The away programme is always going to be tough for us and long journeys are always something that you concern yourself with in terms of getting the preparations right, but there is no doubt that everything has been spot on.

Every minor detail like food, travel and timings have been excellent and we most certainly felt the benefit of it during the matches. Although they were both pleasing performances, we still came away slightly disappointed because we felt that we could have gone on to win those games.

But we are looking a very fit squad, everybody is on the front foot and we are so close to turning somebody over that it is is very encouraging at the moment.

On Tuesday night I had Ronnie Jepson come to Loftus Road. Ronnie is a very experienced football man and I asked him to analyse the squad for us and what he said to me after the game was very interesting. 

He said that we have a very honest squad. Now that is something that is like music to Neil's ears because he has worked so hard since being here to build a team based on truth and honesty, so when Ronnie, a man we both have a huge amount of respect for, said this to us it was great to hear.

And you can see exactly what he was talking about when you look at our performances against Preston and QPR where we battled hard and earned ourselves two very good points.

Anybody who visits QPR knows that you have got to handle what I would identify as their front six. You have got to handle them before you can think about winning the football match and once you are on top of them you can get on to their back four and keeper.

That happened for us on a few occasions such as when Stern hit the post, Neil Danns volleyed over and then Alan Lee had that great chance. I don't think he got a good connection with the header. If he had put it in the other corner it would have been a goal.

We knew from previous games and previous footage that they would come at us very quickly with a lot of pace and a lot of good movement, which they did and we had to put the fire out for about 20 minutes before we could even settle down into the game.

I thought we did that really well, apart from one incident when we tried to play offside and I don't think Jose recognised how much pace Jay Simpson has got. I think that woke Jose up and made him realise that if he didn't concentrate then this guy was going to get behind him.

But we can't talk about QPR withouth mentioning Julian. He made some top class saves, saves that would not look out of place on any football stage around the world.

And what we can't understand is why no-one has shown any strong interest in him. Now we obviously don't want to part with him, but we were having a casual conversation on the bus back home on Tuesday night, Jim Stannard, the gaffer and myself.

We were just talking about his saves when the gaffer said: "You know Mick, I can't understand why Arsenal don't come and get him because I don't see a better goalkeeper", and Arsenal obviously have goalkeeping problems, at least we think. Arsene obviously doesn't but we are amazed that with all the interest in the youngsters here there has been no big interest in Speroni.

We think he is up there with the best in the Premiership and how he is not being recognised by his country, there better be some very good goalkeepers in Argentina because we can't work it out other than it is because we are in the Championship.

A big factor in Julian's development over the past couple of season has been Jim Stannard. Of course his natural talent was always there but the introduction of Jim has been a good move because he trusts Jim implicitly.

They are very close as people. If you came down to the training ground you will see us training and Jim and Julian will be in the corner working away. Part of my job is to keep an eye on all of our players' development and when I watch Julian it is amazing to watch a man who is so manic about his work. 

Jim is a good teacher, not just for Speroni but also for our other goalkeepers. Jim has worked very hard on what you call 'fast feet' where you get another step in when you are diving. It gives you another yard and Jim has worked really hard on that and it has paid off there is no doubt about that.

I think he is a much better goalkeeper than he was. I remember the game against Everton, I am sure everyone remembers, when he tried to dribble past Kevin Campbell and I think that cost him his career for about three years and it knocked him so far back that he couldn't see himself moving forward.

But the manager loves him to bits, we all do. He is such a gentleman and nice man that it is not possible to not like him as a person but as a goalie we think he is a Premier League standard.

One talking point that has been brought to my attention this week is that of Lee Hills not playing up at Preston. 

For most of that week the manager was dealing with this dilemma. All of the management team talked about it and we decided to go with Clyney for the simple reason that we felt that to just chuck Lee in for one game knowing that he wouldn't play against QPR, and knowing that we have an international break coming up and he is going on loan, it would be unfair to put him in for one game, use him and then kick him out.

So, adding everything up we knew Clyne would do a job for us and it worked for us. Clyney was probably our best player at Preston.

Of course Lee has now gone out on loan to Oldham, which is a great move for him. He is far too good to be playing in our Reserves. He is coasting there and he needs to be exposed to a game where there are three points on a Saturday up for stake.

We have also been mindful that with the international break he wasn't going to get any football. He would not have played against Middlesbrough and that would mean a month of no first team football and only a couple of Reserve games chucked in.

So we think the timing is great for him and he is excited by it. They play Leeds twice in the next couple of weeks, which there are two big games. Then they have got Gillingham away and then Norwich. It is a good programme and him and Darryl are going to get top class football at a high level

I would like to make something clear though. This loan move is by no means a sign that Lee's future at Palace is over. There is no chance of him leaving here.

Of course, should someone come along and offer us the right money and him the right opportunity then he has to go, we understand that. But there is no way this is an indication of Lee's position at the club

It is a great opportunity for him to get a lot of games under his belt in a short space of time. They are also playing in the FA Cup and we are going to let him play in the competiton because it is only fair to him. If we had sent him up there to play a couple of games and then not play in the cup would no be fair on him so the gaffer has allowed him to play.

On a final note I would like to talk about Clyne. He has obviously not been in the squad as much as last season and I have talked about this before. But recently Danny Butterfield has made a couple of mistakes which has raised the issue I am sure of why Danny has kept his place, and it is a fair point.

The answer is that the manager is very loyal to players who do their jobs. Mistakes are natural, everyone makes them and to make a knee jerk reaction would not be beneficial to Danny or us.

You just look at Rio Ferdinand at the moment. He has made a couple of mistakes and suddenly there is a campaign against him. But I agree with Sir Alex, he is a proper professional and will work to get back on form. And that is the same with Danny, he will work hard not to make those mistakes again.

We have talked to Danny about it. I remember saying to Danny that his body position at Cardiff was wrong for the goal. If he had opened his body up then he would have seen Whittingham.

He has taken all of what we have had to say on board. I was telling him that my best defensive games were when I joined Noel Cantwell, ex Man Utd captain, and a legend at Old Trafford. He really taught me how to defend better with your body position in the box and I said to Danny "my tips from Noel I can pass on to you", which I have done and he came back to me and said "no one has ever told me that", which I find incredible really, but hopefully they will help him.

So even at Danny's age and experience he is still learning, and he is proof that there is always something you can teach a player.

Mick's blog will continue throughout the season right here on cpfc.co.uk. To read his earlier blogs click here.

Why not send in topics for us to put to Mick to talk about by contacting us on info@cpfc.co.uk.