Chris

I am going to miss DS as a display name. 🙃

It's my eldest daughter's birthday today, so right now Kate's parents are over to spend some time with her. I am trying to improve, and bug fix some of the applications I have made. The task manager has made important strides, and it's nice to have it there as a way to record issues that I noticed, and need to look into. Mark (former admin) has made @super_ram some meat balls and a cassole which I need to fetch before I hi-jack him to come round to ours. @Hi Humans ツ is looking forward to it, and it will be nice to see him. We are hoping to play some board games, maybe even a quiz of some sort. Much to-do but at least things are on the up, finally it seems, on a personal note I have changed my diet again and I am still finding things to be better. Hopefully, it continues but I have not heard anything about any future appointments yet.

I don't allow bags or luggage out of my sight and I always have my hand on them. It's easier said than done though, because it's easy to be distracted and being without your passport sounds quite a daunting task to deal with. I watch a lot of YouTube, from things like the Honest Tour Guide to other scam-related issues. It's good to know there are active people out there trying to do something but why don't the country authorities do better? It amazes me the level of pick pockets in countries like Spain, France, Netherlands etc. Oh and I know it happens in the United Kingdom too, many years ago someone tried to pick pocket me at Skegness and they walked off with a sprained hand. It's a shame people still target 'trust' because it just fuels the decay of it.

Every football team wants to be the best that it can be, but do we have the money to realistically be that? Start of the season Martin Paterson didn't even want to acknowledge promotion, especially during the poor start but now we are 4th with less than two hand fulls of games we are talking about League One? Whilst I wouldn't knock the ambition as I said, I do think there's one thing talking and another doing it. I still haven't had a chance to listen to it, so it might be a perfectly fine interview but I still think we need to reflect on where we are now.

I haven't had the chance to hear it yet, but I have seen reactions mixed from both Notts and other fans. Most of ours seem to be excited about it, however, if the quotes about us being the best team in League One and Two are true. Then, it just feels like CEO talk and the whole situation we had last season when Stuart Maynard was dismissed and "promotion" was branded. I love the ambition, Notts does play some great football at times but I think sometimes words don't always match the realistic possibilities. It just leads to short term thinking fans complaining at the slightest blip. When others comment, I will be interested in what they have to say and will find time later to listen.

I caught part of the game, but I have seen what I had missed and I think Rod McDonald improves us massively at the back. He gets my vote, but it wasn't easy at all. It was a very good performance, and anyone like Nick Tsaroulla, Jodi Jones, and most of the squad could easily be voted. We worked hard as a team against a weaker team and made them look bad.

I am pleased for the team, but more so for Jodi Jones and Conor Grant. I hope their goals give them a boost in confidence, because I thought the pre-match talk on BBC Radio Nottingham was a little negative. The opinion is fine, just trying to question the starting lineup and the amount of goals vs XI/subs. Great 4th goal! Jatta should have scored before, but he unselfishly becomes a provider for Tyrese Hall.

I forgot that we were playing against Accrington today. 🤦🏻‍♂️ It's a very important away game, where we must overlook the performance provided the result comes our way. I really disliked the amount of times someone told me when we played Chesterfield that Accrington would be "easy" etc. I wouldn't underestimate them, I don't think it would be wise. Keanan Bennetts might find himself a space in the starting lineup if he does well, he's got the skill to hold up play and it's just a question of finishing. Yet, we do make scoring quite easy with tap ins and what not. I am sure the lads will give a good account of themselves.

Yes, it's lovely outside from the looks of it. It's nice to see the bright light shining through my bedroom window. All the talk of MOTs has me thankful I don't drive; it's nightmare enough when electricals inside the home decide to pack in. It's never just one thing, but a whole host of appliances. Speaking of driving, @super_pie had his third lesson with @Drivingmenotts yesterday. It sounds like he's doing well! Today has been quite slow, though I have encountered a lot of strange issues with the resources I am building, and I am hoping, for the sake of my hair, that I have finally resolved these issues. I hope everyone is enjoying the nicer weather, fingers crossed @super_ram will start to feel the benefit of it.

@theAnticlough, it was good to see Rod McDonald back in the starting XI against Chesterfield, but I don't think Matty Platt supported Nick Tsaroulla. I would like to see this given more time, because it could work, but I do think we missed Lewis Macari, especially in the first half. I know he came on, but his impact could have been larger. There's still time for players to pick up and impress, such as Jodi Jones for example who hasn't been bad but just not consistent enough for me so far.

Nick Tsaroulla, Jacob Bedeau, and Tom Iorpenda are among my choices so far. I am going to think about it a little more, because sometimes the three that jump out, aren't always a fair reflection of the team and indidual peformances. I think if Rod McDonald had not got injured he would be up there, alongside Matt Palmer and Scott Robertson but they have had their involvement impacted.

