John Scales in his first column of the season talks to Gavin Wilding about his injury hit start. He tells us how the injury developed, his thoughts on our opening games, and what we must do to survive in the Premiership...

Looking back at how the season started, I was pleased with my performance against Fiorentina and very much looking forward to the coming season, but the Monday before the Spurs game I pulled up with a thigh injury. I just couldn't believe it, I thought that it wasn't anything major, so I stopped training straight away and I imagined that it would just settle down. Even within that training session, I thought that I might be able to rejoin the game again. But as I iced it a couple of hours later, I realised that I had pulled a muscle in there. I started panicking about the game against Spurs on Saturday, because I was just so desperate to play against my old club. I went back out and had a jog, and on Wednesday and Thursday started doing some exercise and I think I enflamed it and made it worse. That consequently didn't heal up for another couple of weeks, so I missed that opening week of the season. You can imagine that missing Spurs, Manchester United and Sunderland, well, wasn't good. I was totally fed up with that, and it was not the way I wanted to start my Ipswich career.

I thought the performance against Spurs was excellent. Back in the Premiership and at Tottenham, not the easiest place to go. I spoke with a lot of players after the game and they were very impressed with the way Ipswich played, the control and the confidence, so there was a lot to be taken from it. Although it was quite a heavy defeat it was really down to individual mistakes rather than the team collectively. The scoreline didn't reflect the game I don't think, the front two worked incredibly hard, caused the experienced players at the back considerable problems and we kept the ball patiently and knew when to put pressure on them. It's just a shame the goals came at the wrong time, but that happens. Overall though it was good, and it was good that we continued it through to the next game.

The game against Manchester United had a fantastic atmosphere. A great occasion for everybody. It couldn't have been a better script really, apart from obviously a win! The performance was fantastic. We really kept them quiet. It was a great occasion.

Then a great win against Sunderland, against a team the club knew something about, barring a few changes over the last year. We kept their strikers very quiet and didn't really allow them to play. We played our football and another centre half scored a goal. The way the story was going up to that point was that the defenders were scoring the goals and that continued with Titus's goal, which turned out to be the winner which rounded off a week where the performances just got better and better.

Titus is a very young lad, and he is now establishing himself in the Premiership. His confidence will grow. He is obviously going to be tested and his experience in the Under-21s was good for him. Playing at this level is a huge step up for him and he's coped well, he will make mistakes like any other player with the inexperience of playing in the Premiership. I think he has got the right character to come through that, learn from it very quickly and will continue to develop into a very good player. He is aggressive player and very strong and that is a big part of his game.

The Leicester game was disappointing. We couldn't capitalise on the possession when we had it and couldn't exploit them very much. It was disappointing that we got beaten against a side that played the same formation. In the second half Leicester changed a few things and brought Stan Collymore on and withdrew Darren Eadie into midfield and we didn't cope with that as well as we should have done. The emphasis swung in Leicester's favour and we didn't really have that cutting edge that you need at this level. We didn't adapt as the game went on or change the system to cause more of a threat to them. They are a very tough side and have shown great early season form by the way they have gone up to second place. They are not scoring a lot of goals, but they are defensively very strong and that's what we found. I am sure a lot of other teams will find the same thing.

For the game against Villa George Burley spoke to me before the game, as he wanted to go back to the team that started those initial games. He wanted to bring Mark Venus back in and that's obviously his prerogative. It was a big disappointment for me and I was quite frustrated. I've just got to work on my fitness now and get involved in the first team squad and force my way back into the side.

The mood in the camp has been euphoric after the promotion and that carried on into the first week of the season. Now obviously it has settled down and there are different considerations and different things to be looked at. We've got to get back into adapting very quickly and understanding how to carve out results in our games. There is a lot of work to be done, a lot to be enjoyed and a lot to look forward to. We've got our work cut out to be as relatively successful as we want to be.

I must confess I know nothing of our new signing, Karic. I heard about it like everyone else I guess. All clubs are the same in that we know as much as the public with regard to transfers. It's a little bit bizarre at times as the public want the inside track as to what's going on, and we honestly haven't a clue. This is why we do read the papers. It's not particularly our business until the guy arrives. We know as players that there is so much speculation and players are not there until they are signed as there can be so many complications. It's not worth the club informing us anyway until it's signed and sealed, that's the only time it's worth making a release.

I don't think that the fuel crisis is giving the players any problems at the moment, it depends how long it goes on. I will continue to get the train to Portman Road, I walk 5 minutes to the ground so it's not causing me any problems! It will cause supporters more problems than the team. I would think they have made provisions for the team coach to get up to Leeds on Friday night and to Millwall next week. I would imagine that not many fans will travel to Leeds, which is a shame.

Photo: Action Images

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