Saturday brought another low point in what has become a season of low points with a goalless draw against already relegated Oxford City.

That we couldn’t score against the worst defence in the league is poor, particularly considering the quality that our centre forwards have, albeit they are massively out of form, summed up by the chance missed by James Norwood which should have won the game for us.

Norwood is perhaps a prime example of where things have gone wrong this season. Early doors, he was outstanding and at times unplayable. Ask the Barnet defence. But without a goal from open play in 2024, Norwood’s form has matched that of the rest of the squad and, now without a win in nine, the season is ending with a whimper and the chance that we won’t even improve on our finishing league position of last term.

My concern now, with our play-off chances disappointingly over, is the impact that this run will have on next season.

What is clear is that we have to make a good start. We can’t afford to only begin picking up points in September as we did this year.

But, without any momentum going into the new term, Micky Mellon has a big job on his hands to make sure we hit the ground running in August and he has been very forthright in his views about that, and especially the quality of the playing staff he is working with.

We all know many are contracted beyond the summer who Mellon doesn’t want to have in his squad, and the likes of Joe Nuttall won’t be easy to move on due to the fees involved. But Mellon must be able to utilise the budget as best he can to bring in more balance, and more leaders with a winning mentality to the squad.

This will probably start with all this summer’s out of contract players being allowed to move on with - for me - Dan Gardner the only one who has recently proven himself worthy of a new deal, but his injury record sadly counts against him.

Mellon himself, though, is not blameless in the run since February with team selection and formation high on the agenda for discussion after most of the matches in that run.

However, with the pedigree he has, he must be given the chance to make his mark fully on recruitment, mentality and the playing side as a whole with a full pre-season to really make us into a Mellon side, capable of doing good things and challenging at the top.

With two games to go, the examination of this way below par season continues.