IAM writing my column in the early hours of Tuesday morning. A sleepless night has followed our defeat at Prenton Park the previous day with hopes of avoiding relegation now extinguished.

Memories of a great achievement, the joy and pride on everyone's faces as we celebrated promotion together just 11 months ago, is painful to recall.

For short periods I have great sympathy for myself with the injuries we have suffered; using six goalkeepers during the course of the season is hardly going to bring stability and success.

The injuries to key players like Matt Murray, Bruno N'Gotty and Chris Weale and the run-in without three, and sometimes four, of our recognised central defenders made an already difficult task even harder.

We have continued throughout the season to stick to our principles of passing the ball and building attacks from the back.

I can reflect on some good team performances for example, Peterborough, Southend, Huddersfield and Walsall to name but four which did not produce the points return our play deserved.

Our loan players have not had the same impact on the team that they had last season.

Partly because of injuries but mostly, with the exception of Lionel Ainsworth who played a big part in some of our victories during his short spell with us, they did not perform anywhere near expectations.

Looking back two seasons, fighting for promotion in League 2 would have been fairly successful.

However, I would not have changed the comfort zone of that for the experience of competing against the likes of Leeds and Leicester and playing in a division which contained many other big clubs and attempting to overcome that difference in size.

Clubs who are relegated can often go one of two ways, having tasted the higher life they are galvanised into fighting back and competing again for promotion or, alternatively, the air of depression continues and further struggles prefail.

One of my former clubs, Wolves, were relegated in three consecutive seasons in the early 1980s.

We must now ensure that the way is paved for us to fight back from the trials and tribulations of this season.

The fact that financially we are stable may well give us an advantage over some of our rivals when competing for players.

A recent assessment of clubs’ sizes put us in the bottom eight of the 72 in the Football League but it is not the size of the club in the fight that counts but the size of the fight in the club.

We must never settle for what we are, but for what we can be.

Finally, having gone through the miserable process of feeling sorry for myself over the last few hours, I must assess my own role in all that has happened.

Of course I wished for the clock to have been turned back and to have been able to have started life in League 1 again with the opportunity to do things differently. But wishful thinking brings nothing.

Whatever happens during a season, it is the manager who has to take responsibility and therefore accountability. I have undoubtedly made some bad decisions - especially where player recruitment has been concerned.

I, therefore, take full responsibility for our plight and personally offer my sincere apologies to all who, like me, started the season with such high hopes. In particular those who followed us the length and breadth of the country.

If there is any consolation, I hope there was enjoyment in going to new grounds.

Over the next week or two, everything about the club will be re-examined and assessed, some very big decisions will need to be made before the season ends.

The only consideration will be what is best for the club.