Left Pie-On: February

Part of the deal with being a Notts fan is you can expect little from the club beyond a perennial sense of disappointment and acute frustration. This is generally accepted with good grace, yet it is hard to recall an occasion when the outlook has seemed bleaker than at the present time. Indeed, the toxic atmosphere enveloping the club would likely curdle Special Brew. Unlike super-strength lager, however, there is currently no artificial sense of euphoria associated with a day on the black-and-white tin, just the nausea, confusion and aggression which inevitably arrives on or around the third can.

 

Last month’s column highlighted many of the widely held concerns at the appointment of Jamie Fullarton, yet another rookie manager warming his cheeks on the hottest seat in English football. The ire which played out in the aftermath of the unveiling clearly illustrated that he would not be welcomed with open arms, thus making an effective start on the pitch imperative to winning back a few lost hearts and minds.

 

Sadly this has not been the case, certainly not at Meadow Lane. Writing in the immediate aftermath of a truly dreadful home reverse to Leyton Orient, the full extent of the collateral damage is still being assessed. What is clear, however, is that this was the day when unsavoury events on and off the pitch pushed many supporters past ‘Angry’ and into ‘Upset’.

 

But first some context. Late January saw the visit of AFC Wimbledon for the home debut of the incoming manager – although in what was perhaps a nod to the strength of feeling against the appointment, Fullarton wasn’t even announced to the crowd prior to the game. If this was an effort at ensuring the day passed without the accompaniment of boos and jeers the move failed, the defeat generating the sort of negative cacophony before the full-time whistle that is now par for the course at Meadow Lane.

 

It was not so much the defeat but the manner of the performance against the Dons that was so depressing. The fireworks which accompanied the free-flowing attacking football of the Moniz era are now a distant memory with the Fullarton method favouring two rigid banks of four camped out in front of the home goal, with all the flexibility of Civard Sprockel’s lumber region. Despite his tactical faults, Moniz set the team up to win and, even in defeat, spectators could generally not deny they had been entertained.

 

Moniz was often criticised for an inability to match the shapes at his disposal to the correctly shaped hole, and a puzzling team selection by Fullarton against Wimbledon, bizarrely playing the recalled Blair Adams and Scott Bennett out of position, dashed any hope that this trend would be discontinued. Conspiracy theorists were quick to point out that discarded player-of-the-year-elect Stanley Aborah was a Moniz signing, whereas Adams and Bennett very much fit the mould of Head of Recruitment, Guy Branston.

 

In little over a year at the club Branston has replaced former Chief Executive Jim Rodwell at the bottom of most supporters’ Christmas card list. It doesn’t help that as a player Branston achieved notoriety with a single appearance for the club in 2008 that was so bad it was mercifully curtailed after 45 minutes for the best interests of all concerned. Branston may well have been carrying an injury, but it was more his general attitude that appeared to rankle, with reports from the dressing room suggestive of a Big Cheese mentality that was hardly backed up on the pitch. Fast forward seven years or so and Branston was the last person expected to be brought in by the owners to play the key role in the transfer dealings of the club.

 

At the start of the summer fans were promised a reorientation of transfer policy towards quality over quantity. What followed were around 20 signings of varied shapes and sizes, none of which appeared to correct the major deficiencies in the squad that got us relegated: i.e. a monster of a centre half and fullbacks that could actually defend. Many of the playing positions addressed were covered twice, suggesting Moniz and Branston were butting heads over transfers. There was a clear distinction in the bloated squad between players championed by one or the other man.

 

Accordingly, with the door still swinging following the departure of Moniz, a number of his summer imports were soon to follow. Few will shed a tear at the departures of Julian Jenner and Civard Sprockel, the later a shoe-in at the back in many people’s worst Notts XI and a mystery as to how someone who genuinely could not run had passed a medical. Gill Swerts on the other hand was an excellent pro and, despite clearly having little left in the way of legs, should have been capable of doing a job at this level if managed correctly. Likewise, although not a Moniz signing, it was a shame to see Jimmy Spencer re-join Shaun Derry at Cambridge United, not really given a fair chance to prove he had fully overcome the serious knee injury suffered last pre-season.

