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Joe Jones
Notts County owner Alan Hardy has claimed that the club's playing budget for next season is likely to be "top four".
In addition, he believes that, with the added funds, the Magpies can have a tilt at the top seven in 2017-18.
Hardy told the Nottingham Post: "We looked at our one to three-year plan earlier in the week and asked 'could we be more optimistic in terms of the crowd numbers?'.
"I think we can be. The more people we attract through the gates, the more money we generate and that means we give more to the manager.
"I have already decided to increase the playing budget for next season as a result because we are now just starting to plan ahead.
"Next season, I would think, we will be top four in terms of budgets so we will be pushing hard for the play-offs if not automatic promotion.
"The fans may ask whether we will rely on free transfer signings, but if there is a player the manager wants who is going to cost a fee then we will certainly consider it if he makes the team better and it makes sense in terms of the business."
To read the full column on the Nottingham Post, click here.
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Alex West
When heading to an away game on a Saturday morning prior to an afternoon kickoff, it’s difficult to not notice the number of different social groups which are associated with Notts County. I would like everyone reading this article to imagine the ‘typical football fan’ in the following scenario:
8am: Meeting point is Lloyds, Hockley for ‘brekkie and a pint’.
9am: Next it’s a stop in the shop in the train station for numerous purchases of Beer and Cider.
9.30am: Board the train with 9 of ‘the lads’ before consuming a number of cans and taking part in a few sing songs.
Midday: Off the train and into the nearest boozer for a few cheeky pints and a further sing song.
2.30pm: Head to the ground for one last pre-match pint before taking our seat with the rest of the NCFC faithful.
Now, build a picture of the ‘typical supporter’ described above. Describe his clothing, attitude towards Notts, social class, and most importantly, his personality.
Let me guess:
Polo shirt? Smart jeans? Smart trainers? No NCFC clothing?
Prefers away days? Looking for ‘aggro’? Prefers to get drunk?
Working class? Labourer? Unemployed?
Loud mouthed? Arrogant? Rude?
Now, I can only guess the percentage of our readers who would have matched the scenario with the description above, but I can envisage it being quite high. Would you categorise the typical away day Notts fan above being associated with the stereotype of a smartly dressed, tanked-up brickie looking for a punch-up?
I ask the question because perception, not just in football, is a massive part of life and is often misinterpreted. I’d like you all to stereotype my life below and take a punt at what my average away day looks like:
29 years old
Male
Partner of 11 years with mortgage in £130,000 house
Three-year-old son
Fully employed as major supermarket manager with generous salary
Clean criminal record
Never been assaulted nor assaulted another person
I ask the question because of ‘perception’ and how it can be often misunderstood. The away day itinerary listed above is in fact my away day itinerary. I travel away with up to 9 or 10 others. Not once have we been involved in physical confrontation with police or rival fans. Not once have we engaged in looking for these two actions and not once have we travelled home following the game with nothing more than a sense of male bonding and a feeling of enjoyment and relief at getting away from the missus work for the day.
This seasons most memorable away trip has been Blackpool. Not for the football, not for the result, but for the relationships I can continue to build with people that I can call my friends and share a common interest with. We got drunk. We got merry. We danced, all night until early morning, and then fell drunkenly onto a twin bed in a budget Premier Inn at 3am.
Is this wrong? Are we thugs? Yobs? Or are we a group of friends who enjoy others company combined with alcohol and a sing song on the sea front?
I often read messageboards and Facebook posts on the official NCFC page and read comments slating the ‘youths at the front at Orient’ and the yobbos who let off smoke bombs at Mansfield. I think we all need a reality check here. In 2016, Notts County had 3 football related arrests away from home  – this equated to less than 1% of the total football related incidents in League 2 last season.
Alan Hardy and Kevin Nolan have made NCFC enjoyable again and more and more fans will begin to become involved with Notts County. Now as fans we have a decision to make, do we continue to look down at our noses at a different looking, different talking supporter or do we relish their desire to enjoy football as a whole experience and embrace their commitment to the cause?
