The third & final match of Notts County's Pre Season German tour sees them take on 4th tier club Stuttgarter Kickers on Tuesday 15th July at 6 pm. BST

Head Coach Martin Paterson will be looking to finish the tour with a good performance & a positive result to lift the spirit of the players & the fans after being defeated in their previous two friendly games.

I think Martin will want to see a composed & workmanlike performance from the lads this time. The lads will need to show plenty of energy & a steely determination to come out on top.

Martin has been talking the talk, now it's time for his team to convert that positive talk into positive action on the field of play.

I hope to see Jodi Jones get some time on the pitch & for Martin to begin to put together the team that he believes could be his strongest team available.

david Braig fpr stuttgarter kickers is a very good player, even at 33 i am sure he will be a threat against us. i think we should be able to compete more against them so it should be interesting and a better game for people to see how things are improving. main thing right now is the fitness and getting players more match sharp.

Getting Championship clubs to Meadow Lane, or arranging friendlies at their grounds, is never easy. It depends on their pre-season plans and how much they want a competitive test. It would be great to attract a few though. German football is treated very seriously. Their approach is about discipline, with every player expected to defend and attack. It’s quite different to how we play, with our game working more in phases and structure.

The last two friendlies were useful. They gave a clear view of who’s coming along well and who might still need more time. These games aren’t just for fitness, they can show real progress. I think this upcoming match will be tighter. It’s my first proper look at German football, and it’s not bad at all, so long as you’re not expecting miracles.

I respect how Martin Paterson treats each game properly. That said, he should also use it to learn just how far apart we are from some of these sides. It’ll be a lesson, not just a test.

It’s shaping up to be an interesting match. I reckon we’ll learn a fair bit more about the team and where we’re heading.

Stuttgarter Kickers have been up and down the leagues since their brief foray in the Bundesliga in the late 80s and early 90s, but after a five-year stay in the fifth-level Oberliga Baden-Württemberg they returned to the fourth-level Regionalliga Südwest in 2023. They very nearly sealed a second straight promotion to the third division, but blew it on the final day and VfB Stuttgart's B team went up in their place. Now they'll be hoping to win promotion at the third attempt after finishing fifth last season.

As a Waldhof follower I've seen far more Regionalliga Südwest football than is good for me. The larger teams are fully professional and could hold their own in League Two - MSV Duisburg, who won the Regionalliga West least season, beat us 4-1 a year ago. However, the standard is highly variable and differs from one region to the next. Technically, the standard in the Regionalliga SW is relatively high, but many of the teams (especially the part-timers) can't maintain a press for 90 minutes - the league lacks the intensity and athleticism you see in the higher divisions in Germany or the Football League in England. As one of the strongest teams in probably the best of the five Regionalliga divisions, I'm expecting Stuttgarter Kickers to pose a tough test.

I'm also familiar with a couple of their players as they used to play for Waldhof. Midfielder Per Lockl, who joined Kickers last year, previously played for SV Waldhof in the third division and Borussia Mönchengladbach II in the Regionalliga West. He played for Germany's youth teams and is a skilful player with lots of potential. He struggled to cope with the physicality of the third division at times, but he's a great player for that level and has his best years ahead of him. Another familiar name from further back is Lukas Kiefer, a bustling defensive midfielder and occasional right back I remember from Waldhof's days in the Regionalliga SW. Another interesting name is their new signing from Würzburg Maximilian Zaiser, a product of Bayern's youth system who played around 30 games for their B team in the third division.

Kickers played a pre-season tournament today (Sunday), losing 2-0 to FC Villingen (relegated from the Regionalliga SW last season) and beating SSC Tübingen 11-0. As they're much closer to our level than Darmstadt or Kaiserslautern, I'm hoping we'll see much more of the ball and start to get an idea how Martin Paterson wants us to play. It'll be good to see Jones and a bit more of Aljofee too.

If you're going, @BlackPudding has posted a few tips if you're planning on having the odd refreshment before the game (although those sausages don't convince me, sorry!).

If things aren’t going well, I hope Martin Paterson has the courage to change the formation. Playing out from the back needs the right set-up, and sticking to three centre backs might not work every time.

In past seasons we didn’t have much choice, but this time we’ve got the players to switch to four at the back. It could help the team play with more balance and control.

@Ash I agree about Paterson having the courage to change formation. Four at the back needs to be a strong option for Martin. We have plenty of defenders to give plenty of options at the back.

