Turnaround

Just seven days ago (well alright, seven and a bit) Milan made the first hints about the appointment of a new manager within the next 48 hours. After the immense disappointment of the match at Fulham and the general "We're absolutely definitely relegated now" reactions that followed, perhaps a change was the necessary thing. I feel sorry for Zajec - he came in to a job he didn't want or have experience with in a very difficult time for the club - but it soon became apparent that his role at the club was soon to revert back to what it used to be. Club mood: Perked up

No surprises that we had the media feeding frenzy - the speculation, the madness and all that goes with it. John Gregory? Brian Little? Gordon Strachan? According to the radio, tabloids and various websites, they were all definitely 110% going to take over. Luckily for the fans, the thought of John Gregory was so repulsive that Milan stepped out and denied that rumour within the hour. Club mood: Curious

And then we found out about Alain Perrin and David Pleat. To say it wasn't a popular appointment is perhaps something of an understatement. "ALAIN WHO?!?", they screamed. "Never heard of him, he must be rubbish" seemed to be the underlying tone. And as for bringing in Pleat as well, we might as well be relegated already. What difference can he make? Club mood: Livid

But over the next, ooooh, half an hour after his appointment, people finally started to realise that he wasn't actually that bad. Strangely enough not having heard of him wasn't reason enough to discriminate. We heard of his work with Troyes, we heard about Marseille, we heard about the crazy UAE team who sacked him after two wins and two defeats. We heard about how he was a disciplinarian, and spent most of Friday making jokes about Reggie Perrin in a move of vague acceptance. Club mood: Cautiously optimistic

And then Saturday came. Perrin is the messiah, we're definitely staying up, fantastic attacking football, finally we've got a new character at the helm to lead us on to better things. Club mood: Fan-bloody-tastic

Just speaking to fellow fans this week, listening to the phone-in shows and looking on the messageboards, the change in tone from this time last Tuesday is unbelievable. Even some of those who said they weren't renewing their season tickets were intruiged enough by what they saw on Saturday to have changed their minds. Of course it's as much about the way we won rather than just the fact we won; four goals, four strikers, plenty of chances and a fantastic atmosphere. As much as I appreciate Zajec's efforts in trying to win us the important points to get us safe and in trying to make us difficult to break down, entertaining stuff it wasn't. Perrin - admittedly only judging on one game - seems to be quite an attack minded manager, a reputation we heard about from France and one he certainly backed up with his substitutions at the weekend.

Birmingham is the big acid test as we're so poo on the road that we'll finally see if we can get a manager who's not afraid to stick with his philosophies, even at someone else's ground. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying that amount of optimism around the club; the like of which we haven't seen for a good few months.