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There's a couple of things here for me. I thought Colchester was everything I'd expect from a Notts side this season. Remember when we were sold the idea of "dark arts" and being physical and more direct? I didn't see that against Colchester. I thought they were probs the best side I've seen at Meadow Lane and that's including us against Shrewsbury. They were disciplined, drove some good passes behind our high press and the front three bullied us all day long. Also helps when you've got a good keeper who catches and doesn't have a 60% rate of giving the ball to the opposite side. I think that a large majority of people within the club and watching now think that Roos is the biggest hinderence since Alan Smith's days of being a statue. They have to act or watch us lose more money by not achieving promotion and Paterson sacked as he can't navigate a boat with a gaping hole in it. Two tactical issues stand out for me which I think is on Paterson. We are easy to counter and break the lines of. We do have good defenders but some times I think we'd be better with three in midfield with someone screning the back line and Palmer and Robbo abit pushed up. Secondly, we fall off a cliff when it gets to the 25 yard area. The amount of players which get to just outside of the area, all of a sudden are hit with a moment of indecision. Grant is the worst for it but Hall is a very close second. Jarvis has shown that he might be capable but I dunno. This Jan is huge, but I do find comfort in the fact Montague is at the club. I hope/reckon that we'll see signficant changes to our team in Feb to now.

Very frustrating and disappointing display tbh. I have zero idea how Hall was MOTM. Yes, he did some fancy turns & actually put some effort in during the last 20 mins. Prior to that he looked off the pace, was rarely available for a pass and didn’t seem to get involved. He fluffed our best chance in the 1st half too. Technically gifted player with an eye for goal but today was not his best day. Robertson, Bedeau & Grant were our liveliest and most effective performers until later in the game. Ness put a few stray passes around but was generally solid, Macari had a decent enough game too. Very good on the ball but his crosses are weak. Jarvis flatters to deceive, only time he tried to go round his man, he “won” the peno. He cuts inside or passes sideways & backwards too much for me tbh. He needs to be more decisive & direct if he wants to stay in the team. On balance, Palmer made a huge difference in the 2nd half - he probably deserved MOTM tbh.

Yes @Robbie a promotion-winning AM duo might not be on the books at the moment. Hall had made one of the positions his own, but the drop off over the last 3 or 4 games has been alarming and could've opened things up again. Grant's star has been rising and Iorpenda's falling. Both are capable footballers but I've been saying all along that their output won't be what we need to sustain a promotion challenge over 46 games. MP can try Jones again, Jarvis, Dennis back there, Kouhyar, (I think Traore has shot it). It was a shame Luker got injured, he might have been part of the solution. Hopefully, MP and Montague will settle on AM has a big priority area for Jan. Two might be being greedy, but 1 first choice and let the likes of Hall and Grant compete for the other shirt might be good enough to grab one of the 4 slots.

I think Hall and Iorpenda have looked a bit tired in the last couple of games. Probably due to not being used to playing regular men’s football. Martin Paterson seems to like Grant so he might replace Hall. Not sure he will play two up front, so Dennis might miss out. I wouldn’t be against giving Kouhyar a start. I think he’s probably earned it.

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Unfortunately Notts looked like the non league team and Brackley the league team. Congratulations Brackley for the positive attitude, energy, grit and determination never to give up. I hope we as a collective can learn from a dismal display and moving forward, put on a brave face leaving this disaster in the past. PMA is a must now, the league beckons.

Unfortunately I think the return of Macca is a bit of a pipe dream for us, especially as we are still in League 2. Pretty much every club in League 1 would be happy to have him (assuming they can afford him!)

We can beat anyone in this league when we are on it. Let's hope we are on it this Saturday. I think our problem is we can't sustain a good performance for the whole game. We either start well and fade of start poorly and give our selves a mountain to climb. We have to start taking our chances while we are top that's seems to be what's missing.

Well I won’t be there for this match so I predict an exciting fast paced match, Notts will dominate for the whole 90+ minutes and we’ll win 5-0. You heard it here first.

