THERE was so much to discuss over our pre-match Black Sheep that we had to start early to get it all in.

It’s been a rollercoaster of a week, starting with the devastating loss of Mark Davies for the season.

Once again, Sky have shown their contempt for the ordinary football fan by switching the Bury game to Monday night at short notice, particularly unfair on our long-distance fans.

Then we managed to lose our CheckaCrowd EFL Trophy match to Everton’s youngsters, the only bright spot being the debuts of Alex Parry and Jack Earing.

But just when we were feeling sorry for ourselves, we got involved in transfer deadline day, literally at the eleventh hour, in the most positive way for years.

Everyone got a boost at the clear signs that the new regime is doing what it can to get this club back on its feet.

Five players in on the day, 12 in the transfer window at a cost less than Paul Pogba’s bus fare.

Rumour has it that even some of our grumpiest fans broke out in smiles.

The much-needed new troops were thrown straight into battle with Keshi Anderson and James Henry starting and the other three on the bench.

The autumnal monsoon tried to dampen our spirits but not as much as Mr Brown's boys, who hadn’t read the script and tore our non-existent defence apart, going ahead after three minutes through Harry Kyprianou.

We proceeded to batter Southend United but couldn’t put the ball in the net, with Anderson saving a certain goal from David Wheater.

Keshi made amends by equalising when their goalie, Ted Smith, dropped the ball at his feet.

A lot of referees would not have given the goal as you cannot breathe on goalies these days.

How we didn’t win this match will remain one of life’s little mysteries but let’s say that we need to work on our finishing.

It was good to welcome Phil Brown back and typically his passion got the better of him as he was ordered to the stand after berating the fourth official with his views.

It looks like things are beginning to get sorted. We’re within the salary cap. We still need to sort out the accounts, which will make awful reading, showing just how near we came to oblivion. But there are signs that we are rising from the ashes.