Now let's be clear – I’m not for one minute stating that all football fans are angels, because they’re not, and there is still a growing hooligan element in the game which give groups of travelling football fans a bad perception to the public eye - but be wary of making rash assumptions when you see the boys enter the pub at 10am for a beer and a brekkie. We enjoy our football, we enjoy our away day, and with no hidden agenda.
I for one ENCOURAGE more groups of travelling fans to get together early in the morning and sink a few pints before the match. Why not? Because it's socially unacceptable? Because having a sing song and a Jagerbomb in the boozer will upset a few golden oldies who have sensitive hearing aids? Give me strength. Until Notts County fans start becoming violent or physically offensive to others, I am in full support of our away fans antics – and long may it continue.
See you all at Wycombe – get the beers in.
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Joe Jones
Michael O'Connor is the latest player to hail Kevin Nolan for his positive impact on the Notts County players' confidence and in turn the team's form.
"When we were on that 10 game losing streak, a few of the lads went into their shells," he told the Nottingham Post. "But since the gaffer has come in, he's put arms around all of us.
"The confidence is back and you only have to look at Richard Duffy to see that. He's been our best player since the gaffer came in and big H (Haydn Hollis) looks a different player too.
"It's good to be around here at the moment. The lads are enjoying their football at Meadow Lane again. Before, we were coming here feeling the anxiety.
"Some lads were scared of playing that 40-50 yard ball but now you see players getting forward like Toots (Matt Tootle) who scored on Sunday. He wouldn't have done that a few months ago.
"It's seven unbeaten now and if we can get a few away wins from now until the end of the season then we will easily finish mid-table. When the gaffer came the aim was just to stay in the league but I think now we are 11 points clear and we are on a good run.
"We've taken six points from three games, and I thought we should have had something from the Doncaster game. We will just take it game by game until we are mathematically safe."
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Joe Jones
Kevin Nolan has hailed "another great team performance" by Notts County in their 1-0 win over Barnet, adding that they reacted well after Mark Yeates's early red card.
Matt Tootle's second-half goal proved the difference between the two sides at Meadow Lane on Sunday, but the Magpies were made to work for it after Yeates was controversially sent off.
Nolan told the OS: "It was another great team performance. If anything, the red card sparked us into life - the reaction from the lads was fantastic.
"I thought if anyone was going to go on and score again it would be us. The lads stuck together and everything you want from your team was on show today.
"What we have to do now is follow it up with another win. We've been up and down and that’s something we need to sort out.
“We’re not safe yet, I’ll keep saying that, but we’re looking up and we have brought a group of teams closer towards us."
Nolan also praised the owner, saying: "I think what Alan Hardy has done is brilliant. There were another 7,000 here today and I think they got their money’s worth.
"Alan has done so well off the field, getting the embargo lifted and enabling us bring in six players.
"At this minute in time it’s about taking it game by game, getting as many points on the board as quickly as possible and getting to safety.
"Then we can talk about moving forward and starting the adventure Alan and I believe we can take this club on."
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Joe Jones
Ten-man Notts County took another step towards League Two safety as Matt Tootle's first goal for the club secured a 1-0 win over Barnet at Meadow Lane on Sunday.
The Magpies had a man sent off after just 11 minutes when Mark Yeates was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Ricardo Almeida Santos.
Although at a disadvantage, Notts managed to create chances with Marc Bola going close on two occasions from distance.
The breakthrough eventually arrived in the second half when Jorge Grant teed up Tootle, who lashed a superb finish past Benjamin Buchel.
Notts County's official website has put up the match highlights - see Tootle's goal for yourself, and also see whether Yeates deserved to be sent off.
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Joe Jones
Matt Tootle is optimist that a "strange season" for Notts County can end on a high note after moving 11 points clear of the League Two drop zone.
The Magpies put in an immense performance to claim a 1-0 win over Barnet at Meadow Lane on Sunday, Tootle scoring a second-half winner.
