‘This is our year’ is a term often synonymous with teams who perennially challenge for honours but always stumble at the final hurdle.
When August comes around the previous season is forgotten and after three wins on the bounce, ‘this is our year’ is on the lips of everyone around the ground.
This football ritual is not exclusively entertained by top clubs vying for major honours.
City Struggles
Chelmsford City FC have reached the National League South play-offs two seasons in a row, but both campaigns have ended in bitter disappointment.
Last season the Clarets finished third, securing a home tie in the play-off semi-final. They faced Hampton & Richmond, but lost 0-1 after failing to make their first half dominance count.
This was such a disappointment for Chelmsford as they had their chances to win but failed to even get a goal.
However this disappointment pales in comparison to what happened the season before. Chelmsford managed to reach the final of the play-offs and they were flying high after an hour.
The Clarets were 1-0 up and they had a man advantage after Ebbsfleet’s Anthony Cook had received a straight red card. So, City had just half an hour to protect their advantage, but they fell to two goals in quick succession and their play-off dream was diminished.
New Hope
This season Chelmsford are yet again in with a shout of making the pay-offs, they sit in third and have won eight of their last nine games, including a 4-1 thumping of Hungerford last weekend.
But will this season be third time lucky for the Clarets?
We conducted a survey among 43 Chelmsford fans to gauge their opinions on whether they can finally break their play-off curse.
Poisoned Chalice?
Its fair to say that the fans are thoroughly split on whether the team is good enough to win promotion, or even if they want the club to get promoted.
One fan who wished to stay anonymous wrote “as a club we are not yet ready financially or off field to be promoted.”
Another fan had similar views, “if we went up we would probably struggle, like Braintree.”
So, promotion is not the be all and end all for the fans, and 84% of the fans we surveyed thought that the season would be a success even in Chelmsford do not get promoted.
However, it is certainly a worrying trend that the Clarets keep falling at this hurdle as many fans raised the point their play-off woes are disappointing but not surprising, so in this sense they are almost becoming accustomed to this failure.
Necessary Changes
Chelmsford just manage to find ways to lose when it comes to the play offs and this seems so deep rooted within the club based on fans responses.
So, the first step would be to attempt to instil a new attitude when they inevitably make the play-off spots again.
Secondly, they need to address their over reliance on their top scorer Rhys Murphy. The Arsenal trainee has been in scintillating form this season, but the Clarets attack is blunt without him.
If they can find a proven goal scorer to act as an able deputy, then some weight will be lifted off his shoulders.
Finally, the Clarets need to make sure they are prepared behind the scenes to go up into the National League.
Not Good Enough?
Many of the fans worry how the club will cope in a higher division as they are unsure of the club’s financial standing and if they could compete with some of the clubs in the National League on that front.
Not only this but 59% of fans think that the current squad is good not enough for promotion which just shows that they don’t believe the club is ready to go up.
Only time will tell whether Chelmsford manage to overcome their playoff curse but for now they will have to keep competing with the best in the National League South and make sure they give themselves the best chance to make it ‘their year’.
