I agree, I think we will miss out, but not by much - frustratingly!

As you know by now I tend towards the optimistic and, looking at our fixtures, I can see us ending up with 70 points, or just shy of that. In the past few seasons that’s been good enough for 7th or 8th place which, not only would I have been delighted with at the start of the season, I would be pleased with now. I would not be worried if we got promoted, via the play offs or directly, as it might mean we hang on to a couple of players and attract good players too.

The first time we were promoted to the second tier the side was made up of ex Non Leaguers (Smithy, Macauley, Little) and some pretty inexperienced youngsters with Danny Murphythe star player - and he left for Liverpool immediately, followed out of the club by Savage who got into a huff for being dropped for the play off final and drove off in it!

We were all wondering who the scrawny 17 year old was who made his debut in the first match of the following season and went on to make 40 appearances that season. It was, of course, Kenny Lunt and, along with a number of other players we hadn’t heard of at the time, kept us there for 8 of the next 9 seasons, often struggling but still there.

I know times have changed and budgets are bigger, but we shouldn’t be afraid of giving it a go. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll quite make it. Not this year anyway!!