Super_Danny_Allsopp

The amount of Covid in the national league (in football in general actually) seems pretty damn high. They must be close to achieving herd-immunity soon?! Notts certainly have or are pretty close to it!

That is as non league as it comes. Abolsute dire game devoid of any quality from either side. First touches are awful, can't pass to our own players and so many mistakes. Turner started so nervy and calamitous, could've easily given them a goal. Rawlinson not much better. Up front Wotton has the touch of a rapist, Sam even worse. Even Rodrigues had a few bad touches. We're lucky that Woking have been as bad as us. Imorovement needed. COYP.

The game last night was just one of those games. We were dominant for the whole 90, played well and created lots of chances, but didn't finish any of them. Our finishing needs to improve, but as a setup and a performance, it was good. It's games like these where you miss a Dennis who will get you that one goal. Instead we brought on Knowles who didn't contribute anything of note. This is less concerning for me because although the result isn't great, the performance was solid. You play like that and you will win 9/10 games.

Me too. Thought he was probably our best player technically, but then again, looking at that teamsheet, it wasn't too difficult. Can't even remember McMahon!

Steve Thompson the manager still that year? That midfield is a strange one. Ian Ross - an anomaly and Jay Smith - technically there but so small and made of glass.

I see that Myles Weston, ex Notts, plays for the Daggers. I wonder if he is still the same player I remember.... a fast, direct winger more than capable of beating players at ease but couldn't cross to save his life. Still a useful player for us though, he's only 32 so surprised he is down at this level, but looking at Wikipedia he has been here a while.

I see little reason to change a successful line-up.

The bottom line though is 3 points, and today I'll have a smile on my face and will feel much happier than I did at 2-1, that's for sure! Thanks Ruben!

That was a terrible performance. It will surprise nobody that the same problems highlighted previously were all there again. Slow, boring build up that inevitably breaks down. The midfield 3 were woeful, even by recent standards. If you could have subbed all of them off, you would've. Doyle's build up play is so slow that somebodies dad who Chesterfield recruited to play up front and they called 'Denton' was picking his pocket. Embarrassing. Him and O'Brien cannot play together. O'Brien was atrocious, gave the ball away repeatedly and can't defend. Reeves was just as bad. That brings us to another problem previously highlighted: no central midfielder on the bench to bring on. Not one. We started fairly brightly. We created a bit, Roberts hit the post, Enzio curled one past the post that wasn't too far away and we looked like we could build it up. We got the goal and then..... we stopped. Stopped creating, stopped pressing, stopped everything. Our midfield was so deep they were on our centre backs toes. It was a matter of time before they scored, and score they did. Ardley needs to change the way this team are playing and the selection. As I said at HT, Chesterfield are the worst team I've seen this season. According to their commentators aswell, that was a good performance from them. Deary me. Any half decent side would've destroyed us today. As much as our tactics are **** and the football is rubbish, I couldn't bare to watch that hoofball to Tom Denton all season. To make it worse, his strike partner was even worse than Wootton. Their winger who I think normally plays RB, looked a good player and had the beating of our left hand side until Rodrigues came on and gave him something to beat. He's on-loan I think. How they let us score that 2nd, I will never know.

1-1. This is dire. No disrespect meant to Chesterfield, but they have to be the worst footballing side I've seen this season. As expected, we are making them look good and not punishing them. At the back they (Chesterfield) are all over the place, defense always about 4 foot away front our front men. Wootton again has been anonymous in the first half, any ball that goes up to him he has lost. If I were Ardley, I'd be looking at taking him off and bringing Sam on. Our midfield decided to drop right off, as if we're playing Juventus or something. We've tried a couple of times to self destruct again, Doyle both times I think, who is being overrun and we need fresh legs in that middle (we don't have any). Their right midfielder, Cropper, has Kelly-Evans' number and is beating him regularly. For the goal, DKE was daydreaming and miles off his man. Enzio was doing his usual prancing about. DKE is also on a yellow, so if Chicksen is fit, we should probably be seeing him sooner rather than later. If we lose this, against a Chesterfield side as poor as this one, I really do despair.

This is my line-up. Don't know the state of McCrory and perhaps harsh to drop Brindley, but he's the only one in that back line that has a decent replacement. Out-of-form Lacey and Rawlinson only starting because the two alternatives are terrible. Doyle is only starting because there isn't an alternative (unless this Wolfe loanee fella is any good). JOB is playing there because the alternative is Enzio. I would play Thomas there but it seems he is unwell. Sam was decent the other night and got his goal. Probably doesn't warrant another start, but there isn't any alternative to an out-of-form Wootton. This line-up again highlights the lack of quality in depth of our squad. Once you look at the amount of starters that are out-of-form, there's nobody to bring in to freshen it up. Crawford we let go, Booty is injured and we let go, I would even bring Mitch Rose in at this stage! We have no winger backup whatsoever. I would have picked Shields should we have made his move permanent.

I am not looking forward to this. Chesterfield are not a good side, unless they've changed drastically from last season (I doubt it, glancing at their signings), and their main tactic will be to lump it up to that lanky player up front. It is an utter dross tactic, but it will no doubt work against us as some of our players aren't up for the fight. Chesterfield to beat us 2-1.

