Is it the Scottish Cafu or Russell McMartin?! It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks for Russell Martin and the international call up has just capped it all off.

He fully deserves his inclusion in the Scotland squad, just a shame he won’t be facing his big friend Andrew Crofts, who’s not in the Welsh squad due to injury.Well done Craig Levein for picking him but shame on you Trappatoni for leaving Wes out again, you can’t ignore him when he’s playing in the Premier League.

Anyway, back to Russell, the only man to play every minute of every league game for us this season, an absolutely tremendous effort. He’s got better and better as the season’s gone on.

He came in for some unfair criticism at the start of the season, people saying there was no way he could cut it at Championship level but he’s proved everyone wrong by turning in consistent performances week after week after week and chipping in with some goals and in particular that one against Ipswich was very sweet!

Not only has he been impressive on the pitch, he’s shown what a model professional he is off it. He must be a journalist’s dream to interview, as he always has plenty to say and comes across so well when I’ve heard him in an interview. It can’t be easy to stand on the balcony of the City Hall being interviewed in front of thousands of people but again he was word perfect.

I can’t wait to see how he gets on in the Premier League, personally I think he’ll do just fine (in the words of Mr Lambert).

Last Friday evening we held our first forum of 2011 held at the Ramada Hotel, with guests Chris Goreham, Chris Lakey and Michael Bailey. The evening kicked off with an address from our acting chairman Robin Sainty, who outlined plans for the new direction that NCISA will be taking.

This was followed by chicken curry and rice and at 8.15pm the entertaining question and answer session began with our guests who were asked a wide range of questions. A big thanks from everyone at NCISA to Chris, Chris and Michael for giving up their time to come along.

The evening also gave NCISA members an opportunity to vote for their Player and Young Player of the Season, the votes were counted and the winner of the Player of the Year is Russell Martin and the Young Player of the Year is Korey Smith.

• If you would like to join NCISA, membership is �5 per year forms can be downloaded from ncisa.co.uk