Palmer back in to start for sure. I wouldn't mind unchanged apart from that, we won the second half with Palmer on after all. Jarvis to come on, Jodi as well if he's fit.

It was a very frustrating game, but that said, I don't think either team played badly. Harrogate might have been fortunate to capitalise on some horrific defending, and to concede from trying to defend is both ironic for us and a highlight of just how much more aware we should be in key stages of games. You can say it was a fluke deflection, or just that Notts were unlucky, but who was paying attention? Kelle Roos couldn't do much more, considering it put Harrogate clean through, and all this, "Alex Bass" would have saved it. I am sorry, we need to move on and accept Roos is a totally different keeper. Notts had chances to win the game, and I won't mention the number of appeals for a penalty. I think Tyrese Hall had a good effort and should have done better in the first half, but shot straight at James Belshaw. We had 13 shots; only 3 of those were on target, and maybe on a different day we would have scored more, but we have to make the chances count for something. Harrogate wasn't all that great defensively; their time-wasting antics were as blatant as day is long. Even Belshaw became a wind-up merchant, but that will be overlooked because he supports Notts.

Will Jarvis gave it a good go and showed some promise, but he’ll need more time to earn regular minutes ahead of Keanan Bennetts and Nick Tsaroulla when they’re playing well. They’ve got the edge when they’re in form. It was nice to see Jarvis back in action. His biggest challenge seems to be lasting the full 90 minutes. That might sound a bit harsh, and I know some people rate him, but he’s a different kind of player when he comes off the bench. He brings more energy in short bursts. Notts did most things right against Harrogate. It was a tense game and you could see how easily someone might have been sent off out of frustration. Matthew Dennis was lucky not to be punished for that push after his penalty. The Harrogate player did barge into him and looked like he said something, but Dennis still took a risk.

Yes, we're going to need him. I wouldn't have given him MoM, but nobody else was going to do anything to stop us losing, except Will Jarvis Our attacking midfielders will need addressing in January. But players being used there now can be either underperforming or unproductive (or both) and when both are off, it makes it very difficult to win. I think MP will have to try a couple of different things in that role because Hall and Grant are not McGoldrick and Crowley. Let's see Jarvis given a go there, Kouhyar, Dennis from the start to at least see it. But at least we're going to be seeing more of Jarvis from now on. MP will want him on the bench at least because he knows now atht he's a player who can turn things around.

Martin Paterson has chosen a few different midfielders for the first eleven this season, however it appears that he has settled for Palmer & Roberson as his first team picks in the centre of midfield, & has decided on an alternative of Iorpenda, Hall, or Grant in the attacking midfield positions. That leaves Norburn & Iorpenda as an alternative in the centre of midfield & Dennis, Iorpenda, Hall, Grant or even Jones & Jarvis who could all fill the AM positions. So far this season I think that barring any injuries, Palmer & Robertson have made the central midfield positions their own & they are my preferred picks. I think it is a little more difficult in the AM area. At the start of the season Jones was picked to play as an attacking midfielder but it was obvious that his best place was on the wings. Iorpenda started in CM but lately MP has been playing him further forward with Grant or Hall, then we have Dennis who has been unable to get so many starts since Jatta's return. & we have Jarvis who can play as an AM or Winger waiting in the wings... My preferred duo in the AM position at this time would be Grant & Iorpenda with Hall & Dennis very close. I think the AM positions are still up for grabs & we may even see some additional player recruited for that position in the Jan window. It is certainly going to be very fascinating in the weeks ahead to see how Martin Paterson works it all out. What are your Thoughts?

