1. Conor Grant

2. Matt Palmer

Over the years, likes of Duffield, Boland, Chillingworth, Hackworthless

It's true that Matt Palmer has only scored four goals for Notts in 137 games, but Matt's worth is elsewhere on the field of play.

He's certainly getting back to the player we saw under Luke Williams, being Notts's Mr reliability in the centre of Midfield. He's an important player for Notts because he's very good at driving the team forward & orchestrating attacks. He's the Club Captain too.

I think that Conor Grant may miss a few goal scoring opportunities, but a player has to get into good positions to get those opportunities.

I think Conor is a good squad player with useful attributes. He's only 24 so he can still improve.

I think at this particular time Hall is in front of him in the current SM pecking order & maybe Luker too. Iorpenda is also playing as an AM. So Conor has some stiff competition.

Like Martin Allen was talking about on Magpie Circle a few weeks ago, there's a lot of value in working backwards from the stats you need to be a champion or promotion contender. Total goals required bears itself out in most leagues, most seasons. So players who will only chip in 4 or 5 a season from key attacking positions just won't cut it.

Hall has 4 in 4, looks like such a cool, natural finisher and assister.

There's no point looking good, you actually have to do the business.

Palmer and Norburn was a problem. Robbo will chip in with a few goals and assists, but his presence and impact in the attacking third will also create opportunities for others. In this case, I'd say it's possible to win promotion if MP goes P46 goals 0. But if we have a No10 going P46 goals 4, we can't.

I think Matt Palmer is getting close to the player he was when he was getting the plaudits from PON members re this article in May 2023

As long as strikers are scoring we don’t have a problem but it’s good when midfielders can chip in with a few goals too, who remembers Richard Butchers scoring run?

As Robbie says Palmers skills are elsewhere but I do think Grant badly needs one of his many golden opportunities to go in to give him some confidence. Hall is doing brilliantly at the moment and I’m sure he’ll score many more.

It appears to be the case that Palmer and Grant don't have what it takes to score. I remember Matt Palmer's goal against Wealdstone, when we beat them 6-1 at their place. He didn't quite know how to celebrate when he scored, no doubt due the fact he doesn't do it very often. Grant has the opportunities, but it seems his personality lacks that ruthless streak to finish clinically.

Kicking the ball into the net is the hardest thing to do in football. If Grant were ever to overcome the mental block that stops him doing it (unless he doesn't have to think about it) then he'd be a pretty valuable player. Paterson obviously sees something in Grant to persevere with him, even though you might not think he's Patto's type, i.e. not got the killer instinct. It would be fantastic if he could fix it, that rare thing, a coach making someone a better player.

If Palmer scored 10+ goals a season, he wouldn’t be in League 2 as he’d be the perfect midfielder. He’s been a lot more pro-active and finds himself more advanced than usual compared to last so I think we’ll get a Palmer goal this season.

Grant seems to be able to do everything right and then it gets to moment he has to shoot, if he can change that he should be able to get a decent number of goals because he’s got the knack of getting into good goal-scoring positions. But yes right now scoring looks like the most difficult thing in the world for him.

If Palmer scores it's a big bonus. Palmer's skill is as an initiator of Notts forward movement.