I managed to sit down at my desk for around 6 hours, which is good. I think the fact my back is supported well, it did make a difference because for the times I had walked downstairs, my back felt less pain but it did come on later which forced me into retreating to laying down with my laptop. I did enjoy having two screens, at my desk because I made some real good progress coding wise. Tomorrow, I am going to try to do it again and get some content up. 🫰

We played better once Ollie Norburn was sent off; this needs to be addressed. I understand that it puts more focus on playing as a team, but if Norburn had remained on the pitch, we actually might have drawn or even won. The quality is there, but I think the departure of Will Jarvis makes us look a little less of a threat, even though we barely played him. The thing about Conor Grant is that he does so much work off the ball and on it, people stick to the "he doesn't score," which can be valid, but he's almost become the new scapegoat for easy criticism without any reflection on what he does bring to the team. Nobody always plays well, but he gives his effort, and those who were abusive towards him at Walsall (which I heard) need to reflect on players who didn't care about Notts, their performance, or the fans.

I went to Wilford Hill Cemetery yesterday with Cheeky. We got caught in the showers, but neither of us was all that bothered. It was actually peaceful and different; we've been when it's snowed like this before, so rain isn't something to stop us from spending time. Unfortunately, by the time we decided to head back, we had thousands of those across the river causing a traffic jam, so we walked to the Nottingham Knight in hope that would make a difference and got our Uber from there. Today, I am a little behind and I realise that I didn't find time to publish an alumni. The good news is I am sitting upright and in heaven thanks to the office/gaming chair my daughter gave me. My old one was good; it just never seemed to support my lower back, no matter how I sat or what I did to try to combat it. I have been on my PC for the most amount of time I have in ages, which shows how nicely this one supports my lower back.

You didn't have to justify your comment, Robbie. Your vote is your vote but for the conversation purpose I just wanted to add that he wasn't all that good in my opinion.

Tom Iorpenda deserves the Man of the Match, there's no question. I think only two other players could be considered, and even then I don't think combining their performances would match what Tom put into the game. He had that drive, passion and hard work you would want in a local derby game like Notts vs. Chesterfield. Unfortunately, only in glimpses and his performance especially in the second half was as frustrating as he seemed to be himself. Very poor for me, but I do feel we should have attacked more earlier in the game and in the second half with Jacob Bedeau and Jodi Jones as they do work well, but Rod McDonald seemed to be getting further up the pitch and to be honest him and Matthew Platt are preferred at least for me in their defensive duties.

There's two ways to look at the key decision, but ultimately the referee made the correct decision based on the written laws of the game. However, I will defend Ollie Norburn somewhat because Armando Dobra wasn't going to get up, he was trying to get the game delayed for him to put on his boot. I heard Norburn tell him to just get up, and Dobra was acting like he had his foot taken off him but knew full well Notts had emerged on the break. I felt at the time the referee hadn't seen it, I haven't watched the video back but I believe he became aware only once Notts had two players on the ground having been poorly fouled by Chesterfield players, and a handful of players complaining to him about what Norburn had done. You shouldn't touch other players boots, but I did laugh and so did many others who later moaned about it from the stands. Until that decision, Notts and Chesterfield looked quite evenly matched, and neither side looked all that much of a threat. It was quite end to end, with both teams being guilty of poor play at times. Chesterfield's scoring, defensively, was poor and I hold no blame to James Belshaw. Although I think he wasn't at his best and had quite a poor game, the two other goals I question his positioning and relex, as he dived slow for the second and looked almost like we had Kelle Roos back in goal. Matty Platt offered little support to Nick Tsaroulla, and this was always going to make it hard to break down the right side. This doesn't mean I don't think he defended okay, and I understand it was all about height and having ball winners in the back three places but ultimately in key stages Notts just were incredibly poor. Chesterfield should never have found it so easy to run through, and Dilan Markanday for Chesterfield was superb throughout his performance. He was by far, for me, Chesterfield's best player. Norburn's sending off forced us to try to play better as a team, and the goals Notts scored was a result of persistant but it's a shame we lacked that when it came to keeping Chesterfield at bay. It's fine, because they deserved the win and I won't pretend differently. It annoys me how we fail to grasp what works, when it's so clear as day, but then when we try to force things due to pressure to almost being route one. We have zero effort from Alassana Jatta to make any sort of run, or attempts to do anything. Matthew Dennis, who did try, but kept allowing his frustration to result in many half-arsed attempts to do anything. I wanted Martin Paterson to make the change so Dennis had support, but I wished we had overloaded the midfield and left Nick Tsaroulla on. Jodi Jones frustrated me with how he goes about himself at times, he gets the ball in a good area for a cross but decides to show to much of the ball, after trying to make a run into an area he really didn't need to be to make a cross. He loses the ball, then starts waddling around the pitch, at first almost making it seem like he had a niggle but his frustration grew, and when he went off it was clear even more. The team tried, did well in spells and credit has to be given to coming back but the praises can easily be out done with the negatives. That's the essence of football, especially in intense rivalry matches such as this one. Nothing which happened today will be held against any players in the next match, but if I were Paterson I would be telling them I expected better. There's no harm losing when you have 10 men on a pitch, and a referee who doesn't give you many fouls almost making Chesterfield seem to have 12. Yet even then, we just weren't good enough.

