Football can be such a cruel sport. Witness the two own goals that our defender Darran Kempson has scored this season and the two games it has cost us.

Darran has been one of my players of the season with a string of fantastic performances and a steadily growing confidence that has helped the back four no end.

For a defender or a keeper mistakes are big and everyone talks about them.

If a striker has the bad luck to miss five or six opportunities in a match then no-one says a word.

The internet is full of talk that thanks to defeat at Torquay we can forget promotion and look to next year.

While I agree I had hoped for more points off the bottom sides we have played since Christmas, we must remember that we have 16 games left and 10 of them are at home.

Our home record this season is as good as any in the league and as Bradford found out last week the big teams do not like coming to the Crown Ground.

On Saturday we play Notts County a team once owned by a fans’ trust but sold to overseas money. They have been a cautionary tale as to the state of English football, and now with the cash gone, who would the fans rather have in charge?

The lure of top flight football can be a strong one and who can blame them for having a go?

The only way forward in these troubled times for football must be to have a significant proportion of the club owned by the fans.

I am not saying that the fans are better informed or wiser to the ways of running a football club.

Just that they are inextricably linked to their club and whatever happens rain or shine they will always be there to support and they can never just walk away.