Banter With Burns - CUSA chairman Jon Burns with his weekly thoughts on Colchester United

Welcome to the business end of the season!

I’ve seen this phrase used quite a bit in the last week or so, but whatever you call it, this is the crunch time, where financial fortune and players’ contracts will be decided.

It can also dictate what sort of enjoyment us lowly football fans will get from our summer holiday.

Perhaps it’s not that easy being a player?

Expensive mortgages and car payments have to be met, but promotion could see a player discarded quite easily these days.

I wonder what goes through their minds sometimes.

Play well and they could be out of a job, but on the other hand as managers often hold off contract talks until the end of the season, they could play themselves into a new contract.

Business end or not, this week the fixtures have caught up on themselves and the U’s destiny is now clearly within their own hands.

There are no more games in hand.

Everyone around us has played 37 games and so it’s a nine-game shoot-out for glory.

Interesting to see now then that even after our rubbish run of results, there are just four points between the play-off positions and the faltering Leeds are only seven points ahead of the U’s.

Behind us, though, Huddersfield are the hungry wolves looking to pick off the one team destined to come unstuck.

Watch out for Southampton too would be my suggestion.

Therefore our trip to Huddersfield on May 1, together with our midweek battle with the London traffic to make Charlton, plus the home games against Millwall and Swindon, means that the U’s have the opportunities to undo their play-off rivals.

Add this to the fact that four of our other remaining ties are against teams currently in the bottom six and by my estimates we have eight cup finals to negotiate.

This won’t be a run in for the faint-hearted by any stretch of the imagination and you can double the intensity for tomorrow’s clash with Wycombe.

They always seem to raise their game against us and they’ll be fighting tooth and nail for any points they can get.

For these type of battles, we need our best players to perform and losing Marc Tierney for a couple of weeks was not the news I wanted to hear.

The defence looked a little unbalanced against Brentford and with Paul Reid also out, is it possible that the U’s could send up a distress flare in the direction of Southend and ask for our former player of the season and former captain Pat Baldwin? If an olive branch is needed, I’ll happily provide it!

As good a player as Magnus Okuonghae is, his young shoulders are showing signs of fatigue after a long season.

A misjudgement for Brentford’s third goal proved that and I think that he would welcome another leader at the back.

So there you are.

These are my views where the U’s are and what we need to do from now until we play George Williams and his Orient boys on May 8.

Looking back to the football of the past week, and a defeat against ten men for the second week running was extremely hard to take for the fans who travelled to Walsall.

Our confidence looked shot to pieces, especially in front of goal.

Tactically the U’s have to learn how to play against fewer numbers and by launching it high into the two banks of defenders is not how you unlock a defence.

There were a lot of unhappy U’s fans at the final whistle and I couldn’t blame them.

Interesting to read that Aidy left them alone after the game to dissect the problems themselves.

A bold move by our gaffer.

Brentford was different almost entirely. Firstly, no-one got sent off, but 2-0 down after 20 minutes and I really feared that the U’s would crumble completely.

Amazing though what a goal can do for confidence, even if it is a well-placed own goal.

Woody’s equaliser on half-time was crucial and chucked a whole lot of confidence the U’s way and to be honest we pretty much dominated the second half.

Lisbie’s skills on the right produced the equaliser and I would play him there again tomorrow.

In fact all of our three goals came from crosses or corners.

The U’s played the ball around again and worked their chances.

A deliberate tactical change?

I sincerely hope so as it looked better and it felt better.

Although only a draw, perhaps this can be a needed turning point.

In my opinion, the form team in the play-offs generally comes out on top. Can the U’s be that team?

With your support against our old rivals Wycombe, we could just be.

Don’t forget that we also have a chance of silverware on Monday!

The Essex Senior Cup final against AFC Hornchurch is being played at Dagenham and Redbridge (kick-off 7.45pm).

The CUSA is running a supporters coach for members and non-members, with details on our website and the U’s website.

Please call me if you’d like to book a seat.

Have a great weekend.

Up the U’s!