Incredible highs and snake belly lows - a season of 'what if' and 'perspective' for Chesterfield

It started – and ended – on a Friday night under the lights with We Are Sailing belting out from a sea of blue in the stands. Oh, it was beautiful. It was a highly-charged, emotional nine months full of incredible highs, and lower than a snake’s belly lows.

There was the ‘5-0 away ole ole’ at Crewe. The 8-2 on aggregate hammering of eventual champions Doncaster Rovers. Slapping five past Morecambe and four at Salford City. A six-goal thriller against the Bantams. An oh so sweet last-gasp winner at Notts County. And Woody, Jesus and a tin of baked beans celebrating a play-off spot at Accrington Stanley.

There were also some frustrations. The pesky injuries from day one. The ‘low block’ visitors who came to the SMH for a point – and got one. The soft underbelly on the road. The time-wasting dark arts. Late concessions against teams they should never have lost to. Losing players in January. But that is football, as Paul Cook says.

None of that was anywhere near as heartbreaking, devastating or upsetting as the news about Phil Kirk. God bless him. That put a lot of things into perspective. Life can be so cruel. Best wishes to him and his family.

Then there was Tyrone Williams, who wondered if he might not walk again, never mind play football, after a serious neck injury at Swindon Town. The fact it happened reasonably close to a specialist spinal surgery unit in Oxford was a blessing. It is great to see him on the mend and his rate of progress shows his strength of character.

Being honest, this season never felt like a promotion season for me. Too much was happening. You can ‘feel’ and ‘smell’ a promotion as the games are ticked off, but I never really got that sense in my gut this time, which is fine. A top seven finish in your first campaign back at this level in six years is a fantastic achievement given the mass injuries and off-field adversity.

A play-off slip-up will always bring a ‘what if’ feeling to the surface. I can’t help but wonder where Chesterfield would have ended up had they been able to play the team that won 3-0 at Doncaster in September more regularly. A back four of Devan Tanton, Chey Dunkley, Harvey Araujo and Lewis Gordon. An attacking trio of Dilan Markanday, Armando Dobra and James Berry. Will Grigg up front. My bet would be the top three.

What next? The summer looks a busy one. Only nine players are definitely under contract. There is a rebuilding job to be done but there is the space and the finances to do that. They could do with some younger blood. I think they need more strings to their bow. More physicality. More athleticism. More pace. And the injuries need looking into it.

You can comfort yourself by believing Chesterfield weren not quite ready for League One just yet. Perhaps they need one more year at this level to make sure they can take the next step and not come back for a very long time. In football, you have to take your chance when it comes because you might not get another one, but I think they will. And it will be very soon. Record home attendances – the best in 50 years – and more than 5,000 season tickets sold already suggest plenty of others believe the same. This is a club building. It is going places. And the only way is up. Maybe that is why, for me, the play-off defeat didn’t sting as much as the ones suffered in the National League.

Next season will be my seventh reporting on this mad club. Where has the time gone?