IN a normal world, U’s supporters looking forward to a potential two wins from two homes games, both against teams languishing in the lower regions, could feel pretty confident.

Sadly, as we all know, this is not a normal world at the moment and our football season has been far from anything normal. Frightening, rather than normal in my view.

Is it too much to hope for? Six points that could or should save our Football League status and relieve a lot of the tension we are all feeling.

Tension that has steadily risen among the fans whilst the team has steadily fallen into what is now a three-way shoot out with Southend and Grimsby for survival.

It is painful to write about, let alone think about, the prospect of letting our Essex rivals condemn our club to the National League. This must not happen.

Somehow, the U’s have got to see these two games and especially Tuesday night as their salvation.

I am still convinced that we have the players within our squad to get us out of this.

On paper I would back 99 per cent of them to see us over the line. The question in my mind is which of them can turn that “paper” into a performance over this next week?

I must admit that during and after the Oldham game I tweeted my personal feeling that one or two were playing well within their comfort zones.

I hate being negative but that first half especially was a huge disappointment for me.

With all due respect, we made Oldham appear world class.

Credit where credit is due, we fought back as a team and but for an admirably honest Ryan Clampin and a referee deciding not to come back for the penalty kick, we could have made it 3-3, and then I don’t think we would have folded like we did in injury-time.

It says a lot about Ryan’s desire when he was the player attacking their penalty area and he is our left wing-back.

Footballers’ minds are complicated I think. It is quite possible that many of them are looking at their futures rather than the now, and that future could already be decided.

I appreciate that football in the lower leagues must be tough for some, moving from two-year contract to two-year contract, and even more so when Covid has ripped the heart and money out of football.

Then again I am sure that they would not want to have a relegation on their CV. Let us all hope and pray that their focus is now only on beating Walsall and then Southend. That’s all we can ask.

What makes it even more tough for us, and the players too I’m sure, is that we cannot be there to support them.

Shame that some dispensation could not have been allowed as it was beforehand when it all worked perfectly.

Yes, it would give the home team an advantage but who cares? It is so frustrating watching football behind a screen.

And so we head to the most important week of U’s football for quite some time.

Who will be our heroes and who will stand up and make the difference? Personally I hope it is all 11 of them, and I am sure it will need to be because these games will not be for the faint hearted. Good luck U’s. We are all counting on you.