Crunch-time for Poppies fading title challenge

Kettering Town manager Morell Maison still believes that his side can win the title, but the majority of Poppies fans would argue that it's only mathematically possible now given the recent form of 5 draws and just a single victory in their last six league matches.

A return to the more attack-minded flowing football from earlier in the season would surely be the best bet and from the fans point of view the answer's quite simple. Revert back to the wide men and give Rene Howe more support up front. The Poppies youngster has recently been plowing a lone furrow in leading the attack and the tactic clearly isn't working.

The late introduction of Andy Hall certainly helped turn the tide for Kettering on Tuesday but it was too little too late to prevent another two extra points going begging. I'm sure Mr Maison must have a perfectly good explanation for not playing either Andy Hall or Serge Makofo from the start, but I'm willing to bet that he'd have a hard job to find a supporter that would agree with him in that respect.

With the opposition teams not unexpectedly coming to Rockingham Road to shut-up-shop and steal a point, the reluctance on the part of Mr Maison to commit more players forward from the kick-off must have the majority of the opposing managers confused over which team is really playing at home.

Struggling teams that take the field worried about being overwhelmed, suddenly find they not only don't have to cope with a wave of red shirts constantly pressuring their goal from all angles, but amazingly they have the opportunity to push greater numbers forward themselves and soon realise they have more than a good chance of taking away all three points.

Saturday's visit of 15th-placed Gainsborough Trinity provides another excellent opportunity to sit back and allow a team we've already beaten at their place (as was the case with Moor Green on Tuesday) to quickly discover they have nothing to fear. Unless of course we show them otherwise right from the kick-off with a more attacking oriented formation and tactics.

Can we still win the title? Well it's been known before for a team to be 14pts in front and still lose out, double the margin at the moment, but time is running out and even at this point a place in the play-offs is not a cast-iron certainty if you're only picking up 8pts from a possible 18 in your last six league fixtures.

It's time now to backup all the talk with a firm commitment to attacking football and back to our wingers scaring the life out of the opposition's defences. The prize is a return back to the Conference National and a chance to establish ourselves once again as a top non-league club (and possibly more), the alternative is another season of bitter disappointment in Conference North, surely that in itself is worth the gamble?