Chris

Once again Notts stumble back to the drawing board, yet as a club, do we ever learn? It doesn’t seem that long ago that Jon Stead was League Two's Player of the Month, in fact it was only last September - but things seemed a lot more optimistic back then. With back-to-back defeats at the hands of Blackpool and more recently Newport County, it seems the Magpies are destined to pitifully play out the remainder of the games until the January transfer window opens up. The injury to Stead has proved a massive blow. I said this at the time and even warned prior to this misfortune that we were relying too much on him. That said, away performances have largely made the difference during the 2016-17 campaign and that's when we saw Adam Campbell step up from Stead's shadow. Twice he’s been our saviour, he helped earn Notts a replay against Boreham Wood in the FA Cup, but we haven’t seen many other players step up to the plate. Problem is, Notts are largely inconsistent and when things are merry, John Sheridan speaks of praise and, during lean times, he speaks of how it's unacceptable – even going as far as comparing the squad to a pub team. There’s nothing at all wrong with this, but I am increasingly becoming frustrated by his lack of faith in certain players, whilst others retain a starting place week in and out. He spoke more recently about welcoming the selection headache when it came to the squad that could be put out against Newport, with only Genaro Snijders, Robert Milsom and Graham Burke coming in after the terrible away performance to Blackpool. You may be wondering why I haven’t included the likes of Jordan Richards. I haven’t because I largely feel he’s been in and around the first team for a while and is well within the deserved list of having a run in the Notts squad. However, Robert Milsom and Graham Burke have largely been disappointing whilst Sheridan has been at the helm as the manager. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s right people are calling for his sacking or resignation – much of the issues we see on the pitch is largely down to years of mismanagement and poor decisions from various parties involved. It’s easy to point the finger, but the fact is we crave stability and this only comes in retaining someone who can carry out the required work. There’s not a big queue of good candidates out there prepared to come in and do this. I do wonder what has gone wrong these past few weeks, however all season it’s been quite poor with only patches of good spells – it's easy to forget when you're winning games and sitting in and around the play-offs. At this stage of the season Sheridan should have had the chance to experiment, yet it would appear as if he doesn’t know who is deserving of a starting place or even who should make our best eleven. Certainly I don’t feel Adam Collin should be number one, and yes I hear the phantom moans of ‘Scott Loach isn’t much better’ – however even he managed to make a small difference last year round. I at least hope to never hear or witness Alan Smith starting in any form of attacking position, which is another shame because I do feel at times he could have helped in midfield. Just not as someone regularly starting, as we have only just managed to out Alex Rodman from his favourite position – another player who along with Carl Dickinson I would hope remains out of the squad until they learn to fulfil their roles better. As things stand, I expect to see a few more disappointing performances and no doubt this will include some woeful results. I just hope that things start to pick up sooner or later, as these winter months are the perfect time to gain form – with the return of Stead and eventually the opening of the transfer window. Fingers crossed we can rid ourselves of some of the underperforming players who barely reassemble professional footballers in the hope that we can replace them, provided we don’t have further speculations of ‘ghosts’ appearing at Meadow Lane in the form of meaningless takeovers. Share your thoughts about this feature on Pride of Nottingham by signing up for FREE to the website, visiting the forum and joining the conversation.

John Sheridan has praised Notts County for responding well to their 4-0 loss at Blackpool by dominating Boreham Wood in their FA Cup first-round replay. Goals by Jonathan Forte and Aaron Collins helped the Magpies claim a 2-0 win at Meadow Lane on Tuesday night, booking a date in the second round against Peterborough United. "It was a tricky game for us after Saturday, when we played so poorly and conceded four goals," Sheridan told the Nottingham Post. "It was a game we were expected to win, but I thought we dominated the game possession wise. "We played some really good stuff too. We got the goal in the first half and when it's 1-0 you are always on edge. "But Aaron has scored a worldie at the end, but the main job for us was to get through the tie. "We've got a good game against Peterborough, a team who are going really well. It will be a really good test for us. "It will be tough, Grant McCann is doing a really good job there. "I watched them on the television the other day and they are a good footballing side. "They are young and play the game in the right way. "I am looking forward to the game." Share your thoughts on this story by visiting the Pride of Nottingham forum and joining the conversation.

Going into the local derby game against Mansfield, I had stated on the Pride of Nottingham community and to various fans when talking – Notts needed to go aiming to prove a point. What actually happened, however, was just more disappointment against our big rivals in the division. It’s easy enough to write off a defeat, yet things had been building quite nicely and I hope the postponed game against Morecambe and the EFL Trophy loss Rochdale don't become basis for any excuses. Notts just doesn’t seem to have the fight for local derbies, we go into them with a fair bit of hype from what is released to the local media – yet fall dramatically short when it comes to the actual performance. After going level at 1-1, you would expect this to be the turning point for a lively encounter, which would have given us some pride. However, once again Mansfield got the better of us and we really need to set this record straight when we play them at Meadow Lane – losing isn’t the end of the world but surely it’s got to be done to giving some form of fight to the opposition? Tuesday night will see the Morecambe game take place, and I am sure there will be quotes about undoing ‘wrongs’ or on par with that. Yet we just need to need to remain grounded and continue the work effort that we have witnessed as of late. Our away form in the 2016-17 League Two season has helped massively with overturning a lack of optimism in the Notts camp, yet this greatly lacks at Meadow Lane. Performances just haven’t been up to scratch, however much signs of improvements have or haven’t been made. We need to avoid allowing the Mansfield game becoming this season's undoing. Yet whatever the outcome John Sheridan is delivering us a reasonable level of stability, which will only improve with added time and of course his own signings. I asked in a discussion if we needed a centre back and a striker come January, and the responses seemed to be mixed – yet after talking again to various people, it seems we may need to add a little more strength to the ranks after Mansfield. Naturally we will need to release some of the players who don’t seem to interest Sheridan, I wonder who the fans think we can afford to release? I expect Graham Burke to be mentioned within there. I think, however, that he’s the type of young player who we should be pushing for more than we seem to be doing. Likewise with Genaro Snidjers – I think he should be given a run and a chance to prove himself over a period of games. I don’t mean cup matches, but actual league games where it will highlight far more. The 2016-17 squad has depth and the ability to win home games, I was worried that after the increase of positivity all it would take is a couple of defeats to return to the level it was at prior and losing in a derby game does exactly that. Yet despite Alex Rodman’s comments, I do think we have a lot to focus on and we have some good games where the players can prove their point. And to a degree I still think we are relying on Jon Stead’s form to win us those important games, yet this is exactly why I want to see more of the squad fighting for a chance to start more regularly. Fans seem to suggest that Sheridan won’t give players a chance, naturally only sticking to his own signings, but at times you must. Hopefully after a few weeks the Mansfield game won’t be the talking point that it was during last season’s bitter campaign. Share your thoughts about this feature on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining the conversation.