Read what Ben Clasper had to say in his programme notes ahead of our National League South clash with Cheshunt

Despite holding a considerable lead in public comments on the consultation for the application to proceed to the next phase of our new stadium we fell to a council equivalent of a floodlight failure in ‘Fergie Time’.

An administrative error meant the application consultation had to be restarted and it will now run for another 21 days through to April 23. As frustrating as it is we must accept that the constant threat of legal action from the individuals who brought the judicial review against the council last year means the process must be followed to the letter and so we are now working with the stadium owners and the football authorities on the reducing the risk to the club from this latest delay.

Thank you all for the support shown, it is regrettable that we have to keep pushing and keep reminding everyone of the reasons why this stadium development is critical to our survival and to housing and sporting provision in an area that is lacking in both.

So, we must be patient once more and we will continue to provide updates while we work hard to ensure that the post-consultation process unblocks the path to securing our future as quickly as possible.

By the time the consultation replay is over we may be clearer on whether we will be playing National or Isthmian League football next season. The first half of Hakan’s mini-season saw us pick up 7 points from 7 matches against the current top 5, Havant who were 3rd at the time and Bath who were 8th. In any other season in any other situation that would be a reasonable haul and a point more than predicted. But this isn’t any other situation, it’s a relegation battle and we must exceed not just meet expectations.

We begin the second half of that mini-season today against Cheshunt, the first of 4 matches against teams in the bottom 6 and 2 against other bottom half sides who have recently climbed clear of trouble. I could probably have filled this entire column with football clichés, ‘it’s in our hands’, ‘6 cup finals’, ‘six pointers’, ‘win our home games, we will be safe’, ‘if we don’t win enough games from this run then we can have no complaints’ etc, etc, etc. Clichés may be the refuge of the lazy writer but in this case they simply couldn’t be more true.

Statistically speaking we need to win 3 out of 6 matches but with all four other sides in the most trouble showing they are capable of picking up wins we need to target 4 or 5 wins and try to drag others into the mix and not just rely on everyone else falling short.

Whether we can do that or not is down to the management and the players. We showed in 3½ of our 7 games against top sides that when we want to do it and when players follow the game plan those victories are comfortably within our grasp. It’s whether we choose to put that ability on show for 90 minutes, plus stoppage time, twice a week. In the other 3½ games I haven’t seen us beaten so much as beat ourselves, so to re-use one of those tired clichés if we choose not to ‘show up’ or ‘gift the points to other teams around us’ then one thing I can predict is if we fail, we really will only have had ourselves to blame.

The reason most forecasts have us staying up is our home fixtures, 4 of our 6 games are at home and they note all 7 of our points under Hakan were earned at Champion Hill. I hope anyone who has criticised the crowds for not being engaged enough and was present against St Albans, Havant or Oxford will allow me to pile on even more clichés such as the ‘crowd was the 12th man’ and we have ‘turned our home into a fortress’. Starting with Cheshunt today, then Taunton, Concord and Chippenham that’s four steps to guaranteeing safety without worrying about what’s going on around the grounds or our away form.

Your support for what we go through on and off the pitch is about the only thing keeping us on the island right now. This is as tough as it gets but it’s what I signed up for and it means a lot to feel that with all the plate spinning going on, when one drops there are a few thousand people willing to try to catch it.