Easter rising (or falling)

IT'S that time of year when we football fans are wound up like a spring.
A huge weekend where our hopes and prayers are condensed into four days of nerve-shredding excitement.
As a sports journo I am once again handcuffed to a desk while my beloved Gas will be either pushing themselves towards League One safety or watching the last grains of hope disappear down the drain of despair.
Two massive games.
Ex-Premier League titans Charlton Athletic at the Mem on Saturday, followed by a trip to rapidly rising Bournemouth on Monday.
Every waking moment is spent going through the scenarios in your head.
Two wins, six points and we'll be within touching distance of securing our League One future.
Two defeats, and a series of results going against us elsewhere, and it's hello League Two again and all the misery that entails.
I can recall plenty of Easter weekends when I've emerged with either a huge smile on my face or with my head firmly tucked under a pillow in the hope that I will cut off the oxygen to my brain and that the nightmare will stop.
Can we do it? Can we really pull off the great escape?
Can Captain Cams lead his raggle-taggle mob of loanees, out-of-contract cast-offs and young whippersnappers to the promised land?
A couple of weeks ago, after that fantastic home win over Bournemouth, I would have said yes.
Now, two defeats later, and I must admit the doubts haven't just crept in, they have flooded my brain.
But there is good news in the camp. All the talk is that Will Hoskins, our star striker (and some would say our ONLY striker) is supposedly regaining fitness on the training ground.
He is tipped for a return to first-team action.
But if he plays, will he be fighting fit, champing at the bit again to reproduce his early season form and shoot us to a glorious finale?
Or will his optimism prove premature, his lack of match-fitness let him down or, heaven forbid, he bow out with a recurrence of his troublesome ankle problem?
We'll know fairly soon.
In the meantime we are left to hope that our west country neighbours Plymouth can do us a favour and get something from their trip to close relegation rivals Dagenham.
I imagine every Gashead will be with them in spirit, shouting "Greeeen Arrrmmmy" and "Caman you Janners!" at the tops of our voices in the hope that Peter Reid can produce one more miracle from his locker in this season of financial meltdown for his team.
They say we can't hope for others to do us a favour, but it's just human nature, isn't it?
In fact, all around us teams we were praying would slip up only weeks ago are now the teams we are begging to do us a favour.
Tomorrow, it's Swindon at home to Notts County. Swindle, the old enemy, are now a close ally in our plight.
They've won one game in 20, but we want them to buck the trend and grab three points.
And then there is Sheffield Wednesday. Tomorrow we hope they play like world beaters to take the points at Walsall.
Next Saturday we will want them to resemble a rabble of no-hopers on their visit to the Mem for our last home game of the season.
What's for sure is that every sports programme will be watched, Radio tuned in and text messages keenly devoured for news of the twists and turns to come.
In the typically masochistic manner of the football fan, I can't wait for the action to start.