Kevin Nolan's charges were visibly exhausted at the end of the game, having been a man down for most of the game after Mark Yeates was sent off early on by referee Keith Stroud.
Tootle told the official Notts site: “I’ve scored a few in the league but that’s my first one in a while.
"It was a good first one for Notts and, the way the game went with us only having 10 men, I think it was a great time to get it. I was made up to get the goal.
"Driving here today I knew how important the three points were for us and I’m over the moon with how it’s gone.
“Of course we aren’t mathematically safe and, although teams down the bottom are struggling to win also, we aren’t resting on our laurels until we're fully safe.
"The gaffer has been really putting us through our paces in training. The work we are doing at the moment has set us up for the busy schedule - we are fitter than we were two months ago and I felt we looked like the team with 11 men at the end today.
“As a defender you want clean sheets and even today with ten men we looked really organised and strong as a unit. That’s testament to the gaffer coming in and doing the work with the lads.
“We want to finish as best as we can. If we can win another five or six this season, which we are more than capable of doing, we can end what has been a strange season on a high note."
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Joe Jones
Notts County's revival continues to gather pace as the League Two relegation zone is now 11 points away, thanks to the Magpies claiming a 1-0 win over Barnet on Sunday despite falling down to ten men early in the Meadow Lane encounter.
With just 11 minutes on the clock, Mark Yeates was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Ricardo Almeida Santos that referee Keith Stroud deemed worthy of a sending-off.
The Notts fans in the stands could have been forgiven for expecting the worst, but Kevin Nolan's charges did not let their numerical disadvantage get to them.
Barnet striker John Akinde then tried to win a penalty minutes later when he appeared to be hauled down by Notts goalkeeper Adam Collin, only to be booked for simulation.
The hosts managed to create chances with Marc Bola going close on two occasions from distance, and at the break, the deadlock had not yet been broken.
It would get better for the Magpies early in the second half as Jorge Grant teed up Matt Tootle, who lashed a superb finish past Benjamin Buchel for his first goal in black and white.
Barnet fought back in a bid to claim an equaliser and could have levelled when substitute Ruben Bover Izquierdo blazed over from eight yards.
With the game stretched, Grant could have got himself on the scoresheet when he raced onto a fine Shola Ameobi pass, but he curled wide, though ultimately it did not matter.
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Joe Jones
Notts County and Barnet have met each other just 16 times over the years.
The first fixture came on 1 November 1997, with the Magpies earning a 2-1 away win in Division Three, while the last fixture was on 26 November 2016, a 3-2 defeat at The Hive.
Notts have eight wins against the Bees, with five defeats and three draws.
The club was founded in Chipping Barnet, then part of Hertfordshire, in 1888.
Several incarnations of the club existed before the third Barnet FC, created after the First World War, came to be - this entity continues till today.
Barnet have won the Football Conference a record three times - in 1991, 2005, and 2015, as well as finishing second three other times.
Aside from a runners-up medal in the 1971-72 FA Trophy, their silverware cabinet is restricted to minor trophies.
A number of Barnet players have gone on to represent Premier League clubs. They include Dougie Freedman, Marlon King, Andy Clarke, Linvoy Primus, Maik Taylor, Mark Gower, Jason Puncheon, Yannick Bolasie and Albert Adomah.
Players who came to the club towards the end of their careers include Jimmy Greaves, Mark Lawrenson, David Hillier, Alan Pardew, Eddie Newton, Paul Warhurst, Steve Kabba, John Oster, Jonathan Fortune, Edgar Davids and Lee Cook.
Team news
Notts County will check on Jon Stead and Curtis Thompson ahead of the visit of Barnet.
Stead has been nursing a dead leg while midfielder Thompson has had a slight hamstring niggle.
The pair will be given as long as possible to make themselves available but French defender Thierry Audel may not make the matchday squad again, despite being fit.
