AND so the curtain falls with a heavy thud on another U’s football season.

There will be no cries of “encore” from the fans, because it has hardly been a campaign to live long in our memories.

It was obviously hugely affected by the pandemic and the restrictions it placed on not only our ability to support the team we love, but also the ability of the club and players to deliver the standards we needed to see on the pitch.

That said, I felt that the end result was way below a squad of our quality was capable of delivering.

One or two, who will probably be off to pastures new very shortly, fell well below the consistent levels that I like to see within a U’s shirt, and that makes a huge difference to a team when the other nine or ten are busting a gut and sweating blood for the cause.

That’s one of the things I have really missed from not being in the stadium. When you can see the whole pitch in front of you, as a fan you can see who is totally switched on and who is clearly not.

A struggling team cannot afford any weak links, but I would caveat that by adding in mitigation that it is highly likely that the players were also struggling with their own mental health during this crisis, so perhaps a degree of leeway should be given. We are all human.

On the flip side, there were clearly some players who stuck to the cause and gave nothing less than 100 per cent, and these guys excelled every time they wore the shirt. Your list may well marry up to mine and include the likes of Ryan Clampin, Noah Chilvers, Brendan Wiredu and Tom Eastman.

These and others should be very proud of their own achievements despite the difficult season. Robbie Cowling has to secure them for next season and beyond, and do all that he can to provide them with team mates of a similar ilk to help us compete at the top end of the table again.

Probably the most important key to our success will be the appointment of the first-team coach and assistant.

I think the supporters know who they would like to see in charge and in most cases they are the two chaps who oversaw our survival, but will we be that lucky to keep them, and of course, do they want to stay? Much will be revealed over the next few days, I suspect.

First and foremost, the U’s survived relegation and survived financially. For me, I am just grateful that the football team I grew up with and love to watch will be available to me again.

In the not too distant future, I want to be allowed to enjoy the pre-season friendlies, and to be honest I don’t really care if it is Ipswich again.

I want to be able to study the fixture list in detail when it comes out, block out the home games in my diary and plan which away trips I can do, and want to do, such as Harrogate and Barrow.

It has been hard enough missing family members during all of this, but missing my football friends has also been tough.

These are guys and gals who I was enjoying the company of at least once a week, and you can really get to know people so very well during the sometimes long away days on the coach. Football friends are almost a second family. I want and need that back, as I am sure we all do.

I also want to see the U’s back in blue and white soon but sadly that will have to wait for at least another year.

Still, I’ll take being able to ditch the laptop for live football over kit colours any day.

May I wish every U's fan a healthy and safe break from football. I hope that you will be able to enjoy yourselves as the restrictions ease, get back to almost normality and begin to look forward to the very happy day when we are allowed to watch the U's in the flesh again.