John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: Recruitment is now the focus in a key summer

Having got ourselves into a position to challenge for a play-off spot, our speed at picking up points in our last five games has slowed down that much that it feels like we had been overtaken by the safety car and pulled into the pits.

With manager Ryan Lowe being forced to watch the game from a lofty position on the television gantry we had a change of driver and it was Mike Marsh who climbed into the cockpit to steer us round this final lap.

The first half was a very open and entertaining one with both sides missing chances. We were indebted to my man of the match, goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, for keeping us in the game. However, our soon to be crowned Player Of The Year was powerless to stop the visitors rattling in three goals in a spell in which we seemed to cave in after the visitors’ stunning opener

This meant that for our fans the game became a damp squib, which also matched the inclement May weather.

As I watched the rain lashing down during this miserable second half it seemed like this was an appropriate sorry end to what I think in general has been a poor home season.

At one time our opponents seemed destined to be checking into the Heartbreak Hotel but their win which saw them clinch a play-off place meant that their reservation was cancelled, and this week the beds would be taken up by fans of Millwall, West Brom and Blackburn Rovers.

After finishing in the top half of the table and just six points off a play-off position, this season could be deemed a success by some, given the fact that our playing budget is supposedly one of the lowest in the division.

On the flip side of this seeing the likes of Luton,Coventry and Sunderland, who recently were all League One sides, get in makes me feel differently . I am more than a little disappointed in some of our lacklustre performances this season and if we had shown a bit more backbone especially in our last five games it could have been us and not the masses of Wearsiders on The Kop who were celebrating and dreaming of an end of season trip to Wembley.

Ryan Lowe has recently expressed a need to push the club on and not accept the mediocre mid-table finishes which have become the norm in our recent seasons. It is a welcome view which is shared by the majority of our fans who would like to see us challenge for the play offs.

I think that this summer’s recruitment is going to be a vital one which will determine our clubs immediate future.

Like last summer, it looks like we are going to see more departures of the old guard which could free up some space on the wage bill for the injection of some fresh new blood into the squad.

So far in three transfer windows, Ryan Lowe has only been allowed to sign one new player for a fee, although to offset this the wages of Premier League loanees Parrott, Fernandez, Cannon and Delap will not have been cheap and will have had to of been funded out of the owners’ pockets.

In my opinion though a top-six finish is unlikely to be achieved if our days of spending a million pounds on a player are over, as has been stated in the past.

Although there are players available this summer like Ashley Barnes and Matty Pearson who I personally would take, barring a few exceptions there is a reason why players are out of contract and available on free transfers. For me building a team around free transfer signings and expecting a promotion challenge is more than a tad unrealistic.

In next year’s race for promotion we could see the likes of Everton, Southampton, Leeds or Leicester jockeying for pole position on the starting grid in a stronger division with ex-Premier teams Norwich, West Brom and Watford, who I'd expect to challenge, as well as the three clubs from this years top six who will miss out on promotion.

We therefore must, as the manager has said, create some funds to soup up the engine of our car as well even if it’s not the multi millions which some of these clubs may well be spending in their summer shopping sprees.

As has been seen before, this division can be unforgiving if taken lightly. If the recruitment this summer is not spot on in a year’s time we might even be fighting to avoid the same fate as our "friends from the coast" just down the M55 motorway, and not just mediocrity.