Banter with Burns with Colchester United Supporters Association chairman Jon Burns

THREE good things came out of the game at Exeter City, last Saturday.

The option to stand on terracing again, the real ale served in their supporters bar and the witnessing of history, with the first team debut of 16-year-old Todd Miller.

Many congratulations to Todd and indeed to Noah Chilvers for his own deserved debut the week before.

The game itself was a reasonably even affair in my view.

The only major differences being that they created much the better chances in front of goal and they also had a much the better glove man between the sticks.

Nothing was going to get past the diminutive Pym yet again, much to the annoyance of Szmodics and Mandron, who impressed again as a midfield man.

Falling out of the play-off places is a blow especially with five of the teams above us having an extra game to play.

It’s certainly not over yet though and whilst we can all bemoan the current lack of players with injury and worry about the possible pain of letting the promotion opportunity slip through our fingers, the time for recriminations is at the end of the season.

It’s tough but with eight games to go, managers, players and supporters have to stick together if there is to be any hope of getting over the line into the bare minimum of seventh place.

So how to stop in-form Tranmere Rovers and this chap James Norwood who keeps banging in their goals?

No easy task, so why not unleash Brennan Dickenson and Abo Eisa again?

If we need three at the back to keep their hot shot at bay, then use Brennan as a wing-back and push Kane Vincent-Young into midfield where I think he’ll be excellent.

Eisa deserves another chance to scare defenders as he did when he first arrived. I thought he was mustard yet somehow has fallen out of favour.

Fair to say that there are some mighty decisions for John McGreal to make ahead of the game tomorrow afternoon.

I trust him to do whatever he feels is right for us to take the three points.

He wants a united front between now and the end of the season and I’m all up for that.

He also wanted a week of hard work from his players and hopefully we’ll see the proof of that pudding tomorrow.

This is the crunch time of the season for the U’s and your support is more important than ever.

Thanks for all that you can give.

Jon Burns, Colchester United Supporters Association chairman