Chris

I'd like to highlight the benefits of following certain sections of the Pride of Nottingham website. This is a simple way to stay updated on content that interests you, while also keeping track of your favourite parts and members of our site. It requires a bit of time, but it's definitely worth it, and I'd appreciate it if members could spare a moment to do this. Our community is expanding every month, and everyone has their own preferred method. However, this underused feature makes it easier to stay engaged. You can even opt to receive grouped email notifications instead of individual ones. Please take a moment to read the below post, as I will list some important areas.

Absolutely, @Ohh Tommy Johnson. There was a difference in the first half; it's just how Barrow came flying out at us that made things difficult to begin with. Once we calmed down, defensively we were a lot better. I think Aidan Stone deserve a lot of credit for us taking a point, they could have easily scored more than one with the chances they had - despite the better defending. Aden Baldwin I thought was very good, @super_pie said he would have been his Man of the Match.

This is a great piece of our history caught on video. I also didn't know that we were one of the first clubs to have female fans present, it seems strange to hear that, but it does show how times were different.

I watched this earlier, and thought you did a very good job with it. It's slightly a shame that you were not in the KOP end. I would have liked to see if you had captured some of the incidents where Barrow's Luca Stephenson was attempting to obstruct Aidan Stone in our goal. As I mentioned, Barrow came out strong and determined. It impressed me, and naturally it takes Notts time to adjust to this. I think we are too used to playing a possession based game, that when teams are direct like Barrow it stuns us until we get the rhythm going. I would have liked to see us try to get through the centre of the pitch, instead of relying so much on the flanks, but I think Barrow would be happier about the result.

At least they didn't rob them of this right. I will look into the Twitter account you mentioned Robbie. I have seen YouTube videos where they talk about victims and their backgrounds, some including having found existing family members. I wished I remembered what the channel was called. I don't usually sub to channels but it's moments like this when you regret it.

@Ohh Tommy Johnson at the time it slowed down for me, it looked like they were very lucky to be in the right place - just as the ball came across. I don't think Aidan Stone could have done much about it. Defensively, I do think we should have been a bit more alert, but it was a good move by Barrow. If this was against Barrow, they would have had more structure to deal with the threat. We don't seem to get tight and organised at the back. We can't say it wasn't good play from Barrow, but it is one of those unfortunate things where we were simply caught off guard.

Our history is fascinating. I read about this in the late 90s. My grandad bought me a book from ASDA about the history of Notts. This was one of the snippets which I remember reading.

@TheSkipper has written a fantastic piece on Stuart Maynard which I will be publishing later. It's good to see the Football League paper doing a piece on Notts. I really enjoyed the National League paper, so I must try to support this.

My grandparents once lived 5 minutes from the ground. I wish I knew if @GrannyPie lived somewhere in that photo. Obviously beyond 1927, but it does always make me interested. It's probably one of the earliest pictures I have seen of our ground.

I can't stand the style of commentary, not even when it's comically applied to other things such as Tennis, Wrestling or Rugby. I may chuckle or laugh, but I really can't stand it. There's no value in screaming or shouting the obvious; it just becomes annoying.

It is haunting when you see the footage of how German soldiers separate families, what is worse is when you learn about Klaus Barbie and Reinhard Heydrich. I hate how their names live on for the crimes they committed, when little is known about those lives that were taken. It's such a saddening event in human history, and personally I find it hard to forgive such actions. Any germans involved in the war, I could never see as decent. I know someone will say to me, but they had no choice and that it would have been the same for them. Yet, they're all directly involved with the worst aspects of humanity and once they are gone. Maybe, then things can be settled. Yet, whilst some have managed to flee and live perfectly normal lives - my sentiments remain the same. I wished more was done to honour those taken by such horrific circumstances.

Oh, the joke of the first image would be lost on some of today's teens. @liampie I believe nobody owns it. I think it's internationally governed. If the land were to be able to be settled on, then a whole host of countries would be arguing over it.

I'm a bit disappointed as no matter what I do, the video just won't play for. I love the nostalgia of seeing Nottingham from way back; it reminds me of my grandparents and how things used to be far more relaxed. I was also interested to see the bicycle clip as the Twitter account shares some brilliant things with Ron.

I used to love the FA Cup as a kid, @super_ram would watch the weekend games show on TV and I would sit and watch them too. A lot of the games I remember were of Spurs or Arsenal. Every year, we would do this and then eagerly await the draw of the FA Cup. The magic of it has faded with me though; I no longer feel excited and the games I have tried to watch just make me feel uninterested. I tried watching the Fulham vs. Newcastle game, but I couldn't get into it. I mean Fulham looked bright until they were on goal, Newcastle also played okay, but I am just not excited about the Premier League. I would much prefer to watch a League One or Two game.