Such a weird match, first half we just looked off the pace everything was a tad too slow and we struggled to really get into Harrogate and put them under too much pressure. That said we still created the best chance and their goal was a bit out of nowhere as Grant slides in and ends up playing their forward in on goal. Second half was just all us, we must have had about 90% possession. Harrogate were done by about the 60th minute or so and we just lacked that bit of bravery or magic. We were regularly at the edge of their box but the final ball wasn’t great and Harrogate were just so deep by the end there wasn’t much space for anyone in and around the box to even get a shot off. I was unsure about the penalty when it was awarded, and having watched it back I'm still not sure. The Harrogate defender puts his hand in the back of Jarvis but it didn't look like it was with much force, if anything him then falling over causes the Harrogate player to go over and that makes it look worse. l I think the pressure got to the ref, there were a couple of shouts for pens (all which I think he got correct) and he didn’t give them. Fair play to Harrogate, they’ll be gutted after that. I think their defensive resilience merits a point but my word how did the ball just not fall to us at all, not one deflection or anything went our way. It feels like had that been us playing so deep for 30 minutes we’d have conceded a couple.

Yeah, we were disappointed. But the money we can understand, and the fact his boss had been Stuart Maynard even more. There's an imaginable scenario where his contribution could help win a promotion.

A massive win for Notts tonight against an inform team. This win takes Notts into a promotion place in League 2 for the first time this season. Notts had a brilliant first half & could have been double their actual lead at half time. Cheltenham came back into it in the 2nd half but Notts held out for that vital win. So who is your man of the match for Notts? I have chosen the starting eleven for you to make your choice from. Those players are, Roos, Macari, Ness Bedeau, Tsaroulla, Robertson, Iorpenda, Bennetts, Grant, Hall, Jatta.

I saw after the match Jatta and Hall being interviewed for Sky and I think Hall carried a trophy away. I’d have Jatta, Hall and Robertson as my top 3. Could make a case for all of them really, but I think Robbo just shaded it for me.

It was great performance in the first half with lots of players standing out. Hall's goal was well taken, Jatta scored another poachers goal, Grant & Iorpenda were very good. The defensive unit of Ness, Macari & Bedeau were solid once again. Tsaroula did what he does best & I think Bennetts had his best game for Notts But my Man of the Match is going to go to Scott Robertson for his outstanding display

Robbo for me, energetic & involved all night. He’s combative and creative, a very solid 99 mins from him. Ness & Bedeau didn’t do much wrong and Iorpenda had an excellent 1st half too. They were all in with a shout but Robbo just seemed more influential in both halves of the pitch and over the whole game fir my money. Hall was often clumsy on the ball but he scored and looked a bit sharper in the last 20 mins. Jatta was busy, scored but his 1st touch let him down too often.

Some great performances tonight. I thought Ness was excellent. Vindicated MP sticking with him over Platt. Jatta's formula of goal + great hold up play + defensive work would usually win MoM... But my vote's for Robertson. Thought he was immense tonight and played a great all-round game. Maybe his best game in a Notts shirt

Another goal would be handy for us now. I suspect we should have taken Bennetts or Hall off for Dennis, not Grant. We’ll see. Robertson has been outstanding tonight btw.

I am pleased Mrs. T is still getting out and is on the mend. Hopefully, within a few days, she'll feel much better. I have been coding a bit the last two days; I have built something to help with updating members on crucial parts of the site that might be experiencing trouble. It's not the most complex thing, but it is one of the first things that I have coded which required a database and a full app structure. I also took the initiative to manually prevent the newest member from being displayed among the validating members. It allows me to keep PON safe from spam bot accounts, and I have implemented ways of reducing this. Until about 4:30, I have felt good, but now I am trying to stay awake. The weather outside is dismal; poor Cheeky got completely soaked while going to pick Ava up from school. The only other thing I have been doing is loading Championship Manager 1998 in DOSBox and playing it as I go about doing stuff. Naturally, I chose Notts and spent a spell in 3rd and 2nd; then I was top for about 10 games. I am now 5th and seem to be struggling to motivate the players. I score and end up drawing. Or, I concede and get battered. Mansfield and Lincoln both beat by 5 goals to 1.

I’d say that Dennis could do with a start, he’s impressed when he’s been in the starting XI, less so when used as a sub. Grant should be in for Hall too. This is another key game, with an opportunity to move up the table. Cheltenham have suddenly found form & goals. The “Cotterill effect” appears to be working. It will be a tough battle but we have the talent and attitude to get at least a point &, hopefully, all 3.

