Defeat at Bury on Saturday was hardly unexpected, given their league position and urgent need for points - but it means we will have to wait until next season to get our first away victory of 2015.

It's funny how things change. This time last season, we were bemoaning a run of home form that had seen just one win at Kingsmeadow since January.

In terms of securing season ticket sales, I'm sure the club would much rather see such a barren run take place away from home; .

Anyone who only attends home games will have seen us take 19 points from 10 games in 2015!

It's never easy to work out what causes this sort of statistical anomaly. The fact that we had the opposite problem last season (and at the start of this one) suggests that it's not down to some innate flaw in this bunch of players.

Poor away form is often attributed to a failure to cope with hostile surroundings, or to an inability to focus properly after a long journey, but both of those ideas seem unlikely, given the mental strength we've shown on occasion this season.

The way our season has petered out certainly won't have helped. Perhaps the issue is simply that without a home crowd to get the players energised, they struggle to get motivated?

If that is the case, then both the players and the management have let down the fans that regularly travel to far-flung northern wastelands in support of the team.

Ultimately, when compared to the fate suffered by Tranmere and Cheltenham fans this weekend, complaining about our disappointing end to the season seems a little unappreciative of how far we've come in recent years.

Securing safety so early in the season certainly made a welcome change, but you get the feeling that if next season goes similarly to this one, the relief of having escaped a relegation battle will be replaced by real disappointment at not having finished higher.

Our fans are as unremittingly ambitious as ever, and the glimpse of what might have been (had the likes of Tubbs and Barrett stayed on) will make the desire for success all the more intense.

But Neal continues to say all the right things - and while our points total may be little improvement on last season, there is little doubt that every aspect of the club has improved immeasurably since his arrival.

It's been genuinely enjoyable to watch us at times this season, which has rarely been the case since arrival in the Football League back in 2011.

If we can make similar forward strides in terms of consistency next season, then our play-off dreams might just be realised.