Left 'Pie-On: October

05/10/2007

Martin Naylor gets nostalgic about the days of 4-4-2 as Notts totter around League Two like a baby giraffe

Call me a purist, but I’m a big fan of the 4-4-2 formation. Marauding wingers daintily skipping over leg-breaking tackles from bitter, overweight full-backs. Wiry-framed youths stretching every sinew to reach the by-line, get their foot round the ball and put in a pinpoint cross onto the head of an advancing centre forward.

Stevie Carter, Adie Thorpe, Dave Smith. Hells teeth - even Dutch lightweight Marcel Cas had his moments in the black & white. This season, however, Steve Thompson has decided to play 4-3-3 instead. Any three from five players seem to be randomly given the nod to try and break down the resilient defence of the opposition.

Meanwhile, the oppo’s midfield are left looking around at this huge expanse of land in the centre of the park and understandably play keep-ball for long periods of the game. It’s a tactic, I suppose - but to almost every Notts fan groaning from the Jimmy Sirrell Stand, the formation is clearly not working.

At time of writing, we’ve just been beaten 3-2 at home by the mildly impressive Hereford United. The 4-3-3 formation so beloved of our illustrious leader left the defence so badly exposed that their pacy No.7 had broken down the right quicker than you could say “classic counter-attack” and we found ourselves 2-0 down and chasing the game.

What is also a growing concern is the lack of goals from the rotating front men. Last season's top scorer Jason Lee is yet to bulge the onion bag, and only Spencer Weir-Daley with two at our draw at Rotherham and a miss-hit from Hector Sam that sneaked into the corner of the net against Hereford have found the scoresheet. So we're over-reliant on the stretched midfield to get forward and support the front men - which, in turn, can leave the defence exposed a la Hereford.

We started September by getting our pants well and truly pulled down and our arses spanked 3-0 at the odious club-rapers MK Dons, before fluking a win at Meadow Lane against the, quite frankly, shit new boys Dagenham and Redbridge, who seemed surprised themselves quite how rubbish we were as well that day.

We helped Rotherham enjoy 100 years at Millmoor by almost beating them in what has been our best performance of the season, before sneaking a 1-0 win at home to Chesterfield where our tactic seemed to be '11 men back, let them have the ball'. Judging by the players on-pitch celebration after that result you would have thought Paul Mayo had just told them he was divvying out a Euro Millions win amongst the team.

With the exception of Wycombe away (where we never win), October looks relatively comfortable on paper . We have home games against strugglers Bury and Wrexham, as well as a trip to local rivals and current table proper-uppers Mansfield, who are still licking their wounds after a thumping by their most hated oppo Chesterfield.

But this is a rollercoaster ride, of course, where the days of speedy tricky wingers is nowt but a distant memory and anything could happen - and probably will. Sayonara Pie-lovers...

Left 'Pie-On: September Left 'Pie-On: August