Another tough game awaits Notts on Monday evening. Cheltenham Town are in good form & their new Manager, on his return to their club, Steve Cotterill, has them playing well. Before their two dissapointing defeats in the two Cup games, Notts were playing well with confidence. Hopefully turning their attention back to the league will give them a fresh focus to carry on their unbeaten run. If all the players are fit I would choose the same match squad that played Cambridge Utd. Roos, Macari, Ness, Bedeau, Tsaroulla, Palmer, Robertson, Jones, Hall, Dennis, Jatta. Subs, Grant, Iorpenda, Griffiths, Kouhyar, Aljofree, Norburn, Bennetts. I've put Dennis in the starting 11 instead of Grant & Ness replaces McDonald who may still be injured. Martin may still opt to put Dennis on the bench & play Grant or Iorpenda in the AM position. I would settle for a draw in this game. A 0:0 or 1:1 would do for me. A win would be a big bonus if Notts could achieve it.

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I’d do well to give anyone a 7 after that, maybe Ness or Bedeau but again at times even they struggled. The fact our defenders were our better players against a team struggling in the League below is pretty tragic. Even after sleeping on it I can’t get over how poor we were going forward. We didn’t manage to put them under any real sustained pressure, or cause their keeper and defence to panic like ours did. If we’d have created a host of decent chances and missed them or forced their keeper to make a number of saves I’d have felt a lot better getting knocked out. But our super-fit side which made all the subs still couldn’t get the better of a tiring team that bought on Connor Hall who looked completely unfit and effectively made the match 10 v 11. We can add this to the collection of "FA Cup Horror Matches", which already is pretty full...

Key points for this defeat seem to be... Matty Palmer rested Norburn handles in the area to concede penalty on 90+6mins So turns out that giving the FA Cup 95% respect is still disrespecting the competition. Just couldn't resist being cute for that 5%...and it costs us an infamous exit to a non-league team. Will they ever learn?

Typical Notts, just when you think it's coming together. We're consistent in the cups to the point where you almost suspect it's a betting conspiracy. The debate about recruitment will start again after the way Roos and Norburn played. In 2025 have we made one permanent signing that's strengthened our starting line-up? Just hope we can keep picking up some points between now and January and then bring in two or three who are made of the right stuff, that's a big ask though.

Hi guys and thank you for the warm welcome! I have kind of weird connection and hope its still accepted :D So im football fan from Finland and my connection to Notts County actually comes from Football manager. Been managing the team for I don't know for how many years/games and with that started to follow the team in real life and now trying to actually catch games when ever they come. So little odd..but from just playing to checking scores and then to actually watching games I wanted to find a place to learn more what is happening and what you guys are talking about. Also sorry for my English its obviously my second language

Had an idea this could happen. Hands off Jatta & anyone else at Notts in the January window.

I think it's important, to be able to bag those statement wins. It's a fair measure of where you stand in the division's pecking order. Of course you can still get complacent teams that can slip up against the lower orders and miss out on promotion because of that. But regularly losing to your close rivals says a lot. I guess we'll know through the December fixtures. SM's team was awful in crunch matches and at clutch time. We can see that MP is instilling more steel, and insisting on gutsy performances rather than just tactical instructions - let's hope it's enough to give MK, Walsall, C'Field and the like a really hard time.

