THE final roll of the Colchester United dice has been made and the end result is that Hayden Mullins and his “mentor” will be charged until the end of this season with keeping the U’s in the Football League.

Just eight games to find the performances, right players and the results to ensure our safety. Eight cup finals as Frank Nouble has called them, and whilst it is an old cliché, he is probably right.

Let’s see how the first couple of “finals” goes at Bolton tomorrow and Monday at home to Barrow. Don’t forget that it’s now live from Lancashire at 1pm, which sadly has meant that a number of working fans now miss out.

I hope that Wayne Brown can soon head back to the comfort blanket of his successful Maldon and Tiptree management and plan his own new season.

On Hayden’s appointment, fair to say that I raised an eyebrow when he joined last summer. I could not see the link that brought him to Colchester.

Maybe he saw it as his long term plan to become a full time manager in his own right.

That plan has now been shortened considerably, so I will wish him good luck and hope that it goes well.

I would also encourage the fans to get behind Hayden and the players. With this final shuffle of the pack, they are the only ones who can get us out of it.

I will say one thing on our new gaffer. A recent visiting electrician, with a Hammers upbringing, was suitably gushing with his admiration for his former player when I told him he was now at the U’s.

Fair to say that he had huge praise for one of his idols, both from his playing days and for what he achieved in the Watford set up.

Back to the Bradford game for just a moment. To dwell on it for too long would bring back the pain.

For me, the U’s had a couple of senior players not at 100 per cent and I would like to think that they know it.

The header for the winning goal was particularly disappointing on a number of fronts.

As a rant, it looked like the U’s had a more than confident shout for a penalty right on the stroke of half-time when Senior was clipped.

Maybe the officials could hear the kettle boiling? And I also thought that the elbow on Smith and the late tackle on Clampin should have been punished with a card.

I wonder if the message has gone out to our guys not to remonstrate any more for fear of another FA fine?

So, potentially hard done by in the Bradford game, but still, against a team on its own poor run, the U’s should have done a whole lot better.

After the rolling of dice and the shuffling of packs, the U’s have now laid their cards on the table.

The chairman has made the position quite clear with much frustration and annoyance coming back the other way from the fans.

Fair play to Robbie though, his frequent statements during this whole pandemic have been pretty open and let’s not forget that he was getting many pats on the back for doing so in the first half of the season.

However, where we are in the league, with the real threat of National League football next season on the table, is a horrible situation to be in.

It would be a disaster and I don’t want it to happen, but the only way I can even attempt to affect the outcome is by supporting as much as I can, even though it’s from afar.

If that fails, then the end of season finger pointing can start, but not now.

From memory, the U’s have been in sticky places before over the years and have rallied round at the death to survive. Can they do it again? Can they do it for the fans?

Thank you for your support, I hope you have a good Easter break and best of luck to everyone at the U’s over this next week.