Chris

I wasn't aware he was in management or coaching to the level he could be appointed as one, so it's pleasing to see. Rotherham United have had a disappointing campaign, and I don't know the ins and outs, but at one point I thought all their good work in recent years might be undone. Am I the only one who wouldn't recognise him now, though? He looks very different.

I would feel happier if Salford City missed out completely with the playoffs. I think they would be a real threat to us - even if they do waste time. They have us sussed to the point we look useless against them. A draw is about the right result, although despite my nerves about Salford, I think even if they had won it would be a stretch to compete with Colchester United, Chesterfield, plus us and those in the playoffs already. Winning Bradford City would be a big boost for us, but looking at the form of all 24 teams this season has been very hit and miss for all involved with promotion hopes.

How embarrassing is the MK Don's social media post, that's not what you write when you have had two managers already this season and sacked the replacement. Yes, Carlisle United wanted Mike Williamson, but even that was an embarrassing appointment (even though I hoped it would work out for Carlisle). Paul Warne, I think will start to turn things around, and I can see MK Dons being better, but I do wonder if "better" will be good enough for a plastic club like Franchise FC? Imagine if their media team used "We've got our man" every time they hire a new manager, or sign a player from a club more successful than them. I can't express how silly it is in words.

I am sure it will be a big boost when Jodi is back to full fitness, and whilst I love his drive, Notts does need to be careful (as does Jodi). He's a great player, and I would hope any frustration from not playing or feeling like he could have changed our season, doesn't push him too far or too quickly. It's not that I want to see him doing the talking on the pitch, I think Jodi's drive can be infectious, but I do feel there's a risk since he's suffered setbacks twice this season. The emphasis on pursuing automatic promotions reveals an underlying push within our ranks, which I do wonder if some players have doubts or feel they could have done better at times. The pressure needs to be forgotten at the end of the day, as does the frustration. If the players focus and work as a team, they will be just fine regardless.

It would be interesting to be able to compare clubs finances more equally, as this doesn't really factor in if owners/clubs are overspending or are making smart decisions not to overspend on the payroll. I also assume this only takes into consideration the players wages rather than staff. What is interesting is seeing how much each team is spending on the player positions. Notts seem to have focused on attack and midfield, with the defence not all that far behind. If I could access the previous seasons, it would probably paint a picture of why we weren't as strong defensively as we are now. As for Notts being placed where they are, I don't think it means much in the grand scheme of things. It does highlight and reflect well on our recruitment because on paper I believe we do have a squad very capable of winning promotion. Also, some teams have purchased players and thrown wages on them in a bid to succeed. It really goes to show just how important the right balance is, having a squad that's together and a club focus on moving forward. We are making good progress; we need to remember this.

I started today by updating the league table; I was busy at the weekend, but I did update it after Notts had played. It's Saturday's fixtures I missed, but that's all correct now. I have been looking at ways I might be able to include the home and away form. Along with some other coding jobs, such as finally managing to grant permissions to edit the news ticker outside of the admin team. Once I had sorted the updates, I messaged a couple of the team members and I do hope @Piethagoram is okay. Also, since my main device is my laptop and it's a gaming one, I have to frequently clean it. I have mentioned this in the past, it collects dust etc. very easily and then starts to sound like it's trying to launch itself into space. I didn't clean the inside, but the outside is now fine and I am hopeful to find the screw size for the underneath as I am missing one and a few of the others really could do with being replaced. --- It's quite a lovely afternoon. I am downstairs in the living room, and my youngest daughter is to the right of me listening to music through her headphones whilst playing games. The sun isn't blinding me, but providing a nice burst of light. It's a bit quiet, as Jake isn't home right now. It's days like this, I wished I could go to visit my dad and hang out, but I am mindful of my body and overdoing things. I hope every member and visitor who reads this is having a lovely day.

I am made nervous by the amount of times this game should have been played, but has been changed for various reasons outside of our control. These events usually come at a cost to Notts, and with Bradford now being in much better form than they were at the start of the season, I do think the game will be harder. I believe the tickets for our end sold out very quickly the first time they went on sale, as my friend was disappointed to miss out. Again, another thing which makes me nervous, as does the amount of remaining games and closeness to us Colchester United and Grimsby Town are. Usually, I feel confident or at least quietly optimistic, but I think Notts will struggle. Colchester's pitch was awful, but Bradford's is almost a beach. I am also not convinced that Bradford missing a few players would mean all that much, as the pressure is on us to maintain our playoff spot. Whilst I think Bradford do have pressure and their form has dipped, I just feel they will be naturally more up for the game. We need a good team performance, which is focused and robust at persisting with creating chances. If we haven't had many shots on goal before half time, then I would worry more. I guess we have to hope Bradford aren't able to counter our tactics and that we can hold onto the ball in a useful way. As I say, we need a team performance with the likes of Jacob Bedeau, Matty Platt, Matt Palmer, Alassana Jatta but especially David McGoldrick who tends to always be the biggest difference. I'm unsure if George Abbott is back, but he would also be a key player if included. Also, I am dreaming of Nick Tsaroulla and Jodi Jones starting the game together.

Ah, I haven't really kept in the loop recently, and I remember him missing the last game I attended. My mind, for some reason, jumped ahead of itself, and I thought this was going to be about him being injured and ultimately recalled by Spurs. Thank God, it's not this. He does deserve to be nominated as one of the runners for the award, he's been brilliant.

