Colchester United SUPPORTERS' ASSOCIATION CHAIRMAN JON BURNS DELIVERS HIS EXCLUSIVE WEEKLY COLUMN IN THE STANDARD WITH HIS VIEWS OF THE U's:

I WELL and truly saturated myself in football over the past week.

And then for my sins myself, along with 50 other blue and white fans, will be boarding a coach tomorrow at 6am for the long journey north to Carlisle, during which we will all no doubt immerse ourselves in the fortunes of Colchester United.

I wonder how many times I’ll hear “we must be crazy” tomorrow?

Watching live football is fantastic, but it certainly takes it out of you, both physically and emotionally.

Anyway, my four days of consecutive footy action started at Wivenhoe on Saturday where thankfully the gates weren’t locked and the boys managed only their second win of the season with quite an impressive performance over Newmarket Town.

Hopefully they won’t remain bottom for too long playing like that.

Sunday saw the good lads from my Sunday League team come back from 3-1 down with ten men to draw level, then get hit with a sucker punch near the end to lose 4-3.

It was a hard one to take, but on the tally chart I had seen 13 goals over the weekend.

To balance the books on the goal-scoring front, the next two days took me to the U’s v Brighton clash and then to Dagenham and Redbridge where a spirited U’s side earned themselves an Essex Senior Cup final date with Hornchurch.

Well done and thank you to Craig Arnott, who rescued us from the prospect of extra-time with a goal in ‘Fergie Time’ to take the U’s through.

Trust me it wasn’t for a lack of trying by the U’s.

In fact Phil Ifil went on a personal crusade to win the game with a succession of bombardments of the Daggers goal and I think that Ian Henderson (playing on the left) must have wronged the linesman in a previous life because he was flagged offside consistently when bearing down on goal.

This brings me back then to the Monday night scoreless draw with Gus Poyet’s Brighton.

Last week I voiced a few concerns about the U’s current form and I stand by those comments.

We are struggling in certain areas and although he may not admit it publicly, Aidy has one or two dilemmas to address.

My comments last week, and really how I feel at the moment, centre around the fact that the U’s have got themselves into an excellent position but now it’s the final shoot-out and have we got the fight and extra gear to see us through?

I certainly believe that we have, but at the moment it’s being kept hidden from us a little.

This is probably why some of the U’s supporters are finding it hard at the moment and I have to admit that I’ve heard from a good few unhappy people after Monday’s game.

However there are no ‘idiots’ here at the U’s.

Each and every single one of our players has it in them to become a potential match winner.

Now winning the match was beyond us on Monday, but in fairness that was a Brighton side very much unlike the team we beat back in December.

They are on a long unbeaten run and having the fourth best away record in League One proves that.

Ben Williams and Marc Tierney stood out from the pack in our fight to keep a clean sheet.

Having Kem back helped, but now Aidy has to set it all up again for Carlisle and Walsall because he has fallen foul of a two-match ban.

Our problems were at the other end and I was ultra keen to see the introduction of Vincent and Lisbie produce us more goal opportunities.

It looked good for a while but Brighton caught on and swamped Ashley so it wasn’t long before we reverted back to type and hit the ball long again.

So sadly no joy from that but that’s not to say that it won’t work again. Maybe it’ll be given another airing at Carlisle tomorrow?

These next two away games are very important.

They are games that we should be winning if we want to have a serious pop at automatic promotion.

Once over, the U’s will have just ten games left with six of those at home.

Now I’ve asked if the players have the fight for it, but I also ask if the supporters have the fight for it?

Our hardcore fans are truly excellent but we need more and we need more people to support a local team busting a gut for promotion.

3,900 watched on Monday, compared with over 5,000 at Luton and Oxford on Tuesday in the Blue Square Premier and close to 20,000 at Portman Road.

It’s not rocket science!

You’ll have seen that the U’s season ticket prices were announced this week and as usual it has got everybody talking.

I’ve yet to digest what’s on offer and will probably do so to kill some time on the coach tomorrow, so maybe I’ll ‘banter’ about them next week.

One pointer which has raised my eyebrows and perhaps upset one or two who have already booked hotels and trains, is that our trip to Exeter on Easter Saturday is now a trip to Exeter on Good Friday.

Unusual to make such a change at short notice, so please spread the word because we don’t want anyone turning up on the Saturday wondering where everyone has gone.

Have a great weekend and a safe journey ‘oop north’ if you’re going.

Up the U’s!