My knowledge of German football is somewhat limited, particularly when it comes to understanding the intricacies of their league system below the second division. I'm not entirely clear on the structure of their lower divisions, especially the fourth-tier level, which leaves me curious about what it entails. However, based on the size of their stadiums and attendance figures, it seems that the atmosphere and quality of play in that division might be comparable to the level found in England's League Two and the National League promotion favourites.

This comparison leads me to wonder how clubs in Germany’s lower leagues engage with their communities and the overall fan culture, but Stuttgarter Kickers, despite the American-sounding name, should be closer to our level than we are to the previous two teams.

I hope Notts can be competitive and show resilience even if they turn out to be much better.

@TheSkipper, up to the formation of the Bundesliga in the 1960s German football was regionalised right up to the top level, with the champions of each regional league playing off to determine who would be German champions in a knockout tournament. Even today, German football is highly regionalised - the nationwide second division (Bundesliga 2) was only created in the 1970s, and the national third division as recently as 2008. 54 clubs (plus two B teams) play in these three divisions.

Below the third division, there are five regional fourth divisions. The one Stuttgarter Kickers play in is probably the strongest. It's an odd league though - you've got fully professional clubs like Kickers Offenbach averaging crowds of over 5000 on the one hand, and on the other there are village teams with money, small town clubs with crowds in the hundreds and B teams of Bundesliga clubs that barely draw three-figure crowds at home and take nobody at all away. Attractive games are few and far between and with one promotion spot it's a difficult league to get out of. But the teams that do make it out tend to do well - Ulm and Elversberg both won consecutive promotions to Bundesliga 2 in the last few years, the latter almost making it to the a Bundesliga.

As tomorrow's opponents are one of a few teams looking to go up, I think we can look forward to a close, competitive game tomorrow.

It's Matchday.

Been on the streaming site and got as far as paying......but it wants 5.99 euros !!! How do i pay that??????

Looking forward to seeing the approach Martin takes for this game. The past two have hopefully informed him of the system we need to play and tactical changes needed during the game. I think that having the nous to make changes, be it formation or individual are a real necessity moving forward this coming season. Also the introduction of players who he knows can alter and make a pronounced difference is paramount to success. All in all tonight's game is the litmus paper highlighting where we are at in preparation for the starting blocks.

50 minutes ago, gtownjohnno said:

Been on the streaming site and got as far as paying......but it wants 5.99 euros !!! How do i pay that??????

I imagine that if you pay with a card it will take the equivalent £££s from your account.

I hope the team put on a good performance for the travelling fans, they should be getting fitter now and hopefully Martin is beginning to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Should be a good game. 🤞

I've just spent my lunch break lurking on the Kickers forum, interesting reading. It's a club that's aiming upwards, but there seems to be little optimism among fans (with a couple even worried about a relegation battle due to their poor form in the friendlies). Others caution that it's only pre-season and you can't read too much into it. So far, so familiar.

There are also complaints about a general lack of tempo in their team. Frustrated forum users should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it'll be interesting to see how things unfold. I hope a few of our players who have seen little of the ball so far get their time to shine. I'd like to see us try a 4231 formation as it could suit our squad as it stands.

1 hour ago, gtownjohnno said:

Been on the streaming site and got as far as paying......but it wants 5.99 euros !!! How do i pay that??????

Just go to the payment screen as usual and it'll calculate it for you. Some sites let you pay in EUR or in GBP, in the latter case your card provider converts the currency for you. Just click whichever you feel like, the difference between the two will be pennies.

Thanks DS

For those who can't watch the match Stuttgarter have a live ticker available for the match. Link 👇

Not our strongest lineup, I was hoping to see it treated as a dress rehearsal given the standard of the opposition but it's too early for that. Hopefully some of them can impress us.

Here's Stuttgart's team for anyone who's interested. Looks like they're putting out a strong team.

Dumrath - Borac Danquah Petrovic Blank - Zaiser Kiefer Lockl - Udogu Fass Berisha

The stream is up and running, but no sound yet. American football markings on the pitch.

Kick off.

GOOOOAAAAL McDONALD

After a corner from the right, the Blues fail to clear the ball, and with the third ball, the Notts County captain scores the lead from a half-left position.

Stuttgarter 0 Notts 1. 41 mins

Half time.

Leading at the break

Stuttgarter 0 Notts 1

Back to it

Update. Substitution for Notts.

Update

Update.