IT is hard to find the words to describe or explain the debacle we witnessed against Notts County on Tuesday night.

The side appeared to be less than the sum of its parts, which is always a fatal flaw. At least three players barely made a meaningful contribution.

We have to assume that the game plan was to move the ball briskly and cleverly, and to over-run and by-pass Notts’ aging team. If that was it, it was a failure from the first minute until the last.

If we thought that we could get the better of old but proud pro’s like Gary Jones and Hayden Mullins we were mistaken. Their legs might have gone, but their brains never go.

Our energy and youthfulness was never evidence. Tony Humes said “they did to us what we tried to do to them”, which was the worst indictment.

We sacrificed width in favour of over-manning the centre of the pitch, and it worked against us.

So much for the game plan.

The other critical factor was the quality players that Notts County have invested in during the last month. They have plummeted down the league, and to stop the rot they have dug deep into their pockets to recruit Jamal Campbell-Rice, Paddy McCourt and Leroy Lita. It paid massive short-term dividends on Tuesday.

I have to confess to being a fan of the Notts County management team of Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott, and I couldn’t begrudge them their victory, no matter how much I would rather it was us celebrating!

Both sides made countless unforced errors. Each time we gave the ball away we saw just how much it lifts the opposition.

It was rather like when Magnus and Tom Eastman were encouraged to try to become ball-playing central defenders a couple of years ago. It lifted Notts in a way that no amount of Shaun Derry’s shouting could ever do.

The League position is now critical and for the third time this season I feel that we are facing the drop, having felt just as low after the home defeats to Rochdale and Walsall.

The result on Tuesday was a disaster as it means that Notts County now look out of our reach, and we will have to play better than the four other strugglers to stay up. The only glimmer of hope is that we still have to face Crawley and Yeovil at home.

There has been much blood-letting around the town this week. Everyone wants someone to blame for the U’s lowly position, which is only natural.

I have never been an apologist for the club, but at the same time I think that the bloodlust to blame and then crucify is unhealthy and destructive.

We are trying to do things our own way, and it’s been a bad week. We fight on, and having been working in the Midlands all week, I will be at Rochdale tomorrow, hoping that we can re-invent ourselves in a way that sticks for the remaining 12 games – 75 per cent hope, and 25 per cent belief, at this moment!