IT WAS the most important game of our season; 90 minutes on which an entire campaign rested - along with the hopes of every fan.

So why take the risk of playing the unfit Nathan Thompson?

The 89 minutes following the captain’s departure showed why that risk had to be taken. A defence that some had spent the season predicting could be torn apart with balls ‘over the top’ finally was. Defeat came via a method and a magnitude that has rightly generated a lot of anger.

But this season has been one of risks taken and rewards reaped. The decision to build a young team - a technical team, a squad small in stature and in number - was a risk.

The same goes for the decision to use loan players and to pass the ball when others would have ‘got rid’. Through taking risks, the team played some of the most elegant and successful football in years. At times, opposition players were like tourists on the Magic Roundabout - lost in a swirl, a blur of movement.

Yet, if Lee Power had put the same meagre investment into a squad of lower-league pros and seasoned veterans, Town’s season would have probably looked closer to the bookies’ prediction of stagnation.

Yes, the risk caught up with us at times. Not just in Thompson’s injury but in the club’s inability to replace his brother, the still under-rated Louis Thompson.

Teams such as Preston didn’t have such troubles but they had a playing budget roughly nine times than of Town.

Now comes the biggest task - rebuilding. While Power’s model made the squad’s dismemberment a certainty, it feels grim to see the reality quite so starkly.

Yet Town look like a better prospect than for years - a stable, viable promotion chaser, well-led and coached, and with a chance to again lure some of the Premier League’s brightest prospects.

The greatest danger would be to ignore the true lesson of this season – what can be achieved with bravery, a willingness to do something different and a little risk.