It was a mixed Christmas for the Town who beat one of their promotion rivals but lost to another, writes Town blogger James Pugh.

The result against Rochdale put us out of the playoffs for the first time this season before we quickly got back in the mix of things to overcome Bury.

I thought the side put in a decent performance against Rochdale and through Holt’s fantastic strike we deserved to win on the balance of play, but we were undone by a lucky goal which their player didn’t know a lot about when the ball rebounded off him from Davies’ clearance.

It meant the game against Bury was even more of a must-win and in the end, although the 1-0 win was a struggle, we were rewarded for our patience.

Yet again Holt came to the rescue to score the winner.

Recent results have seen us struggle to score goals and when we do it is that man Holt.

These are worrying facts and need to be addressed as soon as possible.

On the transfer front, Scott Bevan has joined Torquay on a permanent deal.

No real surprises, especially considering West Brom have give permission to extend Daniels’ loan, possibly until the end of the season.

If we get promotion then who knows – he might want to stay permanently for at least another year, but if we have to stay in the division, he will probably head back to West Brom.

In terms of Bevan, I think he wasn’t given enough of chance to prove himself at the club and I have heard good things about him since he’s been playing for Torquay.

But if Simpson can replace him with someone better I have no complaints. Good luck for the future Bevan!

January sees the return of the transfer window and I think the club is in need of two creative/goalscoring midfielders and a goalscorer to partner Holt.

I would like us to sign Thornton permanently, who impressed while he was here and maybe someone like Paul Benson from Dagenham or Jamie Ward from Chesterfield to score the goals, although I doubt if their clubs will want to let them go at any price at this stage of the season.

But please Simpson, don’t do what Peters did this time last year and sign players from the lower leagues – Constable and Madjo are first to jump out at me!

Which players would fans like us to sign to help us in our promotion push?

It’s going to be a big second half of the season for players like Symes, Hunt, Garner and Walker – all of whom haven’t impressed so far this season and need to soon before Simpson decides their futures lie elsewhere.

Saturday sees Town face another tough away game against Bradford in a match we simply cannot afford to lose.

Any more slip-ups against the teams around us could be costly at this stage.

And it would also be nice to celebrate an away win for once!