HUNDREDS of years ago, or as some people refer to it, February, scores of Bolton Wanderers supporters were left questioning their commitment as results failed and confidence floundered.

For a catalogue of different reasons – some avoidable, some not – the team was heading to League One with games to spare and watching them do so had become a chore.

There was no single focal point for the disappointment, no mass protests, no banners with the manager’s name daubed in boot polish, even the boos seemed half-hearted.

Fans weren’t angry… they were just disappointed. And apathy threatened to be the biggest threat as the club’s new owners looked to the summer for a chance to reset.

And then the lockdown hit, and people began to miss football again.

Playing Football Manager for 23 hours a day and watching repeats of the Sherpa Van Trophy final was okay for a while, there were clearly bigger issues for everyone to think about. Sadly, for most involved the beautiful game, it was their big, fat wallets.

But as we begin to move towards the New Norm, a dystopian future where everyone will be separated by Perspex screens and wearing face masks that make them look like Sub Zero from Mortal Kombat, some folk are now starting to ask questions about what shape Wanderers will be in when we finally get to kick a ball again in anger.

In a way, the threat of apathy is even greater now for Bolton’s ownership. People have spent the last few months spending their money on Disney Plus subscriptions and stockpiling pasta, as if the end of days was going to be some great Italian cook-off with Jamie Oliver and Gennaro Contaldo.

The 2019/20 season will probably come to an end on Tuesday (thank God), and it will be the first in which Wanderers have not had a crowd in excess of 15,000 since 1991/92 and the dark days of Phil Neal.

It might seem a little churlish to complain about crowd numbers, given the only people allowed to gather in mass volume are sunbathers in Dorset or Southend. But finding a way of tempting people back through the turnstiles will probably be harder in the latter part of this year than it ever has been for football clubs.

Just like after you first watched Jaws and someone asked if you fancied a dip in the sea, there might well be some reticence among football fans to huddle together on a Tuesday night for a game against Scunthorpe United, beyond the obvious.

Normally, the discussion at this stage of the year is about season ticket prices and whether an extra fifty quid to sit in the East Stand was really worth it? This time around, the club might be facing the start of the season with no fans in the building at all – and will presumably have to find a way of factoring in a free pass to iFollow?

But on top of that, Wanderers have to be canny this summer. They need to find a way of getting supporters excited about their club playing in the fourth tier of English football for only the second time in their history. No mean feat.

It will start with a single step. Hopefully the EFL do not find another reason to ‘go away and think about things for another week’ and clubs finally vote to put League One out of its misery on Tuesday.

I fully expect the table to be decided on points per game, if only because Tranmere’s alternative looks like it has been cut and pasted from the pages of Stephen Hawking’s Brief History of Time.

I do feel for Peterborough, who will be the big losers in that scenario. But I’d also back Darragh MacAnthony to still be completing his acceptance speech when Posh win automatic promotion in 12 months’ time, bleep buttons at the ready.

Whether this season is the last entry in the chapter: Bolton Wanderers – the bloody awful years, remains to be seen. But a lot will hinge on whether they can make themselves appealing again once fans can get out there and spend some hard-earned cash.