IN the painful wake of Sunday’s humiliating defeat at Wembley, the merits of Swindon Town’s season may get buried.

To send off the campaign with such a dispiriting display is certain to cloud the memories of a year when the boys at the County Ground outstripped what many predicted to be a mediocre campaign.

It is true that in the final months things did unravel for Mark Cooper somewhat.

After the defeat at Bramall Lane in the last fixture of the year’s opening month the consistency was never there and the defence contrived to shoot itself in the foot more often than can be considered ‘individual error’.

Unlike the first half of the season there were few complete performances against opposition of note. By the time the play-off first leg rolled around many had lost belief in even making the final, let alone anything more than that.

Yet Town delved deep into their memories and, like a classic band playing their farewell tour, mustered one last performance, akin to watching Blur at Glastonbury in 2009.

The second leg may go down longer in the sepia-filtered Instagram pictures of the mind, but the first leg was Swindon’s best performance of 2015.

Ultimately, it was to be the team’s last hurrah.

Most County Ground fans would acknowledge they did not foresee their side making it to within 90 minutes of the Championship this season.

That is where they got and as close as they got. A goal down and shorn of their skipper after three minutes made sure supporters would only have the day out to be grateful for.

However, if you would have asked many of your fellow supporters taking their seats for the season opener against Scunthorpe some nine months earlier if they would have taken that finish they would have chuckled through an eager ‘yes’.

Now it is all over you have to look at the high points - Sheffield United (three times); Peterborough (twice); Leyton Orient away; Bristol City at home; Preston at home; Rochdale away (I could go on) - and say they outweigh the lows.

Ultimately that is what you want from a season. It is somewhat hand-to-mouth success, but it is undoubtedly fun.