Chris

Notts County were pegged back eight minutes into injury time as Mansfield Town's late, late penalty saw them leave Meadow Lane with a point in a 1-1 draw. The Magpies were on the verge of recording a first league win over the Stags since 2005 in front of a bumper crowd that braved the snowy, cold, treacherous conditions at the San Sirrel. Kevin Nolan's boys took the lead in the first half through Terry Hawkridge bundling home, but the Stags were given the chance to equalise eight minutes into the seven minutes of added time at the end of the game. Alex Macdonald headed into the box in the last minute of injury time with the ball hitting Lewis Alessandra on the arm, prompting referee Andy Woolmer to point to the spot, and Kane Hemmings made no mistake. Pride of Nottingham was at the Lane for the occasion and took photos of our fans - check our gallery to see if you're in this week's Faces of PON! Share your thoughts about this week's Faces of PON on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County head to the New Lawn on Saturday to face Forest Green Rovers as they hope to remain in the top three of League Two. The Magpies leapfrogged Wycombe Wanderers to move into the automatic promotion slots with a 1-1 draw at Cheltenham Town on Tuesday night. FGR will prove a stern test, however, as they have won their last five games on home turf to move seven points clear of the relegation zone. What are Forest Green's strengths, who are their key players, what kind of tactics will they use, and how should Notts counter them? Pride of Nottingham's Chris takes a look in this Scouting Report. Head to head Notts County and Forest Green Rovers have met just twice in competitive action and the Green Devils have not beaten the Magpies yet. The first game came in the third round of the FA Cup on 19 January 2010, and it ended in a 2-1 win for the Magpies at Meadow Lane. This season is the first that both teams share the same league, and the reverse fixture on 7 October - also at the Lane - ended 1-1 with Rob Milsom scoring an injury-time leveller. Saturday's game marks the first time that the Magpies head to FGR's home, the New Lawn Stadium. Run-down of their last six features Wednesday 31st January – Exeter City 2 Forest Green Rovers 0 Saturday 3rd February – Forest Green Rovers 2 Coventry City 1 Tuesday 13th February – Forest Green Rovers 3 Stevenage 1 Saturday 17th February – Morecambe 1 Forest Green Rovers 1 Saturday 24th February – Forest Green Rovers 2 Crawley Town 0 Tuesday 6th March – Newport County 3 Forest Green Rovers 3 The Players – Fact Sheet Highest Goal Scorers: Christian Doidge 21, Reuben Reid 3, Reece Brown 3 and Lee Collins 2. Persistent Foulers: Dale Bennett 7 yellow cards and 1 red card, Charlie Cooper 6 yellow cards and 1 red card, Lee Collins 5 yellow cards The Key Players Christian Doidge is a powerhouse who has a natural threat on goal, his crisp and calm finishing is lethal within League Two and the striker is extremely confident with moving forward with the ball showing no fear to shoot from distance. Reece Brown is also very influential in midfield, offering pace and skill when taking on the opposition players. Style of Play, Strengths, and Weaknesses Forest Green’s form has largely improved since we last met at Meadow Lane and so have their performances. On the ball they look to get forward by moving the ball around well, whilst coming back at times when no more ground can be gained via attacking directly. They also lump the ball quite a fair bit, especially when under pressure but are very content on the ball on the ground. In defence, the Green Devils can be quite sloppy and despite retaining organisation at the back – they fail to remain alert to danger. Opposition teams usually maximise their chances by the chaos caused by the FGR defence's panicking. Games do remain quite open even when they seem strong in possession, as they invite too much pressure on themselves by disconnected play. Their main threat is by their ability to work the ball well in tight areas, as they have several players capable of delivering useful balls, which teams tend to find difficult to attack – it’s clear that Forest Green practice within their training how to deliver balls against their counterparts. For Notts our midfield will need to be patient and careful when building, they’ll have to work hard and present creative chances for any opportunities to fall our way. Ensuring that the FGR defence are constantly troubled will create chances for the Magpies and set pieces seems something which we might be able to make use of. Overall Kevin Nolan shouldn’t get players to commit too deep, yet there must be a finer balance within the centre of the park – as the team that controls the game via the middle will get on top of the game. Share your thoughts about this Scouting Report on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County were held to a goalless draw in Saturday's League Two match away at Newport County. The Magpies were forced to settle for a goalless