What are your takeaways from the win against MK Dons?

In my opinion I think the win demonstrated once again that under Martin Paterson, this side can still win even though they have been dominated by their opponents for long periods of the match.

When Notts had to defend in the 2nd half, they showed character, grit, determination & lots of spirit to keep MK out. That's what Martin Paterson has brought to the Notts squad.

It's a big difference in the mentality compared to previous seasons which makes me believe that this squad, with a few additions in January, can have a successful season ahead.

Definitely! MK full of stars. But at this, and actually at most levels, it's 90% perspiration that counts. (Still think MK will go up though as they are bound to strengthen in January).

Great start to December makes you believe this could be a good year. Patio has surely put his doubters to bed now?

I had a brilliant time. Excellent game for the neutrals, but equally, fun times had by all in the grand scheme of things.

Shows we have depth and even in that depth, the players are all singing from the same hymn sheet.

Everyone is showing doggedness, guile and grit to get where we need to be.

Dennis need to be playing more and I'd consider Hall for Grant and continue 2 up top for the forseeable.

Grant and Roos are still the weakest link in the team and yet another game where Grant fails to impress and is the first one hooked, which I think it makes his only full 90 against Swindon...

Their peno wouldn't have happened had it been for poor command of his box and flapping.

That said, a new keeper and a new AM in Jan and I'm confident of us getting something from this season given the fight in the rest of the team.

Pato goes from strength to strength

His maxim 'performance is the responsibility of the player, the result is his responsibility' is really working a treat by this stage.

Team selection has made so much sense (especially when Compared to Maynard's chopping and changing) and I think the players understand, respect and respond well to this. If you perform you will keep your place. If you don't, MP will give a chance to someone else.

I get the impression the club are tracking perfromance really well and we have a Head Coach who is not afraid to act on the information he gets, and what he sees for himself.

Another takeaway - don't get injured if you want to be a 1st team regular.

McDonald, Dennis, Platt, JJ have all experienced this in the last few months. They were automatic selections, got injured and then found someone else playing well in their place and it's a fight to get back in.

Warne saying in his post-match that he took Nemane off because he was on 'a strong orange'.

Well there isn't an orange card so you mean red. That says it all. They should've been playing with 10 from that point in the first half

Another takeaway is just a confirmation that the Notts squad is stronger than the squad that began the season. The squad has now clicked under Martin Paterson's leadership.

I think it shows we need to keep faith with the owners. They hinted that they wanted a team that would be stronger physically and mentally and that's what we've got. Also they must have appointed MP for his relentless determination (as there wasn't much else on his cv) and that's proving to be a huge asset.

It's a real statement of intent this one. Missing our regular midfield pairing, we came from behind twice and beat twelve men to defeat a promotion rival.

It could really have gone either way and at times there didn't seem to be much of a midfield at all, but we had the sheer guts and will to win that gave us that extra 5% we needed.

12 minutes ago, DangerousSausage said:

It's a real statement of intent this one. Missing our regular midfield pairing, we came from behind twice and beat twelve men to defeat a promotion rival.

It could really have gone either way and at times there didn't seem to be much of a midfield at all, but we had the sheer guts and will to win that gave us that extra 5% we needed.

Spot on about the ref and also the midfield.

Everyone's elated last night and today, and rightly so, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that being outplayed in our own stadium by a promotion rival doesn't matter.

Warne was one-sided in his post-match interview, but he was onto to something when he said that MK would win that one if it was replayed 9 times out of ten.

That doesn't account for being gifted a pen and spared an obvious red card. If those decisions were given correctly, we'd have run out easy 2 or 3-1 winners of the game. But in terms of general play, territorial dominance and chances (they were very wasteful) he has a point I think. Most times that will translate into wins. We do need to have our first choice midfielders available for other top 6 or 7 battles this season or we might not enjoy too many other victories in them.

Edited December 10Dec 10 by theAnticlough

It appears our owners have got it right again in spite of the doubts that people had (me included) when Patterson was appointed. The manager has instilled a great work ethic, a togetherness on and off the pitch, grit and determination even when things are going against you and tactically he gets it right more times than not.

@theAnticlough I can understand his frustration as they probably deserved a point at least (or at least they would if they weren't the franchise, all they deserve is expulsion from the league, but I digress). However, I think neither side dominated that game. The visitors were wasteful with their chances, and they had plenty. They cut through us too easily to my taste. With Palmer and Robertson in midfield, we would have had a lot more control over the game, but then being able to replace key players is a sign of a genuine promotion candidate.

It was tight, but we found a way to win, and that's my key takeaway. There so many big games last season that were on a knife edge and could have gone either way, but we rarely ended up collecting the points.

It's a game that we probably would have lost last last season, Patto has set us up to be a less bullied side, It's a working progress that coming on

I agree about the midfield, even though Iorpenda had one his best games I thought he had too much license to roam at times, he was popping up out wide on a number of occasions. Norburn filled in as the "6" pretty well, he’s not as good as Palmer at receiving and then passing the ball under-pressure in the middle but he played some lovely weighted forward balls at times.

You can't fault the character or work rate of any of the players and that's always a necessity if you want to do well at any level. I just think second half we needed to be a touch more as we gave MK the ball back too often. And that wasn't from sloppy passing but more from going long too early. I'm all for clearing the ball when under pressure but at times we did just punt it with no real aim and Jatta was chasing a lot of lost causes. At one point Dennis was annoyed at Platt as he'd dropped back to help us try and play out but he just launched the ball out of play. It can be worked on and I'm sure it will be.