By Dave Noble - CUOSC

The Brunton Park campaign now put to bed with another sorry performance, just one last dance on the road remains before the curtain can finally be brought down on an enormously disappointing 2023/24 season.

Close to 2,000 Blues will be making the trip to Pride Park this weekend, which is testament to the quite incredible support we have and again outlines the huge potential of the club when we bounce back from this relegation setback.

Last time we visited Derby for a final-day clash, having already been doomed to the foot of the table, we held the then Football League champions to a goalless draw, so perhaps we can come away with something and maybe even rain on The Rams' promotion parade.

With League Two looking much more northern-centric next term, the travelling hordes will have a little less mileage to navigate as we make our assault on the top end of the table.

The CUOSC board felt that it was important last week to voice our disappointment at the decision made to scrap replays from round one of the FA Cup. It was not so much the decision, which we still acknowledge was a poor one with replays being part of the fabric of the world’s greatest club cup competition, but the fact that the vast majority of entrants, their designated representative bodies, and even some of the FA committees, including the ‘FA Cup Committee’ no less, had the decision thrust upon them at very short notice and without consultation for the seeming benefit of the very few.

The signs of a widening split in the football pyramid between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ are very much apparent, with a few pound notes dangled as the carrot to grant carte blanche to those at the very top of the game to ride rough shod over the rest.

It remains to be seen if and how this will affect the potential introduction of a Football Regulator, but it goes without saying that on inception they would have their work cut in keeping the out of control Premier League juggernauts in check on behalf of the little guy.