The highs and lows of being a football fan eh? All emotion has been encapsulated in the last seven days in the life of a Swindon Town supporter.

Last week at this time, we were ready to celebrate. Another win against Plymouth Argyle would surely see us on the verge of promotion, and we were ready to acclaim another scarf raising ceremony by PDC.

For a while it looked like we would go up. Crawley fell behind and if we could score that would be enough to seal the deal. Well we did score, but so did Crawley and so it wasn’t quite done and dusted. News began to filter around that Paolo’s mum was seriously ill and that he would leave the ground straight after the final whistle.

We knew, of course, that he’d lost his father recently again in the week of a game against Argyle. So when chief executive Nick Watkins made the announcement that Paolo’s mother had passed away, the whole ground broke out in sympathetic applause. The Plymouth fans also showed their respect, and I think we all were grateful for that.

So a rather odd feeling leaving the ground. Don’t know about you, but I really felt rather subdued on the way back to Devon. Doesn’t matter how famous you are, family loss is a great burden to carry. Every Town fan would have felt that loss Saturday evening.

However, the business of football goes on and so to Tuesday and Aldershot.

Due to work commitments I couldn’t go to Hampshire for the match. So another night sweating over the newswires, Twitter etc.

There were one or two comments about the team selection, with some rather surprising omissions. But I think its fair to say that confidence was still high that the team was good enough to get the point which would get us promoted.

As the evening went on though, it was obvious it wasn’t one of our best performances. Still, when Paul Caddis struck home the equaliser I felt reasonably sure all would be well. Sadly it didn’t turn out that way, and chance to secure promotion that night was gone.

Just before I started my Late Show I saw some of the comments coming out about an alleged Saturday night drinking session among some of the squad. It was obvious that PDC was deeply hurt and frustrated about the situation. Another of his great animal quotes emerged, this time involving a fluffy bunny.

I think what I find the most distasteful about this, if all that is supposed to have happened really did happen, is that while as fans we felt rather flat Saturday night, clearly there were some who didn’t feel quite so bad.

Players who carry our hopes week in week out, maybe don’t take it as seriously as we do. Working as I do in the media, I’ve learned that football is a cynical game, and the shirt means more to the fans than it does to those who wear it temporarily.

PDC is the manager. he wants the players to play at the highest level they can. They’ll only do that by living the right way. Everyone makes mistakes in life, I certainly do. It’s how we come out the other side that matters.

One word we should all learn maybe is RESPECT…. Something that we should all show on Saturday when we represent our Swindon at Gillingham. Now that we’re being let in, let’s come back together as a club and get out of this league in the right way. Maybe then we’ll all feel like celebrating.

Keep it loud, keep it proud, keep it SWINDON.