Hello everyone,

Since I last spoke to you we've played two games and obviously the highlight has to be getting through the Third Round of The FA Cup. It's a competition I have a lot of good memories of as both a player and a manager and I would love to have another good run this season.

Against Sunderland it was really tough to be honest with you, we'd come up against them only a few days before in the league. We had a good 1-0 victory up at the Stadium of Light, and they came down to Deepdale and made changes to the side and made it hard for us.

Even though they had Liam Miller sent off after half an hour, they made it really difficult for us, but the big thing I said after the game to the lads is that in FA Cup games all you are looking to do is get through. It's not always about your performance it's mainly about progressing and we've done that.

I was very pleased to be in the hat for the Fourth Round, but I thought it wasn't the best draw for us in all honesty. Crystal Palace is never an easy place to go and it's a really long journey for us, combined with the fact that we've got Colchester away from home on the following Tuesday. It's a difficult one but we are really looking forward to it and we're going to go there trying to get into the Fifth Round.

The FA Cup always throws up shock results and I'm sure that some of you will look at Birmingham's win at Newcastle as another example. I think Birmingham, when you look at the players they have, have a Premiership squad and there isn't really any doubt about that.

So although I didn't expect it to be quite that emphatic a win, I did think that it was a game that Birmingham had a chance of getting a result from and they showed their potential on the night.

From our own perspective we have looked solid over the last few games and three clean sheets in the New Year is pleasing, particularly as we had a little spell where we were conceding sloppy goals towards the end of last year. We have another tough game against Stoke City on Saturday, but if we want to stay up in the top places then these are the games that we have to be winning and we're ready for it.

I think it will be tight, they have brought in a few players including Dominic Matteo and we know they will be up for it, but we are at home and we have had a tremendous record at Deepdale this season - until the match with Derby over Christmas we were undefeated.

We got back to winning at home in the Cup and we want to continue that, but we're not taking anything for granted as we know that you have to be on your game when your playing a Tony Pulis side.

It's a really tight league and I think it proves the quality in this division that so many sides are so close together. I don't buy into the view that there isn't enough quality, I think there is a hell of a lot and it is a very tough league to get out of. With the signings that some of the sides are making this month it's only going to get tougher.

It seems that the TV money on offer to Premiership clubs is going to increase again next season, but I think that regardless of that we all know in the Championship just what is at stake to get into the Premier League and we all want to be a part of it.

At this moment we can't really compete in the transfer market like some others but we also believe that we have a very good squad of players here and we just need to ensure that it's right for the next part of the season and we can press on from there.

We had some good news on the Stadium front this week with the planning permission and council decision going through, all we've got to do now is get the thing built. These last three or four months we have been without a fourth stand and it would make a real difference to get that in place.

When the work is complete it will be a fantastic stadium and a generate an incredible atmosphere which is what everyone wants to have. This will definitely help us.

From a personal point of view I've not been doing anything aside from football at all, my whole time has been taken up by the game. Whether that's with first team games, reserve games, we've had a few triallists here and I've been going to watch other teams to see what players are out there.

That's completely normal though and I'm not complaining about it at all because it's a wonderful life to have. I think you have to love the game and want to see as much football as you can to stay on top of things, and that's how I am.

I hope you're all enjoying football as much as I am,

Paul Simpson

Email your questions for Paul to editor@TheFA.com