 

Following the Wimbledon shower, Fullarton faced a daunting series of away fixtures to attempt to appease an already disgruntled fan base. Credible victories at Luton Town and that managerial graveyard for Notts managers, Hartlepool United, sandwiched a dismal defeat at the hands of lowly York City, all the more awkward as it was watched by a fantastic away following of almost 1000. To put this into perspective, Ricardo Moniz managed just a single away victory in the league all season, yet in his first month Jamie Fullarton has managed three out of four.

 

In a month full of debates in the national media over the cost of watch football, it was perhaps beneficial that Fullarton was able to employ his self-titled ‘effective football’ to string together some results away from Meadow Lane. While Notts are not unusual in charging £20+ to watch fourth division matches – regrettably it is about the going rate – a halftime portion of mushy peas and mint sauce is not sufficient to leave spectators satisfied with their day out. Not unreasonably, some degree of entertainment is also expected and whilst sitting deep and looking to counter may bear fruit on the road the requirement at home is for the team to take some initiative, to play on the front foot, and not by just simply hoofing the ball forward. Persisting in setting the side up in this manner would win Fullarton view friends amongst an already sceptical home support.

 

And then Leyton Orient happened. The air of positivity created by a decent sequence of results on the road was released, deflating an already flaccid Jamie Fullarton balloon. Once again Fullarton set the team up primarily not to lose and, as a result, the match itself, between two poor sides, was tedium personified. The defence sat deep and pumped aimless long balls over a midfield which kept Liam Noble, our main creative influence in the mystifying absence of Aborah, unfathomably isolated out on the left flank. At least watching two bald men fighting over a comb brings a certain slapstick element.

 

The brain of the average Notts fan is calloused over with the mental scars inflicted by the club over a period of time, a natural defence mechanism to preserve one’s sanity in the face of yet another disaster. Even so, the Orient game felt like a true nadir, with unprecedented levels of baying from The Kop during the game towards Fullarton, which made it difficult not to feel sorry for him, particularly when he lost his footing on the wet turf to the biggest cheer of the day from his tormentors. It never just rains at Meadow Lane and following the match there were reports of an unedifying confrontation outside the Pavis Stand between some burly men and the Chairman’s wife and children.

 

Berating a woman and her family is undoubtedly crossing a line, and it was perhaps sadly predictable that it would reach this low-point, considering the escalating theatre played out on social media over the preceding weeks. No-one associated with the club is now safe from what the Daily Mail would likely describe as ‘Internet Ghouls’ with the scope of blame noticeably widening during January beyond the usual suspects on the board, playing and coaching staff. In the aftermath of defeat it now appears that figures such as local radio legend Colin Slater, and even Nottingham Post correspondent Leigh Curtis, are appropriate wheels on which to grind an axe.

 

The whole affair has the feel of a community in decline, an un-cultural revolution whereby anyone deemed to hold any authority at the club can be denounced publicly and flogged mercilessly on social media. It is difficult to remember a time when there was a more poisonous atmosphere at Notts and the catalyst for the vitriol boiling over has undoubtedly been the appointment of Jamie Fullarton, against the wishes of all. Nevertheless some of the personal comments made about the owners from the anonymity of a keyboard (and now in person) are deplorable and will no doubt come back to haunt those making them at some point in the future.

 

Where we go from here would take a brave man to predict. The relationship between fans and boardroom has been fractured by a number of questionable decisions during their administration, most acutely in the hiring and firing of managers. There is nothing more painful than being trapped in a loveless marriage, each party resenting the other and kept together only by the chattels accumulated in union and a fear of the unknown. Few would begrudge the Trews washing their hands of the whole thing after some of the stick they have received. However, the practicalities of offloading a lower division football club with a track record of haemorrhaging money means there will be no easy break-up in this case. During this impasse however, a great deal of damage can be done.

 

Whether or not the relationship with the current regime is beyond repair will be determined by the success of Jamie Fullarton. Unfortunately the sheer strength of feeling against what is widely seen, rightly or wrongly, as one left-field appointment too many means this is to all extents a practical impossibility. To reconsider the position of the new manager so soon would invite considerable ridicule from outside of the club, leaving the Chairman in an unenviable position, albeit of his own making. What is clear is that the civil warfare of the weekend cannot continue. A line needs to be drawn and a number of people on all sides need to take a long hard look at themselves, for the good of the club.