Ricky Ravenhill column: A lot of teams are talking about us at the moment after the good start we’ve made.

The way we finished last season was high profile and we’ve carried that on in the first couple of games. People are taking us seriously this year as one of the better teams in the league.

Nobody is getting carried away and we’ll take it game by game. But the plan was to get out of the blocks well as we did last year and hopefully stay among that top group rather than trying to claw our way up from the bottom.

Last week was exactly the start we wanted at home against Carlisle. People are saying they were not good opposition but you can only beat what’s put in front of you and we certainly hit the ground running.

Now let’s carry that form into the Port Vale game – a side that we know very well. Obviously the managers know each other tactically so it should be a good battle.

I think we probably had the upper hand in the games we played last season, even if the results didn’t look great from our point of view.

We had the lion’s share of possession and better chances so we’ll be going there again with every confidence. If we play to our best, there is no reason why we cannot come back with three points.

It was great to see Ricky Lambert take his chance for England this week.

Whether he is going to be a serious contender in the World Cup or not, you saw how much it meant to him.

I remember playing against him at Stockport and Rochdale and he was always a good player. But I don’t think anyone could have imagined that he would one day be scoring the winner against Scotland.

It’s a great advert for the game outside the Premier League and I think you will see a few more coming through from the lower leagues or non-league football.

Some do slip through the net in the scouting system early on but they can still come good as Ricky has shown.