When did we become so weak frit?

This weekend's game at home to Bishop Stortford is beginning to assume epic importance.  The recent nosedive in form and results after an excellent start to the season is threatening to turn from a dip in form to a typically Poppies full-blown calamity.  In the past couple of weeks the faithful chestnut of disquiet has been heard around Latimer Park - "That was the worst performance I've ever seen...."  Really?  The worst?  What, again?

Why do we regard a few defeats as irreputable proof of an onrushing apocalypse?  Is it just us?  Do other clubs routinely turn a couple of reverses into a full-blown meltdown and see such a run as the evidence of the end-of-times?  Do other clubs' supporters reach for the panic button as quickly as we do?  Do other fans treat back-to-back home defeats as proof the sky is falling, or that losing an FA Cup match is an omen of an inevitable footballing-holocaust?

And it's not just results that have us huddling together and fearing for the collapse of western society.  No Poppies player can ever be suffering from a slight knock, or have issues away from football that take precedence over the Poppies.  No, if a player doesn't feature it must only be because they have left us with no notice for our deadliest rivals, and probably haven't been paid in months....and I'd heard from a bloke who knows someone who delivers milk to a player's nan, that the club are in financial straits and that none of the players have been paid since the 2005-06 season.....

And when did we become such knee-jerk jessies that some of us genuinely want the Manager gone after barely a half a dozen league games?  A few negative online comments from a handful of bitter Banbury supporters and we want to form a posse and hound Hollyhead out of Latimer Park.  The four straight wins we started the season with all quickly forgotten in the stampede to railroad the Manager out of town.

What has turned us into such a bunch of fearful, hand-wringing, tale-tattling scaredy-cats?  What happened to showing a stiff-upper lip?  Remaining stoic in the face of adversity.  Shrugging off set-backs with a superior sneer?  When you consider and remember how many GENUINE disasters and prospective club-ending events we have survived over the years by showing a united front and fighting together, you have to wonder how we became so meek and fearful over a handful of games going against us?

We need to show more of these....