League 2: The Latics (A).

Venue: Boundary Park.

Date: Tuesday 24th March.

Kick off: 19:45 pm.

Notts travel to an Oldham Athletic team who are the form team of League 2. They are unbeaten in 9 games with 7 wins & 2 draws. The last team to beat them was Swindon Town on the 7th Feb. They currently stand in 11th place in League 2 on 58 points, just 4 points from a playoff place.

As a result of their last 10 matches, Oldham are top of the form table. They have earned 23 points from a possible 30. They have scored 16 goals & conceded only 5. They have the best defensive record in the League having conceded just 31 goals from 37 matches.

Notts will be looking for their third consecutive win on Tuesday, however, Oldham are the best team in the League on current form, so it won't be easy & could prove to be the toughest game of the season so far.

Notts will welcome back Matt Dennis after his suspension, so 3 Strikers will be available to Martin Paterson on Tuesday. Tyrese Hall & Maziar Kouhyar will be missing as they are on international duty. Even so, it should still be a strong bench.

Notts will also be bouyed by the great form of players like Jodi Jones, who is back to his best, Tom Iorpenda who had a masterclass against Cheltenham, & Skipper Matt Palmer, who is back to his influential best. Even those players on the bench have shown their ability to come on & change the game in Notts's favour.

The game could well be decided on Notts's ability to break through the Oldham defence, & successfully counter Oldham's physicality, high energy & aerial threat from their strikers. I have a feeling that Martin will be happy with a draw even though he always wants to win every game.

So what are your thoughts on this important match for Notts. 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?

Great summing up, @Robbie 

Yeah, tricky place at the best of times, even without them being the form team of the league. And the best defence in the league

We've played a lot of matches, have a lot of players returning from injuries and breaks. And we need to steady the defensive line without Platt.

If ever there's a case to sacrifice an attacking piece for a bit more control, it's this game (and I don't usually say that!). There's less to gain by blitzing them (their CB Monthe is really good). It's the kind of game we should stay in and look for the quality of players like Jones and Jatta to win it for us.

They're obviously a solid team that relies on discipline. But they'll have play-off ambitions and need to win if they're to catch the likes of Grimsby and Chesterfield. An ideal game would be to take the lead either side of HT and then steal a 2nd as they chase.

Looking forward to being there at Boundary Park.

With Hall unavailable, Dennis likely to be on the bench?

The most impressive thing about their run is only conceding two goals in the last nine games. On the other hand in that run they've played some basket cases like Crawley, Gillingham and Tranmere.

The Accrington and Cheltenham managers in their post match interviews both used the phrase 'a game too many' to excuse getting thrashed by us. Hoping the Oldham manager will also trot that one out just after 10pm tomorrow. Come on Notts.

The pressure is on us to win the next 3 away games, neither of them will be easy.

Hoping the team spirit and camaraderie will see us home

It looks like we could see Jayden Luker on the bench against Oldham, after listening to Martin Paterson's pre Oldham Presser. That would be massive for Notts.

It's Matchday!!

Notts team to face Oldham.

Luker on the Subs bench.

Pity about McDonald. Great test for Ness. Looking forward to see him rise to the challenge, hopefully

(1) Kick off.

Oldham 0 Notts 0

Half Time

An early goal from Oldham is the difference between the sides.

Oldham 1 Notts 0

Back to it

Full Time

Big defeat for Notts

Oh dear. Difficult game, terrible conditions.

You can understand the team selection, but the scoreline tells us it hasn't worked.

I think MP should bite the bullet, Norburn or Palmer. As Norburn's on a yellow, and can't be trusted to avoid another, I'd say it has to be him to be subbed. One pass or piece of skill from Tangan might help us get a goal.

Ndlovu on. Bennetts should be on asap, Norburn is a risk the longer it goes…….. Tangen could well make ab appearance, or maybe Luker?

The blessing here is Norburn's 2 match suspension and the chance to play to our strengths now

It'll force MP, maybe against his instincts but more in line with the club, to play a team based on pass and move, and creative, skillful, attacking play.

There's no option now but Palmer and Iorpenda, which is the best midfield pairing anyway.

First half wasn't that bad, I thought we looked pretty good in spells and yes Oldham were strong in ending the half but going in 1-0 down with 45 minutes still remaining wasn't the worst outcome.

