Dear Santa, For Christmas please could you bring us one striker, two midfielders and a central defender. We have been very good fans, but did get a bit frustrated by our last manager.

Dear Santa,

For Christmas please could you bring us one striker, two midfielders and a central defender. We have been very good fans, but did get a bit frustrated by our last manager. We are long suffering and hope that you will grant our wishes to allow us to have a better future.

Love NCFC Supporters.

This might be how our letter to Santa would look.

Like most letters to Santa, we never get all we ask for and I think we have to be a bit more realistic when the transfer window opens.

We have been told that there is not a lot of money and in order to get the number of players we require, at the right standard, we would need to sell.

Let's face it, who would want some of the players we would like to offload?

This means that it may need to be one of the big names and I think we need to be prepared for this to happen.

However, if we can stave off the interest in the likes of Earnshaw, Peter Grant may look to the lower leagues to boost the squad, like many of the other Championship clubs.

This would not necessarily give us instant success but would hopefully provide the building blocks for the future.

Although this seems to be a bit pessimistic, we are still not in a bad position, if the players start to perform.

We are only eight points off the play-off places which could be eradicated with a good run over Christmas and New Year.

However, we are also close to the relegation battle, as Adam Drury has pointed out.

The league is tight and I am sure we will make headway and improve our position over the festive period.

We do have the players to compete in this league, as we showed during our five game run earlier in the season. It is just a case of getting them all to perform to these levels on a more consistent basis.

All I ask is that all supporters get behind the team and don't expect too much during the January transfer window as the funds are not there for wholesale transfers in.

It only leaves me to wish all our members a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year and much improved NCFC performances in 2007.