ESSEX COUNTY STANDARD U's REPORTER SIMON SPURGEON DELIVERS HIS THOUGHTS ON Colchester United IN HIS WEEKLY COLUMN: If ever there was a week that summed up Colchester United’s season, the one just gone must surely be it.

We headed into it with upbeat confidence, but that was tempered by disappointment on the road, before an uplifting performance that indicates the possibility of a bright future.

You need to be able to handle a big range of emotions to be a U’s fans.

The team headed off for its extended stay in the West Country on the back of two encouraging performances, particularly the 1-1 draw at Peterborough.

There may have been some – me included – who had hopes that this may have heralded the start of a run of form that would take the team into the play-offs in May.

However, I did make the comment to a colleague in the press box that I felt six points were really needed from the games against Plymouth and Bristol Rovers.

They are two struggling teams who you couldn’t see the likes of Brighton going to and losing, but four points would still be a decent return from the long trip west.

So to fall to a 2-1 defeat against the Pilgrims knocked the stuffing out of the comfy pillow of confidence that the game at Peterborough had plumped up.

It wasn’t the defeat itself that disappointed me, it was what it represented.

It was a bit of a hammer blow – losing on the road to a side who are struggling to avoid relegation and down to ten men.

Déjà vu is a horrible sensation and I felt we had seen it all before.

We had – last year when the team went on that disastrous run at the end of the season and there were one-goal defeats at Carlisle and Walsall after both had had players sent off.

And it felt like history could easily repeat itself.

So that’s why I felt so uplifted by the U’s comeback at Bristol Rovers.

It may have only been a 1-0 win, but it was as comprehensive a 1-0 win as you are likely to see and showed this current team’s unity and fighting spirit.

For me, Colchester’s current situation was crystalized in that brief four-day period.

They aren’t consistent enough to really be challenging at the very top of this division at the moment as Plymouth showed, but John Ward and Joe Dunne have instilled a team spirit that gives promise of greater things to come.

For that reason alone, we must give them time to continue building and adding depth to the talent that is there.

The win at Rovers brought Colchester back to within touching distance of the play-offs and I think the table is a fair reflection of where the team’s development is at the moment.

While the cynics would argue that they have played more games than four of the five sides directly below them and two of the four above, what would you rather have, points in the bag or games in hand?

I’ll take the points any day of the week, but they will be useless to their play-off aspirations without greater consistency.

The confidence pillow must be nicely plumped up once more so let’s hope it gets even fuller with good performances against Southampton and Dagenham.

I may need that comfy pillow for a lie down if we have many more up and down weeks like the one we’ve just had.