We've got Plan A - let's stick with it
At the final whistle I left Sincil Bank without a backward glance. I wanted to get in the car and make a quick getaway, mainly because I was hoping no-one from Lincoln would notice that we'd somehow stolen a draw from them, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
After a truly awful performance that extended the winless run to eight games, it's not surprising to hear talk of finding a Plan B. Not from me though – I think we've actually moved from Plan A already and that's part of the reason why our form has disappeared at the same rate as my motor down the A46 last Saturday teatime.
When we were winning both games and plaudits in September we played with just one holding player in midfield and gave Flo a free role. In the last few weeks we've had both Adam Chambers and Nicky Featherstone in the centre of the pitch. There's nothing inherently wrong with this in certain situations, but a goal down in an FA Cup tie against non-league opposition isn't one of them.
We still knock the ball around nicely but in completely the wrong areas. At one point in the second half David Grof (lobbed yet again for their goal incidentally) had the ball in his hands ready to play out and I counted eight of our players in our own half.
With the introduction of Taundry in the 80th minute as an advanced midfielder, we actually looked like we wanted to give the Lincoln defence something to think about and ended up scoring with our first effort on target in the whole second half.
At Sheff United necessity dictated a 4-4-1 formation for 80 odd minutes which, given how comfortable we've become on the ball, actually worked pretty well in containing the Blades. What it didn't do however was provide any real goal threat.
At Bury there was also a shift to 4-4-2 with Cuvelier again moved out on the right. Unfortunately again there was no real goal threat.
Against Lincoln (currently 19th in the Conference) we set up with a conventional 4-4-2 with two holding midfielders. There's not much that could be done about Flo's injury but it wasn't exactly the best dress rehearsal for life without the Belgian.
We have to face facts, Flo sadly is not ours and he probably won't be after Xmas. However there is no reason we can't try out players in the same role; Paterson, Baxendale or even Featherstone in a more advanced role could all be given a go in the position that the teams we tend to play don't really know what to do with.
As it has turned out, George's late goal potentially could be even bigger than we thought; the cup draw has been kind to us and it would be a disaster if we don't take advantage of the route to Round Three.
So while I'm not trying to present myself as some kind of tactical genius, maybe thinking about a return to the formation that brought us a bit of success would be a good starting point. In other words don't bother with Plans B, C or D just give Plan A another go.