Game 35 - Super White Army (H)
Team - Tranmere Rovers
Date - 21/02/2026 15:00
Where - Meadow Lane

What would your starting line-up be? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

I hope Charlie Whittaker isn't out for revenge against us for letting him go...On his day he's a useful performer....he scored a few good goals for us when he was here last season!!!!.

Another reason to bring Tom Iorpenda back - that kind of player is kryptonite for him, he can be dispossessed and we can launch attacks from there.

Tranmere come to Meadow Lane having lost four of their last 5 matches which includes just 1 win. Tranmere currently stand in 17th place in League 2 on 35 points. They have won 9, drawn 8 & lost 15 of their 32 matches. Notts beat Tranmere 2:1 earlier in the season in the away fixture at Prenton Park.

Notts will be hoping to return to winning ways after their dissapointing defeat at Shrewsbury. Notts will be waiting on the fitness of Jatta, & Palmer. Scott Robertson will be available for selection after his one match ban for a 2nd yellow card against Bromley.

Tranmere are another team in League 2 that prefer the direct approach with accurate long passes & plenty of crosses into the box. They have a high energy, high intensity approach so Notts will have to match them across the pitch.

As with every league 2 match, Notts will have to be at their best, which they certainly weren't against Shrewsbury. Notts have found it difficult to score goals, just winning recent matches by the odd goal.

I would like to see Notts put in a commanding performance on Saturday & score some goals & hopefully win by a canter. A 3:0 scoreline would be very welcome.

I don't know why we've seen final third players Hall and Tangan appear deep in CM recently. Playing Iorpenda in an advanced position seems to have become a fixation. It might already be an opportunity lost to build up his game and confidence playing CM.

I wish they'd look at the games when Robertson and Iorpenda paired up in CM. It looked great to me - mobile, physical, dynamic. This would mean having Norburn on the bench. We may have become too wedded to playing Norburn. He's got better and better this season (apart from the last 2), but is he really undroppable now?

We should be fine against Tranmere, if the players picked perform. Hoping for a resounding win to shut me up banging on about this! COYP

Pato's 'freshen it up" line in the pre-match sounded like he meant it. It's going to be very interesting what that amounts to in terms of selection and formation.

Midfield is the obvious area, that's definitely going to change.

Will he do something with the WBs? JJ going from best to nearly the worst performer was all about the trap Shrewsbury set. Having their best players waiting to snuff out wingers on a narrow pitch which was only just within the rules of the game. I think that was on the coaching team to see that coming and be proactive to counter it.

As just one fan's personal preference, I don't want the freshen up to include a start for Ndlovu. He should earn his spot with good play from the bench. He was so bad on Tuesday. I do want to see Tangan get a 3 match run starting at No.10, especially as the first two are home games. He can always come off mid-second half he if runs out of steam while he's building up his match fitness. It's Montague's Jan window solution to a real problem. We have to at least see/try it IMO.

It’s match day, I hope Notts can get a win today, it’d be nice to see Jatta back, we miss him. Come on Notts give us a real treat a good win by several goals would be a nice change.

Notts side to meet Tranmere.

Ndlovu & Kouhyar start.

Weird game. They're so much worse than what we're used to facing. Our players are up for it, but we don't have what it takes to convert it into goals.

We really need a 2nd goal, or it's got sucker punch written all over it.

Full Time.

Notts 5 Tranmere 0

Latest League Table after today's game. Notts in third place

Brilliant, brilliant win for Notts. A big demolition job of Tranmere with 4 goals in the 2nd half. So pleased for Lee Ndlovu that he's off the mark & got a brace for Notts. Another goal for Dennis, now 14 for the season.

Notts have been threatening to do this to a team since they started on their winning run at home.

It's their biggest win for a season and a half. It's not just the impressive win, the Notts play was exquisite today, which makes the win even more impressive.

Of the other results today, Salford and Swindon lost, Chesterfield drew, so Notts are now 9 points ahead of Salford in eighth place. TEN CLEAN SHEETS FOR NOTTS THIS SEASON.

We really took them to the cleaners in the second half - I hope that level of ruthlessness and killer instinct sticks.

Some great individual performances as well as overall team performance.

I was so wrong about Lee Ndlovu starting today and delighted with that - it's so good to see someone other than Dennis and Jatta to be able to find the net. He's not the most polished, but he really gave them hell and they couldn't handle a player like him. His 2 goals were on the easy side, so I'd say the most impressive part of his game today was the set up work for the 1st and 4th. Fantastic.