I am more nervous about this game than I felt leading into the Grimsby clash. Chesterfield are a team who usually always makes it difficult and for once I would just love to see us control the game routinely, execute a solid team performance and just focus on getting those vital 3 points. I don't expect it to be easy, nor do I think they will just let us play, but I am hoping to see quality from Notts. After the performance against Walsall, we need to show how much more confident we are home because it could signify more support in believing we can get promoted. There's absolutely everything in this to be taken seriously, and that the final out come could lead us one step closer to the finish we all are hoping for. I really want Matthew Dennis to keep his head, he's very quick to push and retaliate and I can see it being a big issue if Chesterfield notice just how frequently Dennis has been being aggressive. In the last three games he's given opposition players aggressive pushes, he did it against Tranmere, then against Grimsby (which I was suprised he wasn't sent off) and then against Walsall. Those silly types of offenses won't help us in this stage in the season, and being our main striker with Alasaana Jatta out (I hope he comes back for this game) we are still in danger. Even if Jatta was to come back for tomorrow, we still need to be careful not to get silly suspensions. Defensively, I am counting on Jacob Bedeau, Matt Platt and Lewis Macari to be at their best. I want to see them trying to block everything, and give James Belshaw less to worry about from distance. Ideally, no silly one-on-ones either.

Yesterday, I had a very good coding session at my dad's Kate made us cheese, ham and onion cobs, which I took and it was nice to see Super enjoy them. I absolutely love crispy onions paired with diced regular onions. I used to strongly dislike onions, but I do like them on burgers from time to time, which led to me trying them inside cobs. I had a blood test earlier in the week. My GP doesn't tend to take action but insists on further blood tests. It's like a loop, but as I came home. Kate told me that my results had come in online, and that they wanted to do yet another blood test. I have done physio for three years, the most consistent amount of support I have been given and in my last appointment with them they put a request in to send me for scans and to Rheumatology for further support in the pain I exprience (amongst other issues). My blood results were mostly normal, but there were some concerns with my liver and some other markers they checked. Result, requesting me to have another blood test. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I had a telephone appointment following up with the appointment I had previously with the GP, not the nurse and some small progress has been made. I explained that I didn't need to have another blood test, as their concerns were invalid as I hadn't eaten in 15 hours. I do this whenever I have blood taken, I also drink plenty of water so that the results give a real insight as to what is going on. The GP agreed, and said that they will put me in touch with the Rheumatology department but it could take months to be seen. I will have a general health check and a visit to the dietion, which I am happy with. I suspect more bloods will be taken but they will just show the same concerns because I know that it's important to fast before these types of appointments. Going back to spending time with Super, it was lovely and I hope to be able to go back soon. The plus was I didn't feel pain walking, aside from my back and feeling tired (sluggish). I do feel a lot better, but I am concerned that my health could be improved and good times like now can be few and far between. I accept the pain and other things, I just want to keep walking, I want to be able to spend quality time with my family without feeling forced to rest in bed just because I were active once or twice previously.

It's been a bit disappointing to be honest to see this season's attendance, I understand the start but when things picked up I do think the gates could have been better. I think it's partly the club's fault for increasing the pricing ahead of this campaign, paying what £24 on a match day just won't appeal to floating and casual football fans. I understand that it brings us in line with others, but I do think affordable football is the better business model. This is coming from someone who prefers gates around 8k, due to anxiety, but it is nice to see them higher. Meadow Lane deserves to be attracting good figures and I hope when we can reach League One, they are continuing to be at the higher end of 10k. The Championship might bring more, but for a club like us we need the revenue to fuel us despite the recruitment.

@Gloucester Pie, welcome to PON! I am very sorry I missed this. I hope 2026 has been a great start for you. I also hope you enjoy being part of our Notts community and check in when you want to contribute. We'll always make you feel welcome and at home. COYP!

I am good now, thanks Mr Tone. Quite the productive interuption if you asked me. Eagerly working on things again, so I will certainly be looking out for members to update this. What'cya all you doing?

It might be the step-up, and the fact he had reinvented himself as an EFL head coach. He clearly has something about himself; he's doing really well with York City. It would be shame if they were not to go up, but there are levels of pressure, and sometimes we put ourselves under it. It's possible, he just works better with more involvment in the recruitment process.

The YouTube channel dedicated to uploading old highlights, and news has done a fantastic job perserving some of our history, that is how I have been able to watch many of them over the years. Though, I was given several DVDs of old recorded TV full games which I watched. These were given to me by a fan who did a similar thing, but just for personal use as the Magpie Goals channel. I haven't spoken to the fan in years, everything about the KOP seems to have changed with our success on the pitch but one of the games was this tie. I can't say if it was fully extended or just highlights. I just remembered seeing it, I should try to find the dvds again.

I need to get back to promoting the OTDs, it was something PON first did that I had noticed Premier League teams doing and wondered why Notts never did. I probably have shared this one, I'll check tomorrow but fans don't like being reminded of defeats but some games I do feel are important historical. Therefore they should be shared, win, lose or draw. Obviously, I would have been just over a year old when this game took place, so no memories or recollections, but you know what, I love reading about fans memories no matter what the result.