SEPTEMBER proved to be a bitter-sweet month for the team - and me personally.

It all started so well with three wins on the trot following the international break.

We made bad starts in the games against Plymouth and Doncaster but came back well both times to win 3-1.

We looked dangerous from set-pieces and scored a few goals from them in both games.

It was bad to concede the early goals and we didn't play well in either of the games - but it was nice to come away with six points and continue our winning run.

We've worked quite a lot on set-pieces.

The boys have been getting themselves in the right areas and the delivery has been decent.

Appy has been specifying things and pointing out weaknesses in the opposition.

We haven't conceded off too many set-pieces either which is pleasing after last season, when we did.

But I have to say the free-kick we tried to work on the edge of the box against Crystal Palace left a bit to be desired.

I think everyone in the stadium knew what was supposed to happen from that free-kick - apart from the players who were trying to set it up!

That might not have been very slick but our 5-0 victory at my old club Middlesbrough certainly was.

It was a great day all-round.

It was the first time I've played there since leaving.

The day just got better as it went on.

I don't think we'll have many better days than that as a football team or as individuals.

Everything just seemed to click and everyone played really well.

It was a great result down to great finishing and defending really well.

I don't remember Scotty Carson having too much to do.

It probably made a lot of people sit up and take notice.

Something certainly caught my eye on the Boro trip - a ceramic chicken that kept appearing at the door of my hotel room!

Three times someone knocked and left it sitting there.

I knew it was one of the lads and the third time I looked out into the corridor I heard someone making chicken noises.

I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and then they gave themselves away by laughing around the corner.

It was Robbie Koren who was in the next-door room.

I didn't expect it of him because I thought he was a sensible lad - but obviously not!

Mind you, if it results in 5-0 wins every week, the chicken can come everywhere with us!

Middlesbrough are a footballing side like ourselves and we battered them from start to finish.

It showed a lot of teams if they try and play against us the quality we've got will ultimately be better than most other teams in the division.

But the last few games have shown that if teams go up against us, make it a hard game, and put pressure on us - it can make life difficult for us.

That's what the Championship is all about.

The sooner we adjust to that the better.

Maybe if we hadn't won so convincingly at Middlesbrough it would have made our life easier because we wouldn't have been drawn to everyone's attention so dramatically.

But, having said that, Neil Warnock is very adept at taking teams to places and making life difficult.

Palace came to The Hawthorns stuck to their guns and got the three points.

We need to do that when we're away from home as well - just grind out points like Palace did.

It didn't work out like that at Oakwell unfortunately.

We gave away poor goals in the first half against Barnsley and in the second half we probed a little bit but never really put them under any real pressure.

The goal I scored didn't mean much either because it was a bad performance all-round.

But it is pleasing to have four goals to my name already this season.

I was happy to score goals in the Premier League last term.

I've scored goals in the Championship before but I didn't get as many as I'd have liked the last time I was in the Championship with West Brom.

I probably wasn't playing as regularly as I was at Sheffield Wednesday.

But I know if I'm playing regularly I can chip in with a few goals.

It's fair to say a few words were exchanged in the dressing room after the Palace and Barnsley games.

A lot of the lads get more annoyed with themselves than the gaffer does with us.

I wasn't involved in the Palace game but at Barnsley the gaffer and Eddie didn't have to say too much because the players had covered it.

It's good to put our finger on what went wrong.

You can't afford to lose three or four games on the bounce in this league because you'll find yourself drifting to mid-table in a tight division.

As soon as you come off the pitch after defeat things always look worse than they actually are.

But once you cool down and talk about it a couple of days later that's when you find solutions, rather than ranting and raving - which is good at the time because maybe it does shake a few people up and puts things into people's minds that they should be doing on the pitch.

But until you watch it yourself it's hard to take things on board when someone is having a go at you.

Your natural reaction is to defend yourself.

But everyone is pushing for the same thing and we only want to do well for each other so, if someone's got a cause to be angry, I don't see why they shouldn't.

We spoke on Thursday and had a look at a few bits and pieces.

We put in a good performance at Preston to kick-off October on a positive note ahead of the international break.

Of course the disappointment for me from that game was picking up another calf injury.

And at the end of the day we've still started the season well and given ourselves a good base to build from in the league.

Even in the Carling Cup the boys gave a really good account of themselves at Arsenal and unfortunately a moment of madness from Jerome made life more difficult.

I think we've missed him over the last few games.

He has that little bit of individuality - that something different that maybe we've lacked.

He endured a season last term when he wasn't playing much football.

It's a new lease of life for him here and he enjoyed the few games he's had.

He played very well against Boro and then he had a rush of blood against Arsenal and he's ended up missing three games because of it.

It's important to have everybody fit and available because our squad is not as big as it's been in recent seasons.

One player we would love to be available now is Ishmael Miller.

He's someway off that at the moment but he's given everyone a huge boost by signing a new five-year Albion deal.

He's young and still has massive potential.

Coming back from a lengthy injury lay-off is going to be difficult for him but he works hard in the gym.

It's a difficult time for him and hopefully he'll come back stronger for it.

Jonas has also tied down a long-term deal so hopefully everyone can put those things to bed now and get on with trying to get promoted to the Premier League.

Ever since Jonas has joined the club he has been top-draw.

He's aggressive and wants to win games.

He's not afraid to put people in their place if they're not doing their job for the team, which is good because we don't have a massive amount of characters like that.

It's going to be a long slog for us all but the rewards are great if we can get there again.