Elliott Hewitt and Shola Ameobi were both introduced as substitutes fairly early on at Doncaster in midweek and might have done enough to earn starting places on Sunday.
Barnet manager Kevin Nugent has no new injury worries ahead of the trip.
Defender Elliot Johnson could be in contention to start after coming on as a late substitute for their 2-2 draw against Yeovil having recovered from injury while Sam Akinde is pushing for his first start for the Bees.
Centre-back Ricardo Santos looks set to remain sidelined with a knee problem, while Jamie Stephens, Josh Vickers, Jack Taylor, James Pearson, Michael Gash and Shaun Batt are all unavailable.
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Joe Jones
Notts County boss Kevin Nolan says he will not be monitoring Saturday's League Two results, insisting that the team will be responsible for its own destiny.
The Magpies are playing on Sunday this week, due to scheduling conflicts with regards to the team on the other side of the Trent.
It means some of County's relegation rivals have a chance to close the gap on Nolan's side, who are currently eight points above the bottom two,
Nolan, however, admits he will use the occasion to have some down time ahead of the Barnet fixture.
"I've got the family coming over, which is lovely. I haven't seen them for a couple of weeks because we've been working hard and been in every day," Nolan told the Nottingham Post.
"It will be a bit of down time with them, enjoying their company.
"It probably will be on in the background, but it's not about anybody else, it's just about us. That's what I've always said.
"It's us who is going to determine whether we stay in this league or we don't; no-one else.
"We don't want any favours from anyone. We've just got to make sure we continue to do our job.
"If we continue to do what we have been doing, we'll be okay."
He added: "Playing on a Sunday makes no difference to me, I don't know whether the lads feel a bit different.
"I much prefer a Saturday kick-off. I love a Saturday 3 o'clock kick-off. I think that's gone away from the game too much, with all these Sunday, Monday, Friday kick-offs.
"I won't be paying too much attention. It's about us. Even when the lads say after a game, 'they won' or 'they lost', I just say, 'it's got nothing to do with us'. We will decide our own fate."
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Joe Jones
Haydn Hollis has praised Notts County manager Kevin Nolan for giving him a lot of confidence and changing the mentality in the dressing room.
Since Nolan took over at Meadow Lane, alongside Alan Hardy's acquisition of the club, the Magpies have gone from League Two relegation certainties to being well in with a chance of staying up.
"Personally, he has given the squad a lot of confidence; he has given me a lot of confidence," Hollis told the Nottingham Post.
"He has said some good things about me in the press, which has been really nice and it makes me believe in myself. I'm sure he's done that with others.
"It's brilliant for me to hear and it makes me want to do well for him. I want to do it for myself as well.
"I was never low, but it's always nice when someone is good with you and believes in you.
"It makes you feel like you can do it. If someone believes in you then you're going to believe in yourself.
"He's just changed the mentality of the place. It was never a bad place to come to work. We're all lucky to be professional footballers, but it's a good place.
"You get up in the morning now and you look forward to coming to train because it's a good place. We have a laugh, but on the other side it's really serious as well.
"I think everyone is buying into what he believes. And that's the way forward, everyone has to buy into what he believes if we're going to be successful."
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Joe Jones
Jon Stead has revealed how close he was to leaving Notts County in the January transfer window because of how frustrating it was to be at Meadow Lane under the previous owners and manager.
Speculation had emerged linking the striker with a move to the United States as the Magpies were freefalling towards the bottom of League Two, John Sheridan in charge at the time.
However, Stead decided to stay put until at least the end of the season, when his contract expires, after Alan Hardy took over the club and Kevin Nolan was appointed manager.
"The way the season was progressing with the previous manager, he made it quite clear the players were all available to leave," Stead told the Nottingham Post.
"Things weren't going well and it was a frustrating place to be at, so I had to look at my future, given my contract is up at the end of the season.
"There's my age as well, which is something I don't like to talk about, but I will be 34 next month and I like to think I have a lot of football ahead of me.
