FROM the emotional, uplifting return of the legends last Sunday to the depressing debacle of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at Stockport on Wednesday, welcome on board the rollercoaster of being a Wanderers fan, where life is certainly full of ups and downs.

On Saturday, it was off to Adams Park, where two years ago we welcomed Sharon Brittan and marked the start of our rebuilding in a match which was in doubt until a few days before.

Ironically, the service station stop was full of Stockport County fans on their way to Woking! Just what we needed but lunch at the Dashwood Roadhouse turned out to be a real treat with superb “Swineapple”, washed down with some excellent Rebellion IPA.

Despite our recent poor run of form, the Wanderers fans turned out in force and in good voice, to give the players a much-needed lift.

Ian Evatt made three changes bringing back Will Aimson, Alex Baptiste and MJ Williams. The Wanderers responded well and we gave as much as we took, against a good team.

We deserved our luck when Sam Vokes hit the inside of the post, for the commitment of the players and then Joel Dixon made a brilliant penalty save.

It was looking promising until lady luck deserted us with Williams’ injury and Vokes conjured up a far-post looping header to steal the points. We paid the price for our lack of quality in the final third on the day.

There is no doubt we are in a tough and testing period. The first half of this season was always going to be about adjusting to League One, assessing who is going to make it and where we have to improve.

We got off to a decent start, which raised expectations unrealistically. Now the harsh reality of coping in a higher league is kicking in as our horrendous injury list continues to grow. It is a time for patience and sticking together. The two home matches next week suddenly take on more importance to get some much-needed points. Trolling the team will get us nowhere. We need to be the 12th man to give the team the support that they need.