10 minutes ago, Robbie said:

Of the other results today, Salford and Swindon lost, Chesterfield drew, so Notts are now 9 points ahead of Salford in either place. TEN CLEAN SHEETS FOR NOTTS THIS SEASON.

And the Bromley draw. We're level with them on games won now. They're drawing too many now and have won only 2 in 6. 0-0 at Harrogate is a bad result.

If they fell off significantly, you'd really have to fancy us against Swindon, Cambridge and MK....

Great stuff! Ndlovu had a great impact with his work ethic, determination and directness, and of course the two goals. Lady Luck and Rick O'Shay gave us a little help to break the deadlock after leaving us in the lurch in midweek, and after that there was only going to be one winner. A good win against a poor side that puts us in a strong position, but we have tougher tests ahead.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Who saw that coming that’s a great win after the disappointment of Tuesday. Tranmere were very poor but even so 5 goals is a good return.

It looked like a different team from Tuesday evening, although their chips (not the potato variety)had been returned and all was back to normality. What a superb performance albeit against poor opposition. It was pleasing to see that when we had the ball the movement was brilliant and whoever had the ball had so many options. Up to going off Norburn was running the show, and when Grant replaced him, he had one of the best games I've seen this season. I thought Tsaroulla and Macari gelled perfectly as though they were reading each others minds and creating so much down their RHS. Iorpenda looked back to his stupendous self, pressuring and giving no quarter. All in all a fantastic performance 👏

Yesterdays result and performance puts the Shrewsbury game into perspective. Those defeats happen to the best of teams and as has been said before it's how you respond and wow did we respond. I just hope Ollie Norburn's injury isn't too serious he is very important for us. Having said that it was 1-0 when he went off and 5-0 by the end. What a great squad we have at the moment and great to Rod McDonald back in contention. We're going to need everyone for the run in!

1 hour ago, McPie said:

Yesterdays result and performance puts the Shrewsbury game into perspective. Those defeats happen to the best of teams and as has been said before it's how you respond and wow did we respond. I just hope Ollie Norburn's injury isn't too serious he is very important for us. Having said that it was 1-0 when he went off and 5-0 by the end. What a great squad we have at the moment and great to Rod McDonald back in contention. We're going to need everyone for the run in!

Agree @McPie that Norburn was having an excellent game as you said in other posts. His improvement over the season was impressive and he's been a key contributor to our 22pts out of 27pt run.

If he misses time I hope he's available again for our trip to Walsall in two weeks time, along with Palmer - all midfield options available.

For next week v Grimsby though I'm excited to see Robbo + Iorpenda again in CM. I don't think we'd have got 5 with our first half line up. We still get all the great stuff from Tom when he plays deeper. I'd say we get even more, without him being pressured to score and assist. SR and TI both on form makes for a super-dynamic CM which most L2 teams can't hope to match.

Edited February 22Feb 22 by theAnticlough

It looked to be an interesting call by Martin Paterson to change the starting lineup, but I did feel going into the game he would try to freshen things up but I didn't expect Matthew Dennis to be rested. The result is a credit to the squad's depth, and will hopefully put an end to the "weaker than last season's squad" because we are more a team now than we have ever been since the 09-10 season.

I felt Tranmere's biggest issue was playing Charlie Whitaker as some sort of target man, he tried and I thought he did well in spells but the mistakes he made came from a lack of support rather than ability.

Defensively, they crumbled and the second goal really sunk them. I critised their keeper a lot during the game, but his defence was extremely bad. I don't think the thuggish antics they tried pulling off worked and I do think previous seasons we would have handled this situation differently. Tom Iorpenda played very well, him and Scott Robertson really allowed us to get into Tranmere and they struggled to cope with Iorpenda's desire to get the ball into attacking positions.

Jodi Jones seemed to have a fairly quiet game. I don't know if it was designed on purpose because of Tranmere being physical but seeing him crop up with a goal felt pleasing. It wasn't the typical JJ performance, and I am not suggesting he played bad but he was quiet compared to what we know he can be.

Notts displayed impressive defensive skills, and I attribute Jacob Bedeau's surge in confidence to the outstanding performance of James Belshaw.

This might seem like I am discrediting Bedeau, but he looked a far different player when we had Kelle Roos, and nothing like he did in his first season where he was easily one of the best performers throughout the season. At times during this campaign he has seemed lost, lacking confidence and struggling for consistancy. Also, being given the captaincy in Matt Palmer's absence may play a part in it as it reinforces his value to our team.