I’ve just earned a “getting warm” badge, what does that mean, anyone know? Should be a “getting colder” badge as we head back to Blighty.

i left the game feeling very frustrated in roos, to the point i felt like i had little hope in his ability. i watched the extended highlights yesterday, because i dont want to be harsh or rely on my thoughts after the game because i realise my perspective could be more based on what i felt i had seen. i do wish he would stop being so eccentric, focusing more on playing it safe. notts looked very good until his decision to come rushing out, when i saw it live i wondered why the hell he did not just kick it out for a throw in. i thought he slid in trying to leave something onto the colchester player. for me it was the biggest turning point of the game, and rewatching it. i think the idea was probably right, but the execution being poor and unfortunate. until watching the extended highlights, i thought we had some good chances that just did not fall but there are efforts that we should have done much better with and one came from a cross from lewis macari where conor grant back flicked the ball, it catches a deflection and tyrese hall is stretching to get on to it. its unfortunate, as grant may have scored but i do wonder if being more aware and passing it would have been different. to their credit everything happens in a heart beat, but there are chances where we really should be more clinical. i think we need to be more mindful when going for it, because it ultimately left us short at the back. poor defending, and i do think roos could have done better but i would acknowledge one on ones are hard. our problem is the defending and decision making when it comes to the opposition having chances. i thought we played very well attacking wise, but it counts for nothing when you cant manage a team of thugs and dark arts specialists.

I think everytime Maz comes on he is very positive, always driving at players and getting crosses in. I think he shows more determination than many of the players, a bit like Austin used to.

I couldn't agree more Robbie. The more you think about the last transfer window the worse it gets. I was impressed with Colchester yesterday. They were very fit and very organised, but we should have created more and we should be able to beat teams like this. It could be a long 38 days waiting until January. Let's hope not.

He definitely can. And oppositions wouldn't enjoy it. No.10 looks a hard position to play in L2. Somebody up your xxx all the time and defenders everywhere you turn. It already seems a long time ago that McGoldrick and Crowley showed they could live with that and produce goals/assists. Hall and Grant are doing OK but are not in that league so things could change there over the course of the season.

Notts need to show more intensity from the word go against Colchester & put them under pressure. I'd play the starting eleven that took the field against Harrogate, but I would play Palmer instead of Iorpenda & put Iorpenda on the bench. We know that Martin Paterson can change things around if things aren't working in the first half. Hopefully that won't happen this time. I'm hoping for a convincing win on Saturday. A 3:1 win for Notts would be a great result & should keep Notts in the top four.

My takeaway thought from the match is not to get tickets for the back of the pavis stand, not only is it exhausting getting up there but it takes ages to get out as everyone lower down get on the stairways first. My takeaway on the actual match is that I hope MP gives Jarvis a run in the team.

I want to start off by acknowledging that PON needs to return to a level of consistency with regard to the news, match reports, and so forth. I have numerous finished content pieces which I have put off because I wanted the site to be in full motion, but I haven't managed to keep to the standard I wish to set. Moving forward, if I can't do something, I will ask one of the team members, and I am sure in time things will improve to a standard that visitors and members have enjoyed in the past. I am also pleased to say that I have built and set up a system status page, which can be found here: https://status.prideofnottingham.co.uk/ Transparency and being up front is something I strongly believe in, and this system page will allow those who wish to see what is operational across the site. Issues will be posted as events, and updates will be given in a timely manner. If PON should happen to go down, you will be able to find out why by visiting this page. You may subscribe to email alerts by entering your email address in the "Notify Me" box. Please remember to choose which updates you would like to stay in the loop about. In the event one of these areas encounters a problem, you will be emailed and kept up to date with the progress, but only if you subscribe to this service. Bug reports will still be taken by the site and addressed within the forum. Over the past week, I have spent time improving the mobile experience. While most of this will be noticeable only to team members, it does bring improvements to the header and logo for regular members. There are subtle changes and a few improvements from a recent upgrade, which I plan to make the most of with these new features. Awards will be given out on a merit-based routine, which will be more frequent. In areas and during the site's downtime, I will finish adding the rest of the ones I created. There are a few more things in the pipeline, but they aren't quite ready to be mentioned. My main focus is to get more organised over this weekend and pick up the content. It's a privilege to represent Notts fans and provide content to be enjoyed. I very much appreciate everyone's help, and a more oganised me will be a better PON experience for everyone. Thank you for reading this, Chris

Jamie Turley is another ex player of both teams, can we make a starting XI?

