Good evening Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls and welcome back to Priestfield for the first of two hugely important home fixtures, the results of which will go along way to deciding how our 2009/10 campaign will end. A Tuesday night fixture under the floodlights at Priestfield always tends to produce a particularly exhilarating atmosphere and I hope those youngsters on half-term, and all those of you that took advantage of our friends for a fiver and kids for a quid deals enjoy your evening with us.

The last week's events have unfolded, rather like a microcosm for our entire season. Firstly we faced relegation threatened Southend United in a game in which defeat would be disastrous to either side but rose to the challenge and totally outclassed our visitors with a second-half display that saw us score three times and create the chances to register several more.

It was very pleasing to see the likes of Andy Barcham and Dennis Oli getting amongst the goals once again and better yet to see Rene Howe open his account for the club with a well-taken goal, indeed the proceeding celebration would suggest it meant every but as much to the big man as it did to those of us in the stands. It will certainly be a major asset to the team to have so many of our strikers finding form at the right moment, their contributions will be vital to the season's outcome.

Then, just five days later we made the daunting trip to The Den to take on high flying Millwall where our away day hoodoo struck again, the home side running out 4-0 winners. Whilst the manner of the defeat at Millwall was hugely disappointing the players have proved on frequent occasions this season that they have the resilience to bounce back in their next home outing at Priestfield, the aforementioned Easter Monday win against Southend being a perfect case in point.

The most worrying aspect of our trip to South London was the injuries to Darren Dennehy, who failed to start the second-half, suffering a potential concussion in a first-half clash of heads, and Garry Richards who injured his ankle following a seemingly innocuous challenge with Alan Julian. Both players have been outstanding at the heart of defence in recent weeks and have quickly forged an excellent partnership, I'm sure you will join me in wishing the pair a very speedy recovery.

Tonight's match with Brighton and more still the weekend's visit of Leeds United are precisely the kind of games that we all looked forward to when the fixture lists were announced last June. The players, management team and staff at the club, together with all of our supporters in the stands worked so hard to pull this club back to League One at the first attempt last season and it is imperative now, more than ever, that we are united as we face the final five matches of the season.

I think it's no exaggeration to suggest that this season's League One line-up has been the most competitive and star-studded to grace the third tier of English football and it has been a pleasure to visit stadia such as The Valley, Elland Road and St Mary's not to mention our trip to Carrow Road next weekend. We all want to stay in this division and our fortunes are very much in our own hands, so let's all get behind the team tonight and make Priestfield a cauldron of noise from first whistle to final kick. Enjoy the match