THIS season could not finish early enough.

In truth, the season was over before bonfire night and once again it was damage limitation.

Neil Lennon came in and briefly restored confidence while raising hopes.

But performances and results since the turn of the year have been miserable.

Highlights have been few and far between; Joe Mason’s hat-trick against Rotherham United; away wins at Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff City; the cup matches against Chelsea and Liverpool.

At Craven Cottage in October, I felt we had sunk to our lowest point.

We got hammered by a fellow struggling side and I have never felt as alienated from the club as when I was leaving the ground that night.

Neil Lennon has given us our club back.

He popped into the fanzone before the first home match to introduce himself.

He then went round to see the young boy who had applied for his job.

The fun with Paddy McGuiness and Emile Heskey was brilliant as it meant we were getting some good news stories instead of all the usual doom and gloom.

Off the field there have been some cracking days out with Liverpool top of the list. Chelsea wasn’t far behind as we enjoyed London beforehand.

Friendliest fans were found at Charlton Athletic and Brentford and we joined the promotion party at Bournemouth – good practice for when it is our turn.

We are a club in transition, having to completely change the structure.

Gone are the days of the highly-paid stars – we have to grow our own timber nowadays.

Owen Coyle and Dougie Freedman started the dirty work and no team can get rid of the number of experienced players that we have had to do and not take a hit on the field.

One achievement is that we haven’t dropped any lower like we did in 1987.

Neil Lennon still has a lot to do but the seeds of recovery have been sown.

The most-pleasing aspect of this season has been the number of youngsters given their chance.

They are our future with a few experienced heads to keep them under control.

For the past three seasons we’ve had good finishes to the campaign and then awful starts to the next one.

We’ve not even had a good finish this time and yet we cannot afford another bad start.

It’s a big ask but I believe that the Wanderers are coming up the hill, boys.