Sam Crispin, Fan Blogger, 25th February

In a week where the press and the people of England have been discussing in minute detail Gordon Brown's bullying (allegedly, of course), Cheryl and Ashley Cole splitting up (what a divvy…have you seen her?!) and the Killer Whale that killed a trainer in Florida (what did they expect…the clue's in the name!), I've been more focused on the really big issue - was the postponement of the game on Tuesday night a terrible bit of bad luck, or a blessing in disguise?

On the one hand, we were robbed of a fantastic opportunity to bounce back from the fiasco that was the Stockport game. Lifeless, dreary, lethargic…and that was just the fans; the on-field performance from the boys in red 'n white was even worse. I'm not sure whether it was just a lack of confidence in a slightly depleted squad, or over confidence at playing the league's bottom side, or just because the sun was out and we were all feeling a bit lazy, but whatever it was, it was awful.

Plus, it would have given us a chance to play a side that, one decent result against Charlton aside, have been very poor recently. Add to that the fact that it's our derby for the season, on an unwelcoming, rainy Tuesday night in February, with a crowd stirred up by the threat of rain and relegation, and we could have witnessed some very sweet revenge being dished out, after we murdered them in the away fixture and still left with nothing.

Perhaps we missed out. But then again, perhaps Mother Nature did us a favour.

Maybe, so soon after the Stockport debacle, an anxious, largely pessimistic and frustrated St James' Park crowd would not have created an atmosphere particularly conducive to an Exeter City win on Tuesday night. Maybe we would have made the players overly nervous, so eager to right the wrongs of last Saturday that costly mistakes would have been almost inevitable.

Maybe we'll be in better shape, in terms of injuries and suspensions, when the new date of the fixture does come around. Perhaps Stanno and Marcus Stewart will be fit, and Barry Corr raring to go after a lengthy suspension. Maybe Marcus Haber will have settled by then and be well on his way to carving himself a place in our club's history following some devastating, match-winning performances.

I guess we'll never know. It will all come down to how we get on in the re-arranged fixture, and how we get on this weekend away to Brighton, a fully fledged, clear cut, bona fide six pointer.

Hopefully (he says, fingers so tightly crossed that he's in danger of cutting off his circulation), we'll get it right on Saturday. Hopefully, the players will be fresh and raring to go, ready to steamroller a team that have struggled at home all season and go into the game on the back of two very tricky away trips.

Hopefully, the players will look at that horrible little line on the league table that their club is currently sitting below and be eager, nay, desperate, for three valuable points. Hopefully Marcus Haber will be more in sync with his current teammates, hopefully Logan and Fleetwood will find their scoring boots, and hopefully the midfield and attack will play like they're more than just distant acquaintances.

Hopefully. And it's very important that we stay hopeful because pessimism, negativity, abject criticism and frustration are not going to help Exeter City Football Club one little bit in the next couple of months. A cliché it may be, but we need to stick together if we're going to survive this season. Criticism and complaint can wait until the summer, but for now we all need to be fighting the same battle, and making sure that we get the 19 or so points we need to stay up.

I fear that relegation would see us spending the next few years floating around the bottom half of League Two. While that's preferable to being non-league again, it's surely not as attractive a proposition as growing into a very competitive League One club, perhaps making a realistic charge at the playoffs every so often.

It's certainly nice to dream. But the dream could become a reality if our next run of fixtures sees us performing well and picking up some points, starting on Saturday away to Brighton.

So let's all, players and fans alike, give it everything we've got to make it happen. After all, we're in this together.

The opinions expressed in our Fan Blogs are exclusively those of the author and not those of Exeter City Football Club.

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