We tried more than once to score for them. Lacey gave it a good go by passing to them under the slightest bit of pressure. Then Reeves had a go selling Slocombe short. Then Slocombe had a couple of goes by coming out and getting nowhere near it, allowing them to nip in. They missed some pretty gilt-edged chances to. Their finishing was as bad as Robert's, luckily for us. I think a lot of our players have the wrong mental attitude. Wootton seems to think that falling over all game was a good tactic, despite the ref never giving him anything at all. Why he persisted with that, god only knows. Thank the lord we had Sam up there, because otherwise nothing would have stuck. Lacey-Rawlinson went from a solid partnership to a mistake waiting to happen. They look less blood and thunder and more like they think they can coast through games. They can't. ******* shocking. As predicted, we have no backup for underperforming players. Who will we swap Lacey for? Cart-horse Turner or error prone Graham? Wootton is out of form and needs a kick up his backside. Enzio might as well be retired the way he glides about. Doyle needs a rest, but who is going to play instead of him? This game has reinforced what I said before it. Ticky tock, change it before this season gets away from us.

What a way to throw another game. Notts push the self-destruct button yet again! Good call it turned out. Should have been the winner. And that turning circle has come back to haunt us once again.

Big shout.

Despite being 20th, Halifax actually have the joint best defence in the league. They have struggled more on the scoring front. Combine that with our efforts away from home, it points to me that this game will be a long, boring 90 minutes of frustration and annoyance. I'd predict a 0-0, but then again we have a penchant for gifting teams 3 points from a corner or when thinking we are Barcelona in our own box, so it could easily be a 1-0 home win. My prediction: 0-0 bore draw. Attendance: 1, 862, 000 I desperately hope I'm wrong though, I've paid for the stream!! Starting Line-up: Back 4 fairly solid, protected by Reeves (legs) and Doyle (know how). If they are very direct, you'd be tempted to put a Ben Turner in there, but in my mind the play-off final is still too fresh, I have nightmares seeing his turning circle. Going forward, Doyle to play the neat passes left and right and Rodrigues to pick those forward passes we so often lack, plus given the freedom to roam and get in the box as he sees fit. Thomas to offer the direct threat, getting them turned, uses his pace and physicality. Roberts to get himself on the ball and beat his man. I think this is too attacking for what Neal Ardley usually puts out away from home. Obviously a lot of his team selection depends on fitness, what happened with covid etc... but I'd expect to see something more like this: 4-3-3 by name, but pretty much a 4-5-1. Time will tell! Good preview here: https://www.nottscountystats.com/post/preview-f-c-halifax-town-a

After our last two showings, I expect a very tough game here and I think we will lose. The line-up will remain largely as it is because we don't have any quality in depth. You can swap out either of the CBs for Rawlinson (if fit) or Ben Turner, or bring Cal Roberts back in for JOB (again if fit), but beyond that, it is what it is.

This is a prime example of a defeatist attitude. 'It's not that bad, we only lost by 1' (to another piss poor team). 'We're not a side that will win each week'.... which is exactly why we won't be getting promoted. The good sides will win (pretty much) every week. The mediocre sides will win every now and again.

An absolutely woeful performance from start to finish. Even accounting for the Covid stuff and lack of fitness etc... that's not why we lost the game today. We lost because of the instructions given to the players. Despite both sets of players (more so us) slipping all over the place, we continued to try and play more or less inside our own box with risky passing. Unsurprisingly, one of our players slipped and we gift them a goal and the 3 points. Our boring sideways passing achieved absolutely nothing. The midfield 3 looked like they'd never played a game together. Chasing the game, we take off our best player (Rodrigues) and bring on Enzio. How many times has that sub been made already this season, and how many times has it worked? Enzio looks shot. Rapidly loosing faith that our tactics will result in us being at the right end of the table come the end of the season. We've lost to Maidenhead, Aldershot and Dover so far. 3 really poor sides.

Did we deserve to win? Probably not. Did we deserve to lose against Dover? Probably not. Bit of nice karma coming our way me thinks. Sutton will feel aggrieved. Major positive is that we don't have to go down there again and play on that plastic pitch.

The nerves.

Really good insight, thanks a lot! Confirms my suspicions that the snake that is Guy Branston was running the calamitous signings that ultimately ended in Moniz's dismissal. He should have been given more time, especially as the Trew's, in all their wisdom, appointed Jamie Fullarton. After that we had Mark Cooper who kept us up but didn't endear himself to the fans one bit, then we had Sheridan. The real decline for me began when Moniz was sacked, the rot set in and is partially responsible for the league we currently play in.

Barclay a total calamity. 100% red card, no doubt about it. Could be a blessing in disguise as he's a pretty tonk defender. Would prefer Bird there. How we are still in this, I do not know. We should be well and truly done for, but somehow we've still got a chance. Do I think we can do it? No, but I live in hope.

Half-time, it's 1-1. CMS with a good first goal, then proceeds to allow them to score the equaliser by not tracking the man as he waltzes towards the box and releases a shot. Not sure how much Schofield could have seen it, but my first thoughts were he should have done better.

This will be the nail in the coffin that we won't come back from. Macclesfield to win meaning we are all but mathematically relegated.