Essex County Standard U’s reporter Simon Spurgeon delivers his thoughts on Colchester United in his weekly column I WOULDN’T dream of telling someone who I consider an accomplished man-manager how to handle a group of players under his stewardship.

However, if Aidy Boothroyd wanted to introduce a bit of culture into his dressing room between now and May 8, I could recommend worse bits of literature to pin to the wall than Rudyard Kipling’s inspirational poem ‘If’.

Footballers can sometimes be maligned for their intellectual prowess, but I think Colchester United have been blessed with some very astute players over the last few years.

I’m sure Kipling’s prose would hit the right mark with them.

In fact I’d recommend anyone to read it – just to satisfy your own curiosity about what the heck I’m on about, if nothing else!

Heading into the last four games of the season, the U’s find themselves in a bit of a predicament.

Back to the poem and it’s become a big ‘if’ about whether they will be in the promotion mix after the final whistle goes against Leyton Orient.

Just as we thought they had turned the corner in the second half of the 3-0 defeat of Swindon and emerged from their run of eight games without a win, along came Charlton.

A 1-0 defeat wasn’t on the list of ‘most wanted’.

Coupled to Huddersfield’s two late goals against ten-man Walsall, allowing them to re-open a three-point gap on the U’s and Southampton breathing heavily down both their necks and it’s going to be a tense few weeks ahead.

Kipling’s poem opens with the lines: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.

“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.”

This is a time for calm minds if ever there was one.

Promotion is still very much there for the taking.

You can bet your bottom dollar that Huddersfield, Southampton, Charlton, Leeds and whoever are all feeling the pressure just as much as the U’s are.

As I said last week, Colchester’s players have to make sure they keep the demons that chip away at their confidence out of their minds during games.

They did after an unsure first half against Swindon and they have to again after defeat at the Valley.

As the poem says: “If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss.

“And lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss.”

A quick look at Kipling’s famous poem wouldn’t do any harm to Colchester’s fans either.

There is a line in ‘If’ that famously adorns the entrance to the Centre Court at Wimbledon and it’s the one that I feel is most fitting for U’s fans in these uncertain times.

It states: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.”

After the triumph of Saturday, there seemed a lack of doubters saying the U’s promotion chances had gone, yet they had rediscovered their voices, keyboards and predictions of dire consequence by Wednesday. I admit that I’m an eternal optimist when it comes to sport and perhaps that’s why I see no point in trotting out gloomy predictions at this stage.

Banana skins are there for everyone to slip up on.

I have a feeling that we’ll all be glued to radios or the internet via mobile phones during the season’s final game to find out what’s going on at other matches and how they affect the U’s chances.

We all know promotion is on a knife-edge, but I do know that whatever happens between now and the season’s finale, prematurely saying they’ve blown their chances won’t help one jot.

I’m not talking about blindly swallowing what I’m told and never questioning tactics or ability, I just think people need to think before they start writing the team’s chances off.

After asking his reader ‘if’ they can rise to life’s challenges, Kipling ends his poem with the lines: “If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.

“Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!”

It’s a wonderful conclusion to one of my favourite poems, however, Kipling may have over-egged the pudding somewhat. We don’t necessarily want the Earth, not even everything that’s in it – but promotion to the Championship would be nice.