win. We hoped for two things - that a victory would get us started on a run and bring an end to our poor away form.

As it happened it did neither. Our away form has continued and we now have to go back to the drawing board.

After you have defeats you talk as players and it was agreed that we all had to look at ourselves and, as I said, get back to basics.

That means winning your own battles and once you've achieved that within a game look to help the next person. But you can't do that until you are on top of your game.

I would like to think that, given the opportunity, I can help rectify the situation. I hope my chance will come sometime soon because up to this point it hasn't worked.

If I am selected I would like to think my chance will be three to four games and not just one. No one can operate like that, one game and that's it.

A player can play well, not score and it looks as though he has not taken his chance.

But at times like this you are only as good as your last goal. You can do a lot of good work in match but at this moment in time people are looking for strikers to score goals.

I was given my first start of the season in midweek during our Worthington Cup match against Second Division Crewe.

We ran out 3-2 winners after going a goal down inside the first 20 seconds.

I played for 60 minutes of the match before being replaced by Darren.

I was disappointed that I didn't have any opportunities up to that time but having said that Nicolas didn't either.

The game improved when Darren and Shaun Wright-Phillips came on as we upped the pace and seemed more in tune with the system.

We had started four-four-two but the midfielders were those who liked to play in the middle and consequently we had no width.

We had midfielders in wide positions but it was not their game to cross the ball. They looked to come in and play.

When Shaun came on he automatically drove down the right and put in balls and that lifted us and changed the complexion of the game.

We don't have another game now until October 19 when we face Chelsea because of international fixtures.

It's come at a good time because it gives us time to work on formations and so forth. Sometimes when you are on a losing streak you need a game as soon as possible in the hope that you get a result but at the same time not having a game allows you to get your head down and do some work in an effort to put things right for the next match.

Chelsea are not flying but they are certainly a lot more confident than ourselves at the moment and any sign of lack of confidence they will take full advantage of.

I will be turning out for the reserves tonight against Bolton. It's important for me to get match practice and try to keep my fitness up and I hope I can put in a performance that will lead to me helping the first team get out of the current predicament.