4 hours ago, Chris said:

Notts displayed impressive defensive skills, and I attribute Jacob Bedeau's surge in confidence to the outstanding performance of James Belshaw.

This might seem like I am discrediting Bedeau, but he looked a far different player when we had Kelle Roos, and nothing like he did in his first season where he was easily one of the best performers throughout the season. At times during this campaign he has seemed lost, lacking confidence and struggling for consistancy. Also, being given the captaincy in Matt Palmer's absence may play a part in it as it reinforces his value to our team.

I agree with every word of that. Yeah, he was even better last season (but still well behind Didzy IMO) and has had indifferent spells this season - but I still find myself putting him ahead in the POTS race!

He's one of only two league ever-presents. He hasn't done so much attacking (but still a fair amount), but we have the 3rd best defence of the 24 teams and how many goals have come from his side? How many players have gotten the better of him one-on-one? I think one hand would be far too much to count them on. How have we done since he took the captaincy? What was our league position before and after?

It's players as good as him that allow us to play a genuine back 3, and to be able to afford having a player like JJ ahead of him.

I would still have him in the team, because there's no doubt what quality he brings, but I look back at the Barrow away game and others where he just wasn't performing well. It might seem harsh to single him out, as Matt Platt had the same issues at the start of the season and I feel he's come back from his injury quite strong. I'm a big fan of Rod McDonald, who looked highly capable of securing that middle centre back posiiton.

Though I do feel Jacob Bedeau has struggled a lot this season, sometimes I thought it was more the mental side of the game as he seemed not as focused but this just highlights why it's important for him to be playing so well.

He's superb at darting forward, and it's not often that he doesn't make up for mistakes, so I do have a lot of praise for him

3 minutes ago, theAnticlough said:

It's players as good as him that allow us to play a genuine back 3, and to be able to afford having a player like JJ ahead of him.

Oh, for sure.

I think our defenders fit the system well and we have options to rotate players. Such as Lewis Macari, who is excellent going forward, but sometimes questionable in his defending. I see Nick Tsaroulla having to fall back a lot because he's out of position, but he's a great asset. Between Beadeau, Platt and Macari we have players who can deal with the opposition when the team performs well.

Even on an iffy day, they are all capable of protecting us but alongside James Belshaw we just look far more controlled and less pressured from our own passing.

We tended to cause more problems for ourselves, so you can see how each player massively impacts a performance.

Speaking of Tsaroulla, now that Martin Paterson has him regularly playing in the starting XI. I find him to be proving why he's such a coup in terms of last season's signings and I really wonder why Stuart Maynard didn't play him more when fit. It might suggest that Paterson has a clear understanding of the impact the wider players have and how rotation between the insane amount of depth we have had in this area has led to inconsistancies on the pitch at times.

It's good to have players fighting for the shirt, but we have had so many wide players that it's difficult for playing time.

We might look at Barry Cotter and wonder why he didn't walk into the team more frequently, as I do with Will Jarvis and these types of players departing sometimes causes pause for thought but I still feel we have quality in abundance out wide.

6 minutes ago, Chris said:

I'm a big fan of Rod McDonald, who looked highly capable of securing that middle centre back posiiton.

Me too. He was a fish out of water playing on his wrong foot at RCB last season and certainly didn't shine. But he really showed what he's all about this year with that superb, masterful dozen game spell. I feel sorry for him that he can't get back in. it's only in the last few games that Platt has justified being ahead of him...

I wonder if the coaches would consider this the next time we're struggling against a low block and the CB has the ball all the time. Platt off and a back 3 of Ness/Macari Bedeau McDonald with Bedeau in the middle, ready to charge through at pace to shake things up and commit the opposing players.

11 minutes ago, theAnticlough said:

I wonder if the coaches would consider this the next time we're struggling against a low block and the CB has the ball all the time. Platt off and a back 3 of Ness/Macari Bedeau McDonald with Bedeau in the middle, ready to charge through at pace to shake things up and commit the opposing players.

I'd be all for this, but it could turn out JJ in the AMC position.

I do wish we had persisted with it a bit more mind, it's easy to revert when things aren't quite going right but had it been given more time (much like managers who aren't afford time to make changes) the pay off could be massive. That said, I do think the current system is better but with JJ aging, I would certainly like to see the option kept open because it would protect him from injury.

Yeah, we still haven't solved those positions - but with only 13 (or maybe 16 games left), maybe it will never be solved this season and we'll just muddle through with all options in play, which I agree could still include JJ....and a lot of others!