Promotion hopes simply fizzled out for Aston Villa

At the end of the day, the best three teams in the league were promoted, and Villa were not one of them.

But it’s my fellow 38,000 Villa fans I feel most sorry for. Singing their hearts out and willing the team on, hope slowly turned to worry, despair and ultimately huge disappointment.

Manager Steve Bruce maintained all year the league was a marathon and not a sprint. And then, when our promotion challenge faded, he reiterated time and time again his most experienced players would come to the fore when it mattered most.

If we’re being honest as fans, the alarm bells should have started ringing after the Middlesbrough game.

The hysteria of simply booking yet another date at Wembley masked the fact the second leg was a poor performance.

We did what we had to do, fair enough, but sitting deep and not really having a game plan designed to create chances was worrying.

But we felt, come the big day, we’d be able to produce a performance worthy of returning to the Premier League.

Of course, it didn’t happen and Villa were simply outplayed and out-thought by Fulham.

Another long season awaits us now, back in the Championship, and the most worrying part is whether we can retain our best players – those who came in on loans, those coming to the end of their careers and those who should be playing in the top division.

The longer a side stays in the Championship, the harder it becomes to escape. The gap between the Premier League ­­– well, from eighth down – and the Championship is narrowing each year.

It means the promoted sides have a better chance than ever to stay in the top flight and the relegated teams are finding it harder and harder to bounce straight back.

The play-off final is billed as the most lucrative game in the world and for good reason too with teams earning as much as £160million for going up, which could rise to £280m if the promoted team stays up.

With the Financial Fair Play rules already causing Villa headaches in the transfer market, failing to go up once again is going to make it even more difficult.

Are there any positives to take away? The truth is this is the best Villa side we have seen in a long time.

Bruce had set up a team with one goal in mind – getting promotion either through the play-offs or automatically by finishing in the top two.

It’s vitally important we don’t panic now and start making rash decisions, the sort of moves that cost us our top-flight status in the first place.

Wolves were simply outstanding this season and it’s unlikely any of the relegated teams will be as good as them.

Cardiff went on an outstanding run and just didn’t slip up, even when it looked like they might be running out of steam.

Fulham were one of the stand-out teams all year and had they started their campaign in the same vein of form they would arguably have got the second spot and not been faced with the nerves of a play-off final.

Albion, Stoke and Swansea are the clubs Villa are most likely going to be fighting against for promotion next year, should Bruce and the majority of the squad stick around for another push at promotion.

It’s fair to say all those teams will be arriving in the Championship carrying a fair bit of baggage having been relegated with turmoil raging behind the scenes

Luckily for us, Jack Grealish loves Villa and hopefully that will be enough to convince him to stay for at least one more year.

John Terry will feel he has unfinished business because he came into the club with one goal in mind – getting us back into the Premier League – so, again, hopefully that will be enough to get him to try one more time.

It’s a big ask and next season will be just as hard as this one, but the squad is good enough to win the league – we just need to believe a bit more and also try attacking and playing to our strengths, rather than sitting deep and hoping the opposition slips up.

The heartbreak of losing at Wembley, again, will take a while to recover from but come August we’ll be right back with the team, roaring them on and praying this time we can achieve promotion in the less nerve-wracking way by securing one of the top two places.

I truly believe that’s possible, but we need stability.

For now though, let’s enjoy the summer, reflect on what’s been a rollercoaster season, regroup and get ready for another attempt at returning to the Premier League.