Chris

This is a pretty special opposition view for us here at Pride of Nottingham. It's certainly not your typical one and although this is no doubt one of my personal favourites, I comment unbiased on how welcoming the responses. I've taken the time to speak with Matt who is currently based in Swansea, he's taken the time to answer our questions for us all to read. Liverpool will no doubt come into the game openly confident - Notts will have to play makeup with a fair portion of our fans but this is a game where they can show us fans what the shirt really means to them. Come On You Pies! Firstly, could you tell prideofnottingham.co.uk a little about yourself, such as how long you've been a fan for? I'm Matt originally from Southport (a seaside town with little of note), I've lived in Bournemouth, St ives and currently reside in the Premiership City of Swansea. I grew up in a none football household in a town around 20 miles from Liverpool and in those type of families you just fall into football, I remember watching England beat San Marino 7-1 (They needed a clear 7 goals to go through and conceded after 10 seconds) and I think I just generally fell in love with heartbreak, I liked Liverpool as it was local enough and my friends on the whole generally supported them, plus the other two Everton and Manchester United had both been teams of my brother in his ever changing youth, so naturally sibling rivalry takes hold. So far Liverpool have won their opening two games in the Premership, do you feel confident that you can overcome the recent League Cup form? Losing to Swansea was not the worst result I have witnessed as a fan, and we won it the year before, if you mean general cup runs of recent years then yes, I think Brendan may treat them with a little more respect this season (well I hope so), I think it's a chance for him to get his hands on some silverware and so I think yes we should be though we should always be aware of opposition from the lower leagues. We lost on Saturday to a late goal at home to Stevenage, who your rivals Everton also face in the same competition. How much would like to see Stevenage win them? I'm a Liverpool fan, the only reason I would like to see Everton lose is it is less competition if we were to progress and that goes for several other teams, never been the biggest fan of this "anti rival" nastiness that seems to be all over football, a fan of a different club is not scum, he is a fan of football, that is a positive (It's very unique but I guess that relates back to my upbringing). How are Liverpool fans adjusting to life with Rodger Red Hat? I think for the majority of Liverpool fans (Though I can't speak for all) we are warming to him, I was a massive fan due to what I saw here in Swansea (Have friends who were able to get me tickets so enjoyed a lot of his first season in the premiership and also some of the promotion push). Others have had to warm to him but yeah he has got this team playing some brilliant football especially in the second half of last season, he had the hardest act to follow so in doing so he has had to work extra hard but on the whole he is a likeable bloke with ideas and the right philosophy he will hopefully go far. Your currently being linked to Derby County young marvel Will Hughes – How do you feel about this and would you sign him if it were possible? Will Hughes from what I know and have seen and watched is one of the most exciting prospects so yes of course it would be great but I do feel we need more "now" signings as our youth system looks full of exciting talent. What are your hopes and aspires for the rest of your season? Cup runs and a push for fourth, significant improvement on last season though would do, I think a cup win may help Brendan a lot. What are match days like for you, do you travel home and away? Can you give our fans a typical insight to a Liverpool fans day? I usually only go to home matches, I enjoy going back north, I tend to travel up on a morning if it is a saturday or if it is an lunchtime or sunday match will stay over with my brother. I don't get to go to as many Liverpool matches as I want usually around 5 or 6 a season. My typical day would be lots of travel, a pint or two in one of the many locals near Anfield and hopefully an enjoyable 3 points, Stoke was far from enjoyable but probably the most tense and excited anfield had been in a number of years especially with the penalty save at the end. Do you have any recollections of seeing Notts County play? If so could you please share your memory of this. Only on Television sadly, I do like to watch alot of football and so was generally excited about the first game of the season which saw the young Liverpool product Conor Coady get a few minutes for Sheffield United, I felt you were unlucky by going down to 10 and kept the game quite tight, I expect you will be a tough opposition for us. What formation and line-up do you think Brandon Rodgers will choose, do you feel he might field some reserves and rest some first team players? I think he is more than likely to stick to the formation that has been put out in recent games which is a 4-2-3-1 I would expect him to rest a number of the first team but not as many as some expect, I reckon Sturridge, Toure, Agger, Johnson, Enrique and Aspas will all be missing. Who do you see as being your main threats towards our defence? I expect Ibe and Sterling to both play and have both looked good at premier league level, I also expect Borini to finally chip in with a decent finish or two. Sterling though will be key though as he is forever improving. Do you know much about Notts County – If so, who do you see being a game changer for us? I don't sorry but I expect your entire team to up for this, a trip to Anfield is always special. Can you please tell us about Liverpool, Anfield and anything you feel that will be interesting for our travelling fans. The people are really friendly it is one of the things you'll take away from your visit, also the food outlets across from the ground serve some really excellent grub, I couldn't recommend one as I'm a fan of most of them. Pride of Nottingham would like to thank Matt for taking the time to answer our questions, we appreciate his responses and it's refreshing to read. I really enjoyed his views on rival clubs and couldn't help but feel the game would better if more fans were the same (excluding a bit of banter of course).

Pride of Nottingham brings you action shots from the game against Stevenage at Meadow Lane last Saturday. Stevenage managed to score right in the final minutes, taking all 3 points with them in the process. The lads will need to pick them up for tomorrows game and inspire the fans! You can see all the photos from Saturday's match day provided by Oskar Papierz - Mobile users please see the link below which will take you to our gallery - You Pies! Mobile Users please visit | Gallery Pride of Nottingham would like to thank Oskar Papierz for allowing us use of his images, we wish him all the best his photography. Here's his Facebook page and Website.