A WIN at Gillingham on Saturday could change our season. We need to be able to ‘Up Periscope’ and have teams in our sights, not just an empty void. Three points tomorrow will bridge that gap.

We need to target Notts County and Crewe, whose season has descended into a double dip, giving us hope.

Some wins are tortuous, never more so than the Yeovil game on Tuesday. We’ve all suffered in silence in recent years seeing a succession of strikers struggle manfully to lead the line without much support.

If we were a dominant side at this level, one up front could work well, as support would flood forward, and we could play the game in the final third. But we are not, it doesn’t, and we don’t!

Kayode Odejayi did it best, particularly away from home, closely followed by Jabo Ibehre. Clinton Morrisson failed utterly because he was not sharp enough.

Freddie Sears (the striker who doesn’t head the ball) effectively said ‘thanks, but no thanks’ by adapting the role to a much deeper lying position.

The lone role up front finally reached its low point on Tuesday. The shirt was handed to Rhys Healey who works like mad and is a tremendous battler and a goal-scoring threat if receiving the ball on the ground in the right places.

But there was not a single player on the pitch who was less physically equipped for the hopeless service he received on Tuesday.

For an hour Rhys didn’t receive a single ball that he could do anything with. He got smashed, smacked in the head, belted from behind and trodden on, but still battled on well into the second half.

If Sammie Szmodics had been on the pitch, he would have been getting up to join in, but he was injured.

The midfield cluster of three should have been threading the ball in for Healey, but they were miles away, on the back foot most of the time.

Tony Humes sounded apologetic about the use of Healey and so he might, but after the game is too late to change it. It deserved to lose us the game. We got out of jail for two reasons: the poorness of Yeovil and the excellence of Jacob Murphy. He was what divided the sides.

The Gillingham scouting report will have written itself: Defensively, close down the midfield so that the supply to the front line is long. Ensure that Jacob Murphy never has free space to attack behind his defender. Attacking, get down the sides as that is where you will get most joy.

In much the same vein, I was out in town with some of the best South Stand fans on Saturday night, reliving the Crawley game over several beers in the Marquis.

The feeling was regret, not recrimination. They desperately want to see Tony and Richard succeed. There is no malice against the present regime, just disappointment.

These are great fans who have seen all of the big occasions in the last decade. Promotion at Yeovil, glory days in the Championship, the great night against Ipswich, relegation to League One, the false dawns, three years of struggle, the Joe Dunne era in which we all shouldered a small part of the anguish of his unfulfilled dream.

Most of those guys were at Stamford Bridge when Parky’s team peaked, and on many glorious Layer Road afternoons. They were cheering and singing at Carlisle, Hartlepool, Bury when relegation battles were won. They’ve seen a thing or two.

We supped our drinks searching for reasons to be cheerful, and found none. We don’t under-estimate the task but we don’t want this season to end in tears, as it feels avoidable.

We just want to see no more of what we saw for the first hour on Tuesday, because we need to be so much smarter and adaptive, and there won’t always be a Jacob Murphy to save the day.