LOMAS ON STAGS: Mansfield Town fans have a summer ahead to savour

It certainly helps the feelgood factor that the Stags finished on a high with two convincing wins.

And having past master Nigel Clough at the helm, conducting his first summer transfer window for the club with eight quality targets in his sights provides a constant sense of anticipation.

On top of that we have the best England squad in ages going for Euros glory as, hopefully, pubs open and stay open.

What better place to go and discuss the latest Stags transfer rumours or the merits of the signings as they are unveiled?

The long-overdue Eruo 2020 tournament also means there is even something to excite the Scots and the Welsh while the Irish can still commiserate their failures to qualify with proper hand-pulled pints of Guinness.

Also, on Thursday, 24th June the fixtures for 2021/22 are released – two days after England's final group match.

That should, hopefully, provide a mouthwatering list of games that supporters can actually look forward to going to and cheering on their team live again.

It's easy to feel quite envious of Notts County supporters that can actually go and roar their side on towards the play-offs just down the road this weekend, though tickets were very hard to come by and many will miss out with the reduced capacity measures.

But the crowd noise and emotion shown in the FA Cup final at Wembley as Leicester City saw off Chelsea (take that for your European Super League arrogance) poured out through our TV screens and hooked us all in.

It was so heartwarming to see the looks on the faces of both teams and both sets of fans at the end.

It reminded us all why we love this game and can't wait for things to get back to as normal as possible, whatever the new normal turns out to be next season. But the sense of anticipation is almost tangible.

Throw us in some good weather and rapidly diminishing Covid 19 infection and death rates this summer and I think we will all be happy to sit and dream for a while.