The Man has cracked. The fear has kicked in: something completely missing last season. Waiting for a big trip to Huddersfield. The important arrival of Stockport. It wasn’t the same.

We were the big fish, waiting to end our punishment. Obviously it was fun, but it was expected.

This however, this run-in just got real. Suddenly The Man finds himself hating the idea of the play-offs. And those last seven games, they look hard. And Cardiff’s don’t.

Then there’s this huge – if not massively-huge, or even very massively-huge – journey to Swansea on Saturday.

It’s all far more in the balance, more serious fare than this time 12 months ago. At least the players seem to be keeping it together. That’s far more important.

Fair to say the fear only kicked in during the week. On Saturday The Man was as calm as they come.

If we were still playing now, we’d have enough goals to have won the cricket World Cup.

It really was good of Nelse to have a word with his new lads and let them know “this one’s for me old side, pets”.

The points were pretty much in the bag after 10 minutes – although the kid who sang OTBC on the pitch before kick-off deserves a nod.

His performance was probably what the players were trying to top when they got playing.

The Man can barely consider what a draw or a win would mean from Saturday.

It’s exactly why last season was fun for a one-off, and why this one’s the real deal.

• There was a definite sense of the Belluz’s around Dani Boy on Saturday.

Given, the lad had the entire pitch to himself for most of the afternoon, but the stuff that saw Spain pass to death the rest of the world last summer? Yep, Dani’s got it.

Which is good timing, seeing as Wessi’s booked his summer holidays early again probably.

• The Man caught word loved-but-certain-to-be-relegated Blackpool think they’ll be able to get hold of David Fox in the summer.

No doubt the guy’s good enough. Foxy could put the ball on my Carra Rud seat from inside the home dressing room.

And OK, so his Dad may be coaching Matt Gilks outside Blackpool Tower, but Foxy knows when he’s on to a good thing.

• We’ve all been waiting for the Roedent to pop up somewhere since crushing our club from the inside.

Lo and behold, it’s Villa who are surprisingly desperate enough to bring him on board.

It’s only scouting the opposition – so nothing that important.

He has a talent for crippling a side and considering Gerard Houllier was doing such a good job of it on his own, they wouldn’t be a bad team to leapfrog in the summer.