by Steve Bugg

JOY, relief, euphoria.

Three quite different emotions, and if you’d have asked me which I was feeling on Easter Monday evening, I’d have struggled to tell you.

All I knew was that we were still outside the bottom three, with a vital five-point cushion over our rivals… A vital five-point cushion which has already been cut to two points after Saturday’s matches. Sadly, the boys were unable to secure a fifth straight win, but there’s no shame in a narrow defeat to the newly-crowned champions and our congratulations go to Norwich United on their title triumph.

If the pendulum swung somewhat in our favour over 48 glorious hours over Easter, then it felt like it levelled out again last weekend, with Wivenhoe and Walsham both picking up victories and Haverhill Rovers grabbing a point on Tuesday evening, thanks to a late equaliser at home to Felixstowe.

It promises to be an intriguing, nervy final fortnight of the season, with a couple of recent results suggesting that the form book can be easily thrown out of the window.

More teams than just ourselves and Wivenhoe need that one result, at least, to guarantee survival.

A pessimist would say that we’re only two points clear of our neighbours from Broad Lane, while an optimist might point out that we’re only three points behind Thetford, and with a better goal difference to boot. With a number of key fixtures remaining between now and May 2, it’s still all to play for.

Of course, staying up remains our primary objective, and a win at Gorleston on Saturday would put us on the right road to achieving that.

Our fate is firmly in our own hands, a situation which still amazes me when you consider how dire our plight looked a month or so ago.

There are defining moments for any club, both in the present and for the future.

Those who witnessed Kevin’s late winner against Wivenhoe recently, and the celebrations which followed, will be hoping that particular moment was both.

Come on You Seasiders!