MATT Kilgallon thought he had seen it all in a long career.

But City’s spectacular 2018 collapse from promotion challenger to mid-table also-ran is a new one on him.

“I can’t remember a season like this,” he admitted. “When you’re up there and you lose one, still very confident – but it’s just gone.

“It’s not something I’ve experienced before and I don’t want to again.”

Kilgallon has no arguments with City’s current position after their dramatic fall from grace. The league table does not lie in his eyes.

He added: “It’s a fair position, especially with what’s happened after Christmas.

“It all changed as in people not playing well enough and maybe still staying in the team because of the squad.

“You talk about Blackburn, see who came off the bench (on Thursday) and they would be in our team.

“We’re looking at bringing young lads through and they are getting chances, like playing on Sky. You’ve got to look at it in as positive a way as you can.

“But we were in such a good position. That’s the worst thing.

“If we were tenth all season, you’d go away thinking ‘that wasn’t great’.

“But when you’re in there in January, we were fourth in the league – then lost against Yeovil in the FA Cup and it was like the end of the world.”

That defeat in Somerset – and the controversy before it with Luke Hendrie not signing and joining Shrewsbury instead – continues to be pinpointed as the moment when City’s campaign disintegrated.

“I don’t think it was just the game but there was other stuff,” said Kilgallon.

“We can’t blame that now because it’s completely gone.

“But I’d rather us just have been tenth all season than this because it hurts you and it will kill the fans as well. They don’t deserve that.”

City will today chase the first of the six wins Kilgallon believes they need to have a hope of sneaking back into the top six.

“Nobody seems to want to take that sixth spot but it’s got to be six out of eight.

“I can hear fans saying ‘shut up’ and I understand that.”