The Cowleys work on positivity, a never-say-die attitude and an unquenchable thirst for the game. It is infectious, as Braintree and Lincoln supporters in particular will attest to.

Countless times they have had negative statistics or facts quoted at them to illustrate Colchester’s woes and countless times they will turn those into a positive or a quick retort of ‘yes, but that’s the Colchester before we arrived, that’s not us now…’

All this augurs well but they must be allowed time and space to work.

At Braintree and Lincoln they were given their head, at Huddersfield they did the hard work but had the rug pulled from under them, while at Portsmouth a 43% win ratio wasn’t enough when it did not deliver promotion.

They will need to look carefully at the current squad. Most of the players were recruited to be part of a technical, possession-based team and have had to adjust.

Those adjustments can come with coaching but what is more worrying is the alarming number of individual errors which have led to goals and defeats. The mental fortitude of many has to be called into question; when the going got tough, did they get going?

The evidence in performances and results would point towards the answer ‘no’. There are many examples but conceding a 92nd-minute equaliser to Crewe on the final day surely puts the tin hat on any argument you might want to offer to the contrary.

Only a handful of players are out of contract this summer which leaves the coaches with a headache as there will be many they will want to move on and, if those players are honest, could probably do with a change of scenery themselves.

If there is to be true and meaningful change, the Cowleys have to be given the opportunity to call the tune where recruitment in particular is concerned.

Few expect them to compete with the budgets of Wrexham, Mansfield, Stockport, MK Dons, Salford or Bradford, but when you have only won 28 home league games over the last four seasons, you are starting from a low base.

The demands from the fans should not be high given what has been happening. Just winning a few more games and steering clear of trouble would put some smiles back on faces, but the Cowleys will have other plans.

To quote Danny Cowley: ‘We like winning, we’re used to winning and we expect to win.’