Huish, whisper if you dare

IT'S not the despair that will get you in the end, it is the hope.
Three weeks ago I had consigned myself to the misery of relegation, a return to the dark days of League 2 football, playing at venues at the arse end of Britain.
Now, with two managers sacked and a long-serving player handed the poisoned chalice in a last desperate attempt to revive our fortunes, we have somehow won three away games in a row and taken 10 points from a possible 15 in our last five games.
True, we're still in the relegation zone, but we can actually see daylight, sense a possible escape route from the hole which we had dug for ourselves.
On Saturday the Gas went to Yeovil and, by all accounts, were battered for 80 minutes.
Looking at the highlights our west country rivals must have thought there was some invisible forcefield in front of our goal, missing at least two gilt-edged chances to put the result beyond doubt.
Then, irony of ironies, Gavin Williams, who had spent enough time on loan at Huish Park to have claimed it as a second home in the census, sprang up with 14 minutes to go to net our winner.
And suddenly, the impossible becomes possible.
West Country Yokels 0, West Country hopefuls 1
The Yeovil manager Terry Skiverton admitted it was daylight robbery, and Williams himself said we should have been 4-0 down by the time he scored.
But we survived, and dreams of a Great Escape are on.
My fellow Gasheads are euphoric, but I'm keeping my emotions in check.
Because it sounds like the problems that existed before our recent good run of form still exist, and a more clinical team might have exposed our faults to the full.
Tonight, we play Bournemouth, who have been on the fringes of the play off places all season.
And I'm worried.
Though Dave Penney failed to turn things around during his pitifully short reign in charge, he did bring in some good loan signings because he identified faults in the set up.
Stuart Campbell, the Gas legend who has taken over at the helm, appears to have discarded some of these players and turned back to those who were already on our books when we first got into this mess.
I hope that the pasting we got at Yeovil, in everything bar the score, is a lesson to him that perhaps changes still need to be made.
The experienced centre back Dave McCracken is kicking his heels on the bench, and the solid midfield JP Kalala who, to my mind, was our best player during Penney's hugely disappointing reign, both need to be considered if we don't want to turn the clocks back again to the days of heavy defeats.
I am really looking forward to tonight's match and I'm sure there will be another big crowd roaring on the Gas in their bid to achieve something that will rival any cup run or promotion push we have achieved in the past.
The Mem is buzzing, but it will only take one heavy reverse to send us back into the depths of despair again and burst our optimistic bubble.