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

THERE’S no denying that last week’s result at home to MK Dons was truly devastating for the fans and supporters of the U’s.

It was very hard to take, especially as we had played our part in a good first half which saw the U’s pass the ball well and take the lead from a smart Gilly finish.

We truly seemed up for it and another home win was well on the cards.

However, the collapse in the second period was one of the worst feelings I’ve had watching the team for a while.

To see a good number of fans walk out early made it even worse.

It’s horrible watching your team struggle and look like a prize-fighter stuck on the ropes taking a pounding.

The players also felt it and you could see the confidence drain from some of them as they saw their lead slip.

MK Dons have a decent player in hat-trick man, Sam Baldock.

He’s a natural finisher and yes, I’m green with envy.

Like a hot knife through butter he tore through our defence, which left our back four looking at each other for answers.

What made it worse is that his second goal came within moments of Gilly missing a sharp chance of an open goal to give us back the lead.

Then to cap a miserable day, Andy Bond took his pitching wedge to the six yard box with his chance to level things and again moments later, it was 3-1 and game over.

Although not before Ashley Vincent missed a late chance when he headed the ball down and saw it bounce up over the crossbar.

We all knew then that it was not going to be our day.

And I had tried everything that I could think of to secure the three points – lucky scarf, lucky shirt, lucky badge and even clean underwear!

So how do you follow that?

Well I went home for a nice ale and the rugby to forget about things and the players were given time off from training to enjoy things such as bowling, paintballing and darts.

To be honest, that’s not a bad idea in my opinion. What harm can it do?

Hopefully they’ll come back with a fresh outlook and purpose and make those Tranmere-bound tomorrow (don’t forget your ID if you want a concession ticket) come back with at the very least the feeling that the players gave it absolutely everything they could.

We’ll be missing Mooney again, so I wonder who Ward will choose to score the goals – not an easy decision me thinks. Team selection could be interesting, as it was last week on the back of the secretive ‘new deals’ for some announcement.

I wonder if some financial decisions have been made in an effort to ease the wage bill and allow the club to be more competitive with one or two top summer targets.

And so to conclude, it’s been another tough week for the U’s fans.

Maybe, just maybe, as Tranmere are also on a losing run then perhaps we can turn on the style and then look to Oldham at home on Tuesday with positive thoughts.

Who knows, by this time next week we could have an extra six points on the board.

It would certainly make us all feel a whole lot better.

Have a good weekend and I'll see some of you in the Wirral.

Up the U’s!