draw at Rodney Parade in a game of few clear cut chances. Notts were more dangerous than their opponents, with Lewis Alessandra and Jon Stead both going close, but neither side could find a breakthrough in South Wales. How did the game pan out from a tactical perspective? Pride of Nottingham's Chris takes a look with this weekend's Tactical Talk. Was the result fair? Both teams struggled to get a grip of the game, however if chances had been taken, Notts could have won and a goal may have changed the entire game forcing both sides to attack. Yet the game wasn’t that entertaining and the 0-0 seems fair. How did Notts play? By all accounts it sounded scrappy and not a direct result of the pitch – more a lack of application. Notts simply didn’t create chances very well enough and the performance does leave some questions about how we can improve away from home. The midfield lost the battle, never really connected play and overall it was a quiet performance by Notts. How did Newport play? Very similar to Notts bar the more physical approach to the game. They looked woeful on goal and scrappy at the back, their midfield did well, moving the ball into dangerous areas, but they never seemed sure how best to distribute the ball. Overall, they didn’t apply themselves well either. Did our tactics work out? It’s hard to tell, if we aimed to cancel out Newport and never attack them in a way which would ask questions of their defence, I guess so. However, I think there were yet again questions over the starting line-up. How did the referee perform? The performance of the match officials wasn’t an issue yesterday, a good call to disallow Newport’s goal – overall pretty decent for League Two. Who do we play next? Next up Cambridge United – the departure of Shaun Derry seems to have hit them at a time whereby they’re making a transitional switch and it’s hard to see what U’s team will turn up. How should we play them? I want to see two strikers start both home and away games, I think the only time one is warranted is away from home when the opposition team we face is much stronger than us across the park. Cambridge United aren’t this team in my opinion and if we focus on playing football we should be able to do well. It’s all down to performance and ensuring that the starting line-up can get the job done from the off, so we need to see some flair and creativity from the midfield. With two strikers it would make life naturally much harder for Cambridge United, yet we need to make movement – players must drift into areas whereby we can move forward and the type of chances we create must ask questions. Naturally our midfield needs to be stronger, this is the type of game whereby a player such Liam Noble would be useful – however, I don't think he has proven why we chased or became obsessed over him this season. Yet he could be the type of player that could drive the squad forward, it would be nice if he could lead the midfield but I think Elliot Hewitt is more likely to run himself into the ground. Just smart play, where we work as a team. I think in recent performances we rely too much on forcing play and lack the team work which has given us good results. We are very capable of playing football, so remove the pressure from ourselves and just become expressive on the pitch – try to enjoy your football lads, maybe we will then? Newport County fan reaction (from weareexiles.net) Stan A Einstein: I'll be honest I thought we'd be better today but lose 1-0. We are now 20 points clear of relegation with 13 games remaining. Realistically we are not going to make the play-offs. Perhaps time for Flynn to experiment, tell his team to go for it, especially at home? Exile 1976: Team worked hard today, I thought we were unlucky with the disallowed goal. Labadie was excellent, Day & back 5 very good. I thought Marlon had a decent cameo too. A point stops the rot. On to the next game. Confuddled: I thought [Marlon Jackson] was fairly decent. Won most things in the air. However, that team was completely void of any creativity. I think we work our front two harder than any team in this league. Defensively the team was solid. But our game plan was to thump the ball down the channels as soon as possible. Get the front two running all day. Hopefully we will get a throw in and long throw but that is pretty much our entire offensive threat. Now considering our recent form and who we were playing I can accept that. Stop the rut. Be solid and use this game as a springboard to get some form back. Bush: Thought the defence played well after a shaky start which was maninly down to O'Brien playing like someone with a lack of match practice. Second half O'Brien was really good. My MOM. We have to keep that back 3 together as much as possible although I noticed a slight change today and O'Brien played on the white and white in the middle which was other way around the times I saw them together this season. Share your thoughts about this tactical analysis piece on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.