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I read all the comments here whilst I was away and, I looked at the score updates - feeling like 0-0 could actually be a Sometimes, what appears to be a negative situation can actually turn out to be a Sometimes, what seems like a misfortune can actually be a stroke of luck. Then we were 1-0, quickly 2-0 and I thought it was obvious when we get pushed, we lack a defender who is of the mould of Mike Edwards. I've felt this a few times, but none of our defenders offer the level of awareness, communication, organisation that he offered. In January, I would hope that Notts can find a defender who offers everything outlined but as for the result. We'll go again; this season is going to see us have results like this, and we need to avoid knee-jerk reactions that linger on. As for the video, so much waffle that makes it incredibly boring to listen too. It's a shame because there's some valid and interesting comments, but it's got that irritant which comes from people who are trying to force humour and failing miserably. Also, I think the overall performance and teams were better in the National League. Poor teams stand out by miles in this league, but it is a valid point that most do look like they deserve to be here.

Wordle 865 3/6

Thank you, i do just randomly guess the scores quite quickly with only a slight bit of knowledge from memory on some teams and theres @super_ram who looks at who is where on league tables... we all do it differently. Well done everyone!

We don't usually include the FA Cup in the prediction league - however, to replace the postponed round 12, I've decided to include it this time. All the other rules are the same - kick-off is at 3pm on Saturday, remember your jokers and good luck! Rotherham United v Queens Park Rangers West Bromwich Albion v Hull City Alfreton Town v Worthing Doncaster Rovers v Accrington Stanley Eastleigh v Boreham Wood Exeter City v Wigan Athletic Newport County v Oldham Athletic Port Vale v Burton Albion

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67268518 But they are getting enhanced central payments from being in The Championship

There have been some interesting goings-on in the Bundesliga recently. Harry Kane has got off to a fantastic start at Bayern and is in double figures already. They played Darmstadt at the weekend and won 8-0 despite it being goalless at half time (Bayern had a man sent off in the fourth minute, but by the end of the first half Darmstadt had managed to get two of their players sent off). Darmstadt are mardy because Bayern's fifth may have been a handball. Elsewhere, Leverkusen have looked the real deal so far, while Union Berlin have lost ten competitive games in a row - luckily they won their first two.

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12989503/gillingham-1-2-notts-county-league-two-highlights

I'll take note that the praise I read for Jodi Jones seemed spot on. Macaulay Langstaff's goals were poachers but well taken, very poor defending but excellent crosses into the area where were begging to be placed into the back of the net.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/23877486.langstaff-livid-failing-hit-notts-county-hat-trick/

Wordle 865 3/6* Another three here.

There's a bit more to it than checking league positions, @cheeky~k8Obviously I haven't found that elusive 'bit more' yet or I'd have won on the football pools years ago.

Unusually good today!! Wordle 865 3/6

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/oct/31/football-daily-email-sheffield-wednesday

Oh dear, it seems that someone is losing interest. It's his job to make sure the sums add up, the fans already contribute plenty.

If if weren't for a stoppage time Peterborough goal, she'd have landed full points for her joker too. It's just showboating at this point.

Your Skegness random selections have put you second @cheeky~k8. Living up to your user name!

The results: Sunderland 3-1 Norwich City Watford 2-2 Millwall Blackpool 2-4 Peterborough United Cambridge United 1-0 Carlisle United Barrow 0-0 Salford City Morecambe 4-1 AFC Wimbledon Ebbsfleet United 0-1 Dagenham & Redbridge> Oldham Athletic 2-2 Altrincham --- @ARLukomski, @Dan and @william1984 got the best scores this week - well done all! @ARLukomski, @Dan, @william1984 - 9 @cheeky~k8, @DangerousSausage - 6 @4everapie, @Fan of Big Tone, @gtownjohnno, @super_ram - 5 @nottsnutter - 4 @DonnyNotts, @Megan_Elizax - 2 --- It's still October, we've played 14 rounds and @ARLukomski has nearly a hundred points. To put that into context, he got 243 points in the whole of last season! I might have to accidentally add a zero to my points total if I'm to catch up... Best of the rest is @cheeky~k8 who goes second! ARLukomski - 96 cheeky~k8 - 75 gtownjohnno - 73 Joshua - 69 nottsnutter - 68 liampie - 65 DangerousSausage - 63 Fan of Big Tone - 61 upthepies - 61 4everapie - 60 super_ram - 60 Chris - 58 william1984 - 58 Dan - 57 magpiejue - 55 DonnyNotts - 52 TheSkipper - 52 Megan_Elizax - 51 allardyces tash - 46 OoooooTommy - 45 KingWilliams - 44 NottsCountyKev - 41 thommo - 39 jimbob - 38 JIMBO - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 CliftonMagpie - 36 KB1862 - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- Next weekend is FA Cup weekend, HOWEVER, I've decided to do a prediction league round including FA Cup games to make up for one of the rounds we had to postpone a few weeks back. So the next round will be on Saturday - keep your eyes out for the fixtures on Wednesday! Thanks for playing and take care

