Today we play Sedgley Park and with the contrasting league positions I am sure that there are many people outside the squad who regard this game as a certain five points for us. I can assure you that is not the case within the camp.

We never take any team lightly. There are a number of players in Sedgley Park’s squad who have played at the Gardens this season wearing a Premiership club’s shirt. Matt Riley was in Sale Jets’ team that came here in November, and Luther Burrell scored a great try for Leeds Carnegie a few weeks later.

Premiership academy players in NL1 teams is something we have become used to facing this season. In previous years it was often said that young English players didn’t get enough game time. This is definitely no longer the case. Using Matt as an example, providing he plays for Sedgley Park today it will be the fourth time he will have played a Northampton side this season.

From a national perspective this is excellent. But it also means that myself, Dorian and Paul, as well as the players, have to keep coming up with different ideas to keep opposition players such as Matt guessing.

At the start of the season I spoke about wanting to achieve Premiership standards. To succeed in any league, whether NL1 or the Premiership, you have to perform as a team.

The backs scored some good tries at The Brickfields. But they could only do so with the excellent platform provided by the pack. Nevertheless the win was built on the defensive effort that at one point held out a 13-man driving maul.

We cannot possibly know how we would have performed in the Premiership this season. The major building block has been put in place though – the strong collective purpose of this group of players. In the last three weeks against Bedford, the Pirates and Plymouth they have faced some stiff challenges from teams who fancied their chances and put us under a considerable amount of pressure.

That we came away with three wins is not to do with any individual brilliance. It is due to our togetherness as a team and focus on the task in hand. We will be the same against Sedgley Park today. They bring their own unique challenges and for the 80 minutes beating them is what our season is about.

Only on Monday will we turn our attention to Doncaster. The National Trophy draw with the Knights means that we will play them twice in eight days. Doncaster have been one of our main rivals at the top of the table all season and both games against them will be difficult.

Then in three weeks we go to Esher, a promoted team who already look to have secured their place in NL1 next season. They have played really well against plenty of sides this season and could pose us problems if we allow them.

Enjoy the game.