He's a good keeper but not someone I can see fitting into our style, I really hope Aidan Stone can prove himself because there's a good keeper there. He just needs confidence and better defending. As for Lucas Covolan he clearly rises to the occasion of big games, and has cemented his name with Maidstone.

Can anyone explain what the Pontins League actually was? I have never heard of it.

Some Swansea City fans I know believe Luke Wlliams has been appointed to take the heat off the owners/board. It reminds me of how Jamie Fulleraton was appointed here, yet Williams does have something promising about him - this most likely will end in a setback. I find that saddening. I wish Luke only well, he's been the best part of our last two seasons and those memories are things that we will always have. I hope their fans stick with him, as I am sure it will pay off in time but if they get onto the club and the board get itchy fingers, then it could end up being a negative move for him. Whatever happens, I believe Luke will come out stronger, but it does make you mindful about working in environments close to your heart or where you have been before. Very rarely does this work, I really hope Luke can turn Swansea's form around.

The thing is, if managers call out decisions they can face being fined for bringing the game into dispute. There's a very fine balance between what you can and can't say. The EFL and FA's treatment is very similar to what you would expect in North Korea. It's very, very heavily censored and therefore managers don't do it. Outspoken managers do, because they don't care about being fined, but a lot of lower tier managers bite their tongue. They will share their thoughts carefully, and then will say "that's all I can say about it." The incident caused by the foul on Jodi Jones by Luca Stephenson was a direct red card. Though I believe he should have been sent off before, being issued two yellow cards and then a red as he continuously interfered with free kicks and kicked the ball away. The amount of times he stood over the ball in an attempt to stop a quick free kick, this is something only this season which referees are meant to instantly card players for doing, and it includes kicking the ball away in an attempt to waste time. Luca made no effort to get the ball, he simply wanted to take out Jodi. It was a reckless challenge that wasn't borderline dangerous; it was dangerous. Fouls like that can seriously injure players. If it happened in the Premier League, he would be lucky to walk away with a yellow card. I hope Notts complains to the EFL so that Stephenson gets the punishment he deserves. If he tried to get the ball, I would be less insistent that he should be suspended. There was no effort but to stop Jodi at all costs. The foul after the incident should have seen a yellow card given, there was no need for the trip as the foul had been called and that was also intentional.

I disagree; I think the iFollow service is vastly underused. It could be an area where the club brought in some much-needed extra revenue. Notts are probably monetised on YouTube, but that's not much of a service. The iFollow service should be packaged with the extended highlights; anything beyond 9–10 minutes should be something fans should subscribe to via the service. The issue is, everything of value is available for free on YouTube. The club in my opinion should balance this more and produce things for the iFollow to give value to that, encouraging fans to pay a reasonable subscription fee. There are plenty of teams that take this feature of their OS seriously and make a reasonable amount of things which barely take much time to film and edit. Usually, I am against paywalls but once I used to subscribe to the iFollow service because I found the content to be worth it. I quickly became annoyed when the old media team left, and everything was being uploaded for free to YouTube. I have never done it since, but if the club refrained from this and produced quality content it would be far more beneficial than YouTube and Google's AdSense. They could even get fans on board to help, however, this would need to be open and not biased towards certain areas. As this type of behaviour is very discouraging for fans trying to make a difference, plus it shows a greater sense of a community of fans. The highlights are handled by the Football League's media now. I know when Jamie Dixon, Ralph and Dane were at the club, Ralph would ask fans if there was any footage they wanted to see. The thing is, the club controls the match streaming and has access to that footage; however, it takes a considerable amount of time to produce the highlights. The club probably can't release single clips of incidents, due to rules within the EFL. I don't think it would stop them from allowing members of the ifollow or whatever it's called these days to have access to the full match footage. Yet I do think clubs are mindful about the footage being leaked out to social media, which will always happen, including fan captured footage. Personally, I think it would be best for the club to do their own extended highlights which go beyond the 9–10 minutes because even this tends to be heavily diluted. Sometimes games where nothing happens can look far better, other times I can imagine it's difficult to even produce a 4-minute video of them. Thankfully, these days we are far more entertaining but I strong doubt the club would release any footage that would make people question the officials or incidents within the game - despite the fact that I would strongly support this because fans should be seeing the tackle to Jodi Jones via the official channels.