Fantastic news. What a signing this turned out to be. Nailed on for making the L2 team of the season.

@Chris Great stuff as always you go above and beyond in your efforts, this is why I love this site.

That really was an excellent away performance overall, Cheltenham were always going to change after half-time because we totally dominated them in the first half and had Tsaroulla’s header been centimetres to the left it clips the post and we go in 3-0 up. Iorpenda showed just how important mobility is for a midfielder, it was the right choice to start him alongside Roberston. He was like a gazelle just breezing past Cheltenham’s players at times. No idea how likely it is but I’d be desperate to get him in permanently at the end of the season. The oldest outfield players in the starting 11 last night were Tsaroulla and Bennetts, and they are only 26, everyone else was younger! We've got a core of really promising young players here now. The only blemish was the goal, I'd imagine with VAR it gets given as a foul but the ref gave us pretty much every 50-50 after so it was probably playing on his mind and that helped us. No idea why Ness heads it back into the danger area though, that was really poor from him and was probably his only real mistake of the night. Good to see us get back on track in such encouraging fashion though, we are looking really solid in the league right now.

Notts on a Monday night feels strange but that's the reality of it. I think it's roughly a 4 and half hour round trip? Not exactly a short trip on a school night. Anyway........a win would take us into the top 3. I'd be happy with a point but I think we'll sneak a win.

We’ve played with a variation of a 3-5-2 (3-4-2-1) for years now and it’s worked for us so far. Also when you look at the teams that were promoted last season Bradford, Port Vale and Wimbledon all played some variation of a 3-5-2 as well. Every formation has its strengths and weaknesses, I think the 4-4-2 covers the pitch well but you can be overrun in midfield if you face a team that plays with 3 centre mids or a box midfield. With the 3-4-2-1 we are very solid in central areas but it demands a lot of the wing-backs because they almost have to do the job of two players and they sometimes get pinned in if facing a full back and a winger. I’m not overly concerned with the formation, I think it works well for how we want to play, the two attacking midfielders and two central midfielders mean we should be able to get a lot of control in the middle of the pitch and dominate. Sometimes I just wish the wing-backs play a tad higher, they were really deep under Stuart and that seems to have followed on with Martin. Maybe Luke Williams has warped my mind as to how wing-backs should play (because under him they were basically wingers!) I think the approach to how you play is probably more important to us and that is to be brave (not sit too deep) play forward and be relentless with the press to pin-teams in. We’ve done it in phases and stages this season, just in the last two matches the intent and bravery hasn’t quite been there for me but there's no reason to suggest we can't get back into a positive approach.

Norburn not showing for the ball was raised in those first few games he played. There's less excuse this time - he's had bags of time to get fit. It just seems like a tendency. If players have spent a lot of their careers playing under different styles, they don't develop the instincts that players like Palmer has - now many years playing possession football at Notts.

Being 2-1 up with just the couple of minutes to go didn't feel like a fair reflection of the match. I thought we were really poor, we spent the last 20 minutes with a lot of the ball but we were totally incapable of killing the match off. I don’t think we even managed a shot after the penalty. Other than making a save from JJ’s freekick and picking the ball out his net twice their keeper had nothing to do. We looked scared of them, we were pretty awful on the ball and totally deserved to lose in the end. We got lucky with the officiating too, they had a goal ruled off for no obvious reason and it was a really soft penalty for us, it doesn’t even look like there was contact on the replay. Just another horrific night for us in the FA Cup, can we just not enter it next season.

Makes sense for them and Macca. Not for us IMO

It's a bit of a meaningless statement this early in the season. Barnet would have been in the top seven if they'd beaten us. But we beat them, so they're not. (I know, insert comment about aunties and uncles here.) What counts is the ability to decide the really tight games in our favour, and we've struggled to do that for years. Even in the NL days, I'm convinced that if we'd beaten Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground, we'd have been spared the play-offs. It's a habit that has held us back since too, and a couple of "statement wins" as @theAnticlough puts it would really breed confidence that it could be our year.