I think we need to mix things up a bit. I don't have a problem with the short corners, but not all the time. We don't have the height to launch it into the centre, but there are other options other than the short pass. At the end they stuck 3 / 4 men about 7 yards from the corner and immediately pressured the receiver, and the next man forcing us back to Slocombe. Occasionally putting one long or to the edge of the box would give them something else to think about and mean they couldn't commit so many men to the short corner. Mind you, their corners were just as successful as ours resulting in 0 goals, but we often came away with the ball, so at least we retained possession, but .... When we attacked we did so exclusively down the wings. Wrexham doubled up on Nemane and sometimes had 3 on Jones, which restricted their effectiveness. I think it was a reflection of how good Jones is that he still caused so many issues. The trouble was that when things came to a halt on one wing the ball was recycled back through the midfield, defence and on to the other wing. Wrexham simply drifted their defence from one wing to the other. There was soooo much space in the centre but we never exploited it, we simply continued our pattern of switching wing to wing. This meant Wrexham moved their central defence out to support the full backs and double up on our wingers without fear of being exposed in the centre. Sometimes they were moving in anticipation of the move stalling on one wing, and leaving huge gaps. They sort of formed a dome around their penalty box and allowed us to pass around the top of it, knowing we were never going to make a move through the centre. I think we missed Ruben for once, who would see the gap and have the confidence to exploit it. Crowley and McGoldrick didn't do that as they were tracking over to help the wingers... because they were under pressure and needed 'an out' because Wrexham didn't need to commit to the centre. Against Gillingham, Macari exploited the gap when it appeared, but nobody seemed to want to take the risk this time. My last point was that Wrexham were more prepared to take a shot and take a chance that something would come of it. We seemed to want to score the perfect goal, Their approach led to the deflection and indirectly the second goal (I maintain if thy hadn't scored the first they wouldn't have got the second). Sometimes, it's worth losing possession to give the opposition something else to think about, or roll the dice to see if something different happens. All that said, it was a good game between 2 closely matched teams. we will both be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. I thought our defence was largely sound and Solcombe was excellent. We were let down by those up front, but nothing to get despondent about. We are still learning and we will improve. If we can learn the lesson and be a little less predictable as a result of this experience then I can see us being right up there.

A very balanced and sensible criticism @DangerousSausage.From what I saw in the highlights ,a case of 'on another day'

More that we need a Bostock option @4everapie

We need a Commanding centre half, and a Midfielder who will get stuck in an boss midfield. We are to nice with no steele

Fine lines. The visitors really couldn't have complained if we'd gone in ahead at half time - if Langstaff or Jones had scored, we'd have won and everyone would've been singing their praises. Uncharacteristically for us, we didn't take our chances. Wrexham are always good for a goal or two, and so we got punished. A few things did annoy me. In the second half we took a succession of short corners that we ended up passing back to our keeper. And, like against Mansfield, the concession of one (unlucky) goal was quickly followed by another and we suddenly had a mountain to climb. The collapses are becoming a bit of a habit and are causing us to lose games we could have drawn. The lack of cover is also a concern. All the same, the performance wasn't bad and the team don't deserve some of the criticism they're getting. We've come through a difficult month with ten points from six games. If we're serious about maintaining a promotion challenge, we shouldn't be making a habit of getting beaten at home by our rivals. All the same, we don't need to turn into a long ball team, we shouldn't sack our recruitment team and we didn't have a disastrous transfer window. Honestly, the way some of our fans react to a minor setback, it makes me wonder how they manage to navigate through life. To sum up, we just have to dust ourselves down and go again.

Can’t make it today as I’m in Northumberland but made it to Meadow Lane, just the wrong one, a good omen?

This was always going to be one of the tougher games in this division. Notts played very well on Tuesday. Wrexham showed grit and determination in their win. They may not be in full flow but they are a quality side. I think it will be a fierce battle. I just hope Notts have learned some lessons from the Mansfield game.

“Nobody from Notts County will have watched this until the end to hear me call them Snotts County”, WELL I DID! Interesting chat between a regular fan from Wrexham and a new fan from the US. The yank seemed obsessed with how Nottingham got its name from the Snots.

A lot will depend on Jones and Nemane...but in a defensive sense, to help prevent crosses.. I'm not confident in this aspect of their game

Some Wrexham fans genuinely think they might get beat, because their record against us is terrible and they aren’t playing very well at all. Tozer is well out of form, O’Connell went off injured yesterday and Mullin is still finding his full fitness. They are winning games through talent and grit, not tactics at the moment and Elliott Lee is the key man for them. Keep him quiet and that’s half the battle, but I do worry about their long ball over the top game and the pressure we will be under from crosses.

Ah, this is one of those strange little clubs that come up from non-league. Although apparently they were in the League before, back when Steps were in the charts. In this fixture last season, we beat them by starving them of the ball and imposing our game on them. If we do that again, they'll struggle to cope. On the other hand, if we're cautious and reactive and allow them to fire throw-ins and set pieces into our box, it'll be a long afternoon. Obviously Cameron and McGoldrick will be back. I have a feeling Macari will retain his place too. If anyone reading this hasn't got a ticket, I've just had an email saying that some more have just been released. I'd get booked quick. Mad that I'm even typing this, we used to be happy to get 6000

Will worry about our defence in coping with Wrexham's high ball game. Cameron Baldwin Macari as the back 3?

It’s ironic that for the Newport match we had a make shift back line and kept a clean sheet, however I do think Williams should revert to his strongest team possible for the Wrexham game because they will be a different kettle of fish to Newport. It will be a tough game because as we know Wrexham are a very good team but if Notts play as well as we know they can for 90+ minutes there’s no reason why we can’t take all three points but if we can’t win then it’s important we don’t lose.

Lost to a better team