Barrow is a good team, but nothing special. I felt more disappointed by how much we relied on the flanks to open up play, for me, it was the centre which presented a great means of opening them up. We have great talents out wide with Jodi Jones and Aaron Nemane and on a different day, some of their crosses would have paid off. When I watched how Barrow were defending, I was crying out for us to exploit the game more through the middle. Scott Robertson played a pass to Macaulay Langstaff that had a little too much power and was extremely direct. It looked like we could open them up if we had played through the middle and our reliance on the wing just became predictable. Some of Jodi's crosses were very inviting, but Barrow knew to commit players into defensive areas. The majority wasn't even 50/50, more times than not it benefitted Barrow to clear the ball. Again, all it takes is for one of our players to connect, but to me, it didn't seem likely to happen at all. Macaulay Langstaff did very well at times even to manage to bring the ball down or get an attempt on it. There were some crosses which were very wasteful, but you have to accept this. We never played a style that would benefit Langstaff all that much. I know a lot of fans expressed disappointment in our performance, but Barrow stuck to their game plan to make it difficult. We either adapt to that or we hope that our quality will show. I also think we are lucky at times that Barrow didn't capitalise on mistakes, I thought Aidan Stone was very good. He looked calm and quick to react to threats, pulling off at least three key saves to deny them. Notts didn't have that much about our chances, we didn't ask enough or trouble the Barrow keeper. In possession, we were quite poor at times, easily losing the ball and misplacing passes. Some, like Robertson, grew into the game. Others like David McGoldrick and John Bostock didn't. Bostock wasn't in a position to be taken off due to his defensive cover, but McGoldrick should have gone off for Sam Austin instead of Robertson. In the centre we were very average, which presented the issue that we would be sloppy in our play. Had we brought the midfield more into the game and played through the middle, it may have benefitted them more. I thought Dan Crowley was class, sometimes I wished he would drop a little deeper and then go forward. He's very influential on the ball, but when he goes back, usually it's to pass and then reassume his position. I don't think we move all that much; Barrow impressed me for their desire to always try to make space. This urgency is lost with Notts; it's not a case of wasting energy but allowing it to open up play and to free someone else who will be able to use the space presented better. I hope Stuart Maynard sees this, as we are just way too relaxed. Performance wise, I don't think we were all that bad. Notts is simply in need of fresh ideas and more creativity in these types of games. Aden Baldwin showcased an extraordinary performance in defence, excelling in blocking and delivering crucial challenges. Crowley was exceptional with retaining the ball and holding it, so that it could release someone else. Langstaff played his usual way, trying to chase and make things happen - he just needs better play to work with. Stone was good, Kyle Cameron looked better defensively. To end, I felt disappointed in Barrow. They were very dirty and reckless at times; several of their players talked smack (tried saying silly things to provoke our players). Kian Spence should have seen red for his aggressive play, from grabbing Robertson around the throat and pushing him back. Luca Stephenson I am surprised to learn comes from Liverpool, he was one of the worst for speaking nonsense in an attempt to get into our players heads. A player who was very arrogant and kept trying to interfere with Stone during corner kicks should have seen a yellow card. You could argue, again with his attempts to delay and disrupt set pieces. You can't deny his foul on Jodi Jones didn't deserve to see red alone.

It probably helps to sell and keep the sport being talked about, not for good reasons, but drama does tend to get the most views and eyes onto a product.

I wonder if it's a loan with a view to buy? Forest Green seem to be wanting to build their squad. I don't see the point in them sending out a player that could benefit them, unless it's to give the lad confidence. He sounds like a decent talent but if it's just a loan, I really don't think we need him.

I am hoping to feel well enough to go to tomorrow's game. Right now I would go. I really want to get back to snapping the Faces of PON, but I won't rush. I won't say anything about Sunday, but I do hope that it involves family time. ----- Can I ask what is going on here? Have we transformed into a travel and holiday platform all of a sudden? Tony is corrupting people. @Fozzy What are you doing in Lanzaroti again? ???? I hope you are at least relaxing somewhere nice, shaded but able to keep an eye on Notts. @Ohh Tommy Johnson Michigan??? At least you know best and are on your way to San Sirrel for tomorrow's game.

Jürgen Klopp has single-handedly transformed Liverpool; he's by far their best manager in 30 years. Rafael Benítez did well with Liverpool, but he had a good squad and never managed to make them a threat in the league. Definitely not a legitimate champion of the Premier League. They experienced seasons that were squandered. Michael Owen should have been in a much closer title race with the squad they had, but never could be taken seriously. The thoughts of them winning the league back then is like think Tottenham Hotspur could win any English cup with the squad they have now. In the history of the Premier League, teams are facing a challenging era of lavish spending, a stark contrast to the limited resources that Klopp had to work with at Liverpool. Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah became stars thanks to how Klopp gave the squad belief. Salah would have been a much wasted talent without the spark and form he found under Klopps management. Liverpool are now a serious Premier League title candidate, this won't be the same unless Liverpool hire a good replacement and even then, I feel they'll start splashing more cash. Jürgen Klopp for me is a brilliant manager, that proves good coaches can come from average football careers. I doubt Pep Guardiola could win the league with Liverpool, for all his hype he needs to manage to teams that have money and already established world-class players.