IN the spirit of the times, you are no doubt prepared for words of gloom, with some optimism for the future. I will not disappoint as the Tony Humes era comes to a close, with the last week resembling a car crash.

The culmination was a couple of after match interviews that sounded like excruciating cries for help. Tony was drowning, not waving, as it turns out. In the circumstances, a change of manager feels like a bright light on the horizon.

We should all be grateful for the fantastic final day victory over Preston last May, probably our best day at the stadium.

But Tony’s credibility has suffered which each heavy defeat this season, and there have been too many. Fleetwood, Shrewsbury, Wigan, Millwall, Crewe – these will be the names on the gravestone of his managerial career at the U’s.

Chairman-owner Robbie Cowling has always been in the trenches alongside Tony Humes, as he has previously been with Williams, Ward and Dunne. It is not anything like a normal boss-employee situation, and certainly not like an absentee owner who can make callous dismissal decisions from the other side of the Atlantic and not bat an eyelid. It must have been hard to part with a man who was perhaps encouraged to take the job in the first place.

But anyone who has heard Robbie speak knows that he is truly inspirational in his dreams for the club. He needs his manager to be equally inspirational because he has one of the hardest job descriptions on the planet.

Comments made by Humes after the Crewe game have provided ammunition to be used against him, as they were anything but inspirational. When it comes to supporting the manager I am so old school as to be prehistoric, but even I could see that his time was up.

Seven goals have been conceded in two games in a week, and each one was a nail in the coffin. From Millwall on Saturday and then back to the Weston Homes Community Stadium for Tuesday night’s clash with Crewe, there were no glad tidings. Millwall was as miserable as an away day gets. Crewe at home surpassed it.

We were never in the game at Millwall and the terrible goals conceded just sealed the deal. Our midfield was not attackingly cohesive, in 45 minutes I don’t think Marvin Sordell received a single pass that he could do anything with, the wide men were contained, George Moncur didn’t do what he does well. Millwall were no better than average or workmanlike. Attention and the spotlight fell on our central defenders, as they made some glaring errors.

The most astute comment that I heard, and I take no credit for its origination, was that we played a 4-4-2 squad in a 4-1-4-1 formation. My jaw dropped when I was sitting in the car park at WHCS on Tuesday night, and heard Tony Humes tell BBC Essex that we had played well.

Tuesday night’s home game assumed more importance, of the ‘stop the rot’ variety. We played reasonably well for an hour, we really did, and it looked like the troops had rallied. Having got into a 2-0 winning position, we were all counting our chickens.

Hindsight always comes with 20/20 vision. But, after the chances Crewe created in the first half and after the recent nightmare at Shrewsbury, would we have been better to drop back into a ‘two blocks of four’ defensive formation?

Two goals to the good, would it have been the way to see the game out? It would have been easy enough to do. Sacrifice George Moncur who has few natural defensive instincts. Stick Lapslie and Edwards alongside each other, flanked by Massey and Harriott. Play Porter or Bonne and AN Other (a Szmodics-shaped gap!) up top, working their socks off.

The backdrop was that we had looked vulnerable in the first half when Crewe could have scored three times, and the Shrewsbury disaster should have been the template for ‘how not to do it’. Would Crewe have broken us down, and got at our back four in the way they did? We will never know.

I am interested in the psychology of what went on out there as we collapsed in the last 30 minutes. At 2-0 we looked comfortable. One goal back, and we fell apart. That’s an exaggeration of course. The fact is that it shouldn’t have happened. But it did.

From the moment Crewe scored their first goal they were the better side. They were crisper with the use of the ball, their shape was better, they were better individually, and they started to believe that they could beat us.

It was extraordinary to see us turn into a team with no belief, after having looked so good for much of the first hour of the game. The nagging feel is also that the players jacked it in and dropped their workrate, knowingly or unknowingly.

So maybe the axe had to fall, as football is such a cruel mistress. There are five months of the season left, and a fresh face in the changing room to inspire and lead.

Personally, I feel for Tony Humes at this time, as in my dealings with him he has been very helpful and friendly. Let’s hope the next incumbent brings those qualities with him, plus the magic management touch!