Eastbourne Borough fans are allowed to be angry - but should look longer-term too

We had proved we could keep the club alive and afloat, steering carefully and determinedly through this national and global catastrophe. We had a project, and we worked to make it work.

We had belief, and we believed in each other. We had – have – an inspiring manager and an inspired bunch of players, in love with the game. On the pitch we had some of our best moments for years, and those performances lifted the people around us, our locked-out supporters, our volunteers, our kids in the youth teams who wear the kit with such pride.

We represented our town, out across England, even on live TV, with honour. In a sea of fear and gloom, we lit little lanterns of excitement and happiness.

To ordinary folk, including those who were depressed or worried or lonely, we gave a hand of friendship and a smile and a chat. And remember, by the way, that other clubs across the town and across Sussex were, and are, aching to do the same.

We are united with all those sports and football clubs. We deserved the chance to carry on, and we have been thwarted, not so much by Covid, as by sporting politics and national politicians. Decisions about our club, taken out of our hands.

If you feel frustrated, you are forgiven. It is hugely important to us, if not to the rest of the world. Alongside the heroics of the medics and their support workers, of course, we are no more than a mere detail. But yes, we were doing our bit, and our reaction now is heartfelt and justified.

Then, take the longer view. Tragedy, real tragedy, has been all around us, across the country and in our neighbours’ homes or even in our own families.

The real loss is not the loss of a Saturday afternoon but the loss of a life. Those young men will pull on a shirt again and we will cheer them again; but there will be gaps on the terraces left unfilled, except with our memories.

Draw on what we have experienced in this pandemic, and what we have learned. At its simplest level, the frustration and boredom of lockdown can become a tightly coiled spring of fresh activity, as soon as safety and better health return.

In footballing terms, the vibrant successes, the smashing goals, the bravura which the team brought to the FA Cup challenge, and the slightly improbable but brilliant new friendships with Blackpool: those friendships must stay alive. At the club’s level, the madcap improvisation, and juggling with pages of protocols, taught us a new resourcefulness and resilience – with just a dash of dark humour to keep us sane.

Whatever life throws next at this football club, we know now that we can handle it. At the team’s level, those terrific lads can stay together and improve together and carry on where they left off. And even any players who move on, will move on stronger from their half-season of teamwork as a part of Bloor’s team.

And if they return, in another club’s colours, they will be welcomed as old friends and not enemies – because fighting the pandemic has taught us that there are no enemies, only partners in a common cause. These months have challenged us: our stamina, our patience, our beliefs, our bloody-mindedness in not bowing to the Wretched Virus.

Finally, take time. We know it’s getting better. What, today, is bitter resentment will, in a few weeks, have turned to rueful frustration when we look back on the null and void ruling. This club is anything but null and void. And then, a little bit further out, the summer will come and the kids will be back in their Borough kit, not just in the back garden but in their coaching sessions out on the 3G.

And Neil will be serving pints in that shiny newly renovated clubhouse. And the 2021-22 fixtures will be published, the crowds will be back at last, and Danny’s team will trot out of the tunnel (led of course by young mascot Molly, who else!), and Sussex by the Sea will ring out across Priory Lane once again…