But Norburn, again though. Just totally destroyed our chances. We can analyse the second and then third goals, both of our own doings (as was the first for that matter) and they were poor and avoidable, but going down to 10 handed all the initiative to Oldham and made our half-time tactical tweaks redundant.

At the end they just mentioned the sponsor from the match and no joke it was; "Get Rid Oldham Waste Management". They could well be going home with Norburn.

There's no denying Oldham won based on a very strong performance by them, very impressive parts and the first half I didn't think we looked capable of making a game of it. This season, we have been very hit and miss away from home. Having been to most games, I think it's one of the worst in terms of consistancy. We haven't hit much form away from home, and we need those points at this stage.

Some players really don't defend enough, just run watching the play unfold and it's not just the defenders. We can't allow this to continue. I also noticed that a few stayed on the ground wanting free kicks.

I want Martin Paterson to kick this out as he promised at the start of the season. Everything is still to play for, dust ourselves off but the goals we have recently conceded is either us becoming nervous, or a lack of focus. Maybe both? I don't know, Oldham deserve a lot of credit for playing the way they did, I felt entertained by them when I shouldn't really, but I credit them for it.

Hopefully, they can just bin that - we don't need soul-searching or a crisis of confidence at this point.

It was a diificult game even before a ball was kicked, but the foul, anti-football conditions and Norburn being a liability are 2 big reasons for that result (I wonder if MP thought about subbing Norburn at HT, but found it too hard to do).

I think the key now is MP believing in the attacking, ball-playing abilities of the squad (like at Accy) and seeing if this can take us where we want to go. We don't need journeymen or players picked for physical tussles, it only drags us down to a bog-standard L2 level, which is where we'll stay with that approach.

Edited March 24Mar 24 by theAnticlough

The defeat tonight is the biggest defeat for Notts since Dec 2024. Oldham are certainly on a roll & have a good chance on their present from of making the playoffs. They thoroughly deserved the win tonight.

The conditions tonight didn't suit Notts but we did have the best o it for the first 30 minutes even though we conceded early. Jatta should have done better with his opportunity from a great Jodi cross.

On tonight's showing, Oldham may have well win the match without the Norburn sending off but Ollie's 2nd yellow card was always going to make it hard for Notts, especially facing the strong wind too.

Listened to Martin Paterson's post match presser and it's not good news about Rod McDonald. He could be out for the rest of the season after the injury he sustained against Cheltenham.

Notts have to try to put this game behind them & come out all guns blazing at Harrogate on Saturday in a must win match.

2 minutes ago, Robbie said:

Listened to Martin Paterson's post match presser and it's not good news about Rod McDonald. He could be out for the rest of the season after the injury he sustained against Cheltenham.

Haven't heard that yet @Robbie - a massive setback if true.

4 minutes ago, theAnticlough said:

Haven't heard that yet @Robbie - a massive setback if true.

It's true I'm afraid. Looks like Browne will be needed at least on the bench from now on.

Shocking night all round. When we get it wrong, we really mess up.

Manager not at his best but starting XI looked ok. You have to take a serious look at the goals and Norburn. I’d never start Jones, certainly not ahead of Bennetts - who is far more direct and purposeful. You get 10 or 15 mins out of Jones and a couple of decent crosses, if you’re lucky. He’s a cameo sub, all day for me.

Tangen looks comfortable on the ball, if a little lightweight, but at least he’s likely to last 90 mins!

Jatta’s 1st touch is a complete lottery and he misfired, badly, tonight. We’ve dumped Dennis, when he was top scorer & he’s lost confidence but he’s a damn sight better than Jatta or Ndlovu. The latter looks like a fish out of water tbh.

Edited March 24Mar 24 by YoopEyes

I'll be honest then Robbie, that's enough of a blow to say, that's it we're done and let's hope for better injury luck next year.

At least we'll have another year of winning loads of matches....

Of course MP and the boys will soldier on. But Belshaw, Macari, Ness, Browne etc. are strangers to each other in football terms. It's such a massive ask for them to keep it together for this run-in - you never know though

i just hope for a quick couple of wins to secure that play-off place. With our attacking players, we'd still be a scary team for others to face.

Edited March 24Mar 24 by theAnticlough

League 2 Table after the Oldham defeat.

some valid analysis from @ARLukomski