Good day to you and welcome back to the Retirement Home. It has all gone a bit awry here, as successive promotions now seem a distant memory. We find ourselves not only back in Division 2 but in the relegation places, hoping that our over 35s club can find some inspiration. One thing is for sure, we won’t be able to buy our way out of trouble. The debt continues to spiral out of control. Here’s where we rejoin the action:

Kidderminster weren’t even a league team when we started this journey but now they are a division two side. They do have freebie favourite Andrew Duncan, but his red card ultimately opens the door for us and when their keeper smashes one into his own net, it’s a rare away success. Out of the bottom 4 we go!

It’s a bizarrely high turnout at the Bungalow for the decisive group game with Mansfield and an early lead means we have one foot in the next round as we seek the solitary point we require. Malpas sees red for an elbow and although they equalise, Roland and Cecilia give us the win.

More cup action next as the FA gets underway. Most of the fans return for this encounter and they are rewarded with a 7 goal thriller, settled by big Casc.

Well, looked who got sacked by Kilmarnock. Welcome back, Ian McPhee.

The crowd is halved for the visit of Watford and they look very foolish for staying away for 79 minutes. Then our lead is not only wiped out but Watford go on to win. Sigh.

We take out our frustrations on Bury, who are brutalised inside 35 minutes. A big result again a bottom 4 rival.

I shouldn’t care about the Windscreen Shield but it’s matchday income we can’t afford to miss out on. It turns out to be a costly evening, as three of our centre halves fail to finish the match. We do win but it’s a mighty price…

Against Lincoln in the cup we have no option but to play 45 year old Viv Anderson alongside 40 year old left back Ian McPhee. It’s as if playing 40 year olds twice a week is not good for them.

Thankfully, Lincoln are a division lower than us and fail to truly punish us for a rancid opening half hour. I switch Dunga to centre back and order is restored enough for us to win.

It’s West Ham at home in round 3, a tough challenge but hopefully the gate receipts are massive.

In the meantime, TC proves once again to be the top cat as he nets 3 against Rotherham. Chuckle time.

Well look who got sacked by Fulham…

With Southall warming the bench, we come from behind to win at Senegal Fields. Magic.

It’s a right old see-saw battle at Victoria Park that ultimately ends in a draw. It could be worse.

We can celebrate Boxing Day with a home win against Nev-less Fulham. Mark Chamberlain has been excellent this season and his double here underlines that.

We’re close to getting a point from 2-0 down against John Barnes’ Norwich – the irony or Barnes replacing Rush is not lost on me. Barnes himself bends in a free kick but rest assured, as soon as he is sacked I’ll be in for him.

That FA Cup tie is here and it goes about as well as I expected, Kevin Lisbie running rings around us with father Phil and Paul Kitson helping him out. More people turned up to see Mansfield.

Four days and we exit the Windscreen Shield to a late goal from a cat. Sigh.

A thoroughly miserable week is rounded off by defeat at Ray Wilkins’ Birmingham. They’re 3rd and look a lot more like to go up than we are.

A win over York in front of a relatively bumper midweek crowd stops the rot. We are easing our way up the table, I’m going to call it consolidation.

A win at home to Bournemouth rounds off a fairly successful update. The front four have been brilliant, this was Cascarino’s 29th of the season and Ceausila’s 11th before his red card for two quick yellows. We’ll miss him, whenever his ban kicks in.

We sit 14th, 16 points from the playoffs and 13 points from the bottom 4. Like I said, consolidation.

I’d like to try and get the club running at…well, not a loss. At the moment we’re losing roughly £700k a season. We’re relying on the board being very generous and clearing the debt. Please? We’ll find out next week.

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