Please, don't bring that up. JJ managed to fool people twice, involving Jake Bugg. One where some fans actually bought into our story about him having signed a pro deal with the club. Talk Sport also picked the story up, but they had a sense of humour about it. We'll need to discuss things a week or so before the next April Fool's as this could have been a very funny one to have shared onto social media.

Just to mention: I have followed every article section, every forum, and every active blogger. I will make sure to follow key topics, which makes me feel when we upgrade to v5 that there could be room for improvements on managing the follow function. Such as the ability to set a duration for keeping it active, which would be useful for topics like Match Discussions, Man of the Match, Prediction League rounds etc.

I must have been sleeping, or one of the many bangs to my head is to blame.

Van Noodles didn't really do a good enough job, he should have got behind the players and rallied them up with belief and confidence. Instead, he talks about "we" and some aspects which make him sound like he's behind them. Such as saying all the players are trying, so how do you go behind by so many goals by the 35th minute? If it's not the players, it's the manager. If it's both, then perhaps some of the players aren't good enough? In which case, you need to make sure the manager is someone who can get the best out of everyone. Ruud is clearly a nice enough person, but do you get a manager vibe from him when watching this post-match reaction? The appointment falls onto the Leicester City board, they need to be very mindful about who comes in next as it could cause them more issues in the Championship, if they appoint a manager not good enough for the Premier League, and is out of his depth in the second tier of English football.

I'm going to try to start highlighting parts which will improve members and visitors time, just subtle reminders. This might become repetitive, but please understand that the more I mention it, the more likely new and older members will start using such features. In fact, I am going to make sure that I do this myself. Please look around the site at various points, whereby the "follow" feature might keep you better informed. Desktop: The feature is usually found near the top, within a header. On mobiles: It's further down underneath the main body. Forums, sections, blogs etc. - will update you on new and existing content. Articles, posts, topics, comments etc. - will alert you to new activity. You can decide how you want your updates, by clicking follow, but also in your notification settings you can further tweak things to your liking.

I have no memory of his name, but it's interesting to read about him. When was he linked to us?

I thought Notts made a very bright start, and early on created some decent chances. There are times when we look like we're moments away from scoring, and if we just took a bit more care, that might have been the case. Colchester United didn't look like a team trying to push for the playoffs, I thought they were quite dirty and were fortunate to have the officials largely giving them advantage but this is another matter. There are chances created where it's easy for me to say at the time, and in hindsight, that Notts should have slowed down or even taken a shot earlier. The players are always thinking, have energy and adrenaline pumping amongst a host of other things, and it does mean times there will be wasted opportunities. As I say, I felt Notts played quite well until Colchester took the lead. At the time, I had suspicions of offside and a foul. Colchester always looked happy with a point, even more so to just sit on their lead. To be fair, I think they defended very well, and ignoring all the heavy shirt pulling, dangerous challenges and other antics, I think this is the main reason why Notts started to struggle. I noticed visible signs of frustration, which I don't really like to see from players like David McGoldrick But again, it's the heat of the moment. I would just like to add, there were times he made very poor decisions and nobody got onto his back. Notably, a very poor cross, where he started to hit himself in the head. Whereas he did complain, and get in the face of some of the players at times, which just doesn't sit well with me for a player of his experience. I thought Nick Tsaroulla was superb, by far the best player in terms of performance on the pitch in my eyes. I felt Stuart Maynard should have switched him to the left when bringing on Jodi Jones. I felt unimpressed with the changes, not to go as far as calling Mai Traore a headless goat (like a fan said behind me), but Traore clearly isn't settled yet. I feel had Maynard made at least one change earlier, around the 55th minute we might have been a bit more composed. Notts did very well to maintain possession and create chances, what they lacked is that ability to get back into the game. I made the point about rushing earlier, but there were times when we should have taken the time to carefully choose where to shoot, and then times where time mattered. Another day, things might have been different, but I thought the decision-making was very poor on our behalf at times. So many times we needlessly made passes, or passed into crowded areas. I wouldn't single anyone out as having a particularly poor game, but defensively I thought Matty Platt was by far the most consistent defender. Nick Tsaroulla impressed me, I thought David McGoldrick worked hard and played well. Matt Palmer pulled a lot of strings, and has recently started making longer, pinpoint passes which mixed things up. Will Jarvis did okay, but in an average way. Charlie Whitaker should have stayed on, I thought he gave us a lot of heart and made some nice runs/passes. Some of the comments directed to Sam Slocombe during games shows the level of bias some of our fans have towards him, and I would discourage these remarks. Slocombe did well enough, despite several players putting him in danger with poor decisions. There's zero fault on him for the goal, Jacob Bedeau was out of position and the defending at this point wasn't good enough. Oddly, it was once changes had been made by Maynard that I stopped believing we could get a point or more from the game. Now, the pitch was poor, but you have to play on what is presented. The officials made the game difficult, and this is very frustrating. The management of the referee was very poor, inconsistent and very biased towards Colchester. Not once did he allow us to play to our advantage, instead repeatedly calling it back. On the other hand, Colchester were allowed several challenges by the U's and should have been punished. The melee between players is just a further sign that he lost control of the game, very poor officiating, but truth be said, you can't help but feel Notts should have been better.