"It would have been a big change because I've had 16-17 years of playing football in the UK.
"It's something that came up so I looked at it the same way as I would anything else.
"The appointment of Kevin changed my mind 100 percent. I spoke to him a couple of days after the Mansfield game and made him aware of the situation.
"We were in a transfer embargo at the time and he said he couldn't let me go. I understood the decision and the more I've seen of the gaffer and his staff, the more I like."
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Joe Jones
Alan Hardy has thanked Notts County's fans for getting behind the new owner and increasing the Meadow Lane gates by almost 70 percent since his arrival.
Writing in an exclusive column for the Nottingham Post, Hardy said: "Securing our Football League status has been my ultimate focus since assuming ownership at Notts County.
"But bringing the crowds back to Meadow Lane has been a huge, huge part of that objective.
"I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am that Kevin Nolan and the players have been gathering those precious points.
"And how delighted and humbled I am with the response from Notts County supporters and the whole of the public of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
"I'm informed that for the six home games since the takeover was completed, we have averaged 7,350 fans per fixture . A truly marvellous achievement.
"Compare this with the average crowd from August to January which was 4,380. That's an average of 2,790 extra fans per game - or, put another way, an increase of 68 per cent.
"Stand up Notts County fans and take a bow. You deserve it."
To read Alan Hardy's full column on the Nottingham Post, click here.
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Joe Jones
Notts County fell to an unfortunate and controversial 3-1 defeat at Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night.
The visitors took the lead through Richard Duffy, but strikes from James Coppinger and John Marquis either side of the break put Donny in the lead.
Notts thought they had equalised when Haydn Hollis headed home in the second half, but the flag went up to rule the goal out, much to the bemusement of the travelling contingent.
Andy Williams then sealed the win by adding a third for the hosts in stoppage time as Notts sent goalkeeper Adam Collin forward.
The official Notts page on YouTube has posted the highlights - judge for yourself whether Hollis's disallowed header should have counted or not.
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Joe Jones
Notts County boss Kevin Nolan has hit out at the match officials in charge of Tuesday night's League Two fixture at Doncaster Rovers, which ended in a 3-1 defeat for the Magpies.
The visitors took the lead through Richard Duffy, but strikes from James Coppinger and John Marquis either side of the break put Donny in the lead.
Notts thought they had equalised when Haydn Hollis headed home in the second half, but the flag went up to rule the goal out, much to the bemusement of the travelling contingent.
Andy Williams added a third for the hosts in stoppage time as Notts sent goalkeeper Adam Collin forward, and Nolan was at a loss to explain why Hollis's goal was snuffed out.
"I still don't know why the goal wasn't given," he told the Nottingham Post. "It's the most disappointed I have been with the officials since I've been in management. I thought they were poor from start to finish.
"Why it was given for a free-kick I will never know. I've had a look at the video and I still don't see. I spoke to the referee briefly after the game and told him what I thought.
"It was disappointing because I thought the lads were fantastic."
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Joe Jones
Notts County have stumbled to an unfortunate 3-1 defeat at the hands of Doncaster Rovers in Tuesday night's League Two clash at the Keepmoat Stadium.
The Magpies took the lead in the 20th minute when Rovers failed to deal with a corner from the left and Richard Duffy reacted quickest to prod home from close range, his third goal of the campaign.
However, the hosts equalised just before the break through James Coppinger, who was on hand to rifle Matty Blair's low cross across Adam Collin and into the far corner of the Notts net.
And not long after the restart, Rovers were in the lead as Coppinger turned provider, whipping in a cross that Mathieu Baudry headed into the top corner.
Just after the hour, Kevin Nolan's charges thought they had equalised when a Michael O'Connor corner was nodded home by Haydn Hollis, but the flag was inexplicably up to snuff out the goal.
Notts launched everything they had in attack in second-half injury time as Collin went up for a corner, but Rovers managed to break and, with the goal unguarded, substitute Andy Williams guided the ball into an empty net to seal their win.
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