SO close, yet so far. After the cup run, the many hundreds of miles on the road for the far flung away games the season are over.

On a warm, sunny June evening in Exeter we came so close, but in the end we were the masters of our own downfall with uncharacteristic mistakes from players who have done so much for us this season.

I’m not sure if it was the prolonged break, the lack of fans or the pressure of the biggest game of some of their lives, but in the end it just was not to be.

It was a horrible way for it to all end, especially without the chance to be there to support the lads to the end.

It has been a season that we will remember for a long time - playing at Old Trafford, beating Spurs and Palace plus finally making the play-offs after the past few seasons of falling short.

John McGreal, Steve Ball and all the players have created memories and personally I cannot lay blame at anyone’s feet.

They won as a team and lost as a team and this includes us fans as well.

No one went out on Monday night without the express goal of winning and making it to Wembley.

It it very easy to say all the hindsight points of should have done this or that, but football is such as easy game when it is not your head or livelihood on the line.

But that is in the past now. We have to look to the future and what next season will bring.

Sadly due to Covid-19 and the financial situation we have had to lose a number of key first team players and a number of under-23s, who were on the brink of the first team.

We can't mull over this – it is sad that people have lost their incomes and hopefully they all get new clubs ASAP – but we need to move forward as a club.

Our support will be key in taking all the plus points forward and improving on the work on points.

The details of the next campaign are still not clear on dates or even when fans will be allowed back, but the signals coming out of Westminster are positive that fans maybe allowed back in, even if it is in reduced numbers.

A thousand fans is better than no fans and will slowly pave the way to normality of early Saturday mornings for the delights of an away day.

One thing that we can almost say for certain is that we will be playing Grimsby on a Tuesday night and I would not bet against us having to travel to Barrow in December!

But at least there is the Essex derby to look forward to plus Bolton’s ground is a nice one to visit.

No matter how bad things seem now, and I for one went to bed in a bad mood Monday night, we all know deep down we will be there come what may following the U’s till the end of our days. Hope you all enjoy the summer and I will look forward to seeing you all next season when we will be going up as champions.

Colchester United season-ticket holder Si Collinson