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That would probably stop it, means it’ll never happen then! I don’t like it but we are no angels here at the moment. Roos has needed treatment (almost certainly under instruction) at Bristol, against MK and then Grimsby.

Always seemed like a great character even though he never really broke into our first 11, it's always good to see ex-players doing well.

A very good in depth read as usual, lot's of players I'm not too familiar with, especially in the Irish Leagues but I love seeing all the stats and how they compare. In terms of the keepers I’ve no idea why Finlay Herrick’s loan got cut short, maybe to get him playing at a higher level but I’d be happy to see him at Meadow Lane. I like the sound of Harry Tryer too, I think having just played 38 matches in League 1 it shows he’s got something about him. And being out of contract too he’s probably the only keeper we could realistically sign permanently. I’d be keeping on eye on Braybrooke (the midfielder on loan at Newport) some good similarities to Matt Palmer when it comes to comparing his stats. In terms of a dream number 6, Max Sanders from Crewe, he’s out of contract in the summer but give how well he’s doing this season I think we’d need to go up to make that one happen. I think the attacking midfield position will be key, we've not heard much about Luker's recovery but given he required surgery it's clearly long-term. I don't know if we've filled our overseas quota and if we haven't I wouldn't be surprised if we looked even further than just the UK and Ireland for this position. I'd be more than happy adding someone like Matt Rush from the National League upfront. There's also a player in the National League North called Ricardo Rees who's out scoring Langstaff's numbers at that level at the moment, with 24 goals in 22 matches. Hardly a hidden gem with figures like that but you never know how these players would cope with the step up. For example Jaze Kabia who now plays for Grimsby played in the National League South for Truro last season, he only scored 16 goals in 44 matches but he's coped with the step up quite well scoring 5 goals in the league and 5 goals in both cup competitions already.

I think it's between Norburn and Iorpenda for me too. The back 3 all defended very well and didn't actually have to do much box defending at all, they spent most their time on the half-way line! And Dennis looked the tidiest on the ball in terms of an attacking threat through the middle. I love the way Iorpenda picks up the ball and looks to drive us forward, and he was up and down the pitch all match. Norburn had his best match and he didn't pick a yellow card either! He was the linch-pin in midfield for us today, won his battles and was great on the ball too so he just shades it for me.

I think today it showed we need a bit of spark in the No.10 role, Luker and Hall coming on with 30 to go would’ve been ideal. The fact Traore remained on the bench, even when we needed a goal was telling, this situation needs addressing in January. Overall very solid though, we completely dominated the team top of the league all that was missing was a goal. I was also surprised that Bennetts was taken off so early. Ok he made that one awful pass which gave Walsall their only chance but he actually had the beating of Barrett, Jodi’s crosses were better but I don’t think he got past Barrett once. He hasn’t played for a while though, I suspect it’ll take a couple of matches before he starts to look his best again. I was glad we didn’t suffer a smash and grab by the end because that would’ve been totally undeserved. A lot of talk about that performance by Walsall being anti-football, if that’s how they want to play we can’t change it. They were organised and got exactly what they came for but their unwillingness to push forward didn’t make for a great match.

I get the idea, but I don't think he can actually be involved, at least not right away. This is from the club back in September: Clubs are required to confirm a maximum of 22 outfield players aged 21 or over who are eligible to play in League Two until January 2026. Jack Hinchy is the only senior player omitted, with the club currently seeking a loan move to support his development. I think that means we can't re-register him until January 1st 2026.

Yeah Iorpenda for me, he was everywhere in this match always pressing and wanting to get us moving forward, well deserved goal at the end.

I agree about the midfield, even though Iorpenda had one his best games I thought he had too much license to roam at times, he was popping up out wide on a number of occasions. Norburn filled in as the "6" pretty well, he’s not as good as Palmer at receiving and then passing the ball under-pressure in the middle but he played some lovely weighted forward balls at times. You can't fault the character or work rate of any of the players and that's always a necessity if you want to do well at any level. I just think second half we needed to be a touch more as we gave MK the ball back too often. And that wasn't from sloppy passing but more from going long too early. I'm all for clearing the ball when under pressure but at times we did just punt it with no real aim and Jatta was chasing a lot of lost causes. At one point Dennis was annoyed at Platt as he'd dropped back to help us try and play out but he just launched the ball out of play. It can be worked on and I'm sure it will be.

He’s certainly landed on his feet by ending up at York as he got himself one of the best clubs outside of the Football League. They were unlucky not to get promoted last season, their current squad is full of quality players for the level one them being the player of the month award winner Ollie Pearce. He's the best striker in that league and having scored 16 in 21 he could get close to Macca’s record!

I think we actually beat them twice last season, I can remember the 2-0 away Boxing day win and then as above the home win in which the crowd was the most vocal all season. Our overall record against MK prior to our return to the EFL was shocking though, 1 win in 16 matches... In a way I'm hoping Crowley will start for them because it'll get the fans going and create a lively atmosphere again. I think it'll be close, a draw wouldn't be a bad result as they are a much better team than the side we faced last season. They have players like Aaron Collins, Mendez-Laing and Callum Paterson who are far better than League 2 level and only dropped in for the money. As for us I know Jones and McDonald are fit again but I'd expect them to be on the bench, I think we are all just intrigued to see who comes in for Hall.

Leyton Orient 1-1 Luton Town Lincoln City 2-1 Barnsley Northampton Town 1-2 Huddersfield Town Stevenage 1-2 Cardiff City Barrow 1-0 Tranmere Rovers 🃏 Cambridge United 2-1 Chesterfield Fleetwood Town 2-2 Salford City Harrogate Town 1-1 Accrington Stanley

I imagine Dan Crowley's recent injury was a strained neck from watching the ball fly over his head constantly. He just does not fit with Paul Warne's style at all. I'll go for anther more obvious one too, Aaron Collins. I'm still annoyed we didn't try and sign him after he was released from Wolves, it was such an easy and obvious signing!

Yeah, I turned it on saw Robbie Williams on the stage singing and turned it off. I agree about that peace prize thing it was just laughable, what subject that they have nothing to do with are they going to branch into next the FIFA Food Awards? It was the most unnecessary event ever, 99.9% of real football fans just wanted to watch the actual draw take place, no singing, no dancing, no celebs and for it to have been done in about 20 minutes. Anyway as for the actual draw I think it’s about as good as you get. Pot 2, Australia and Iran aside, had a number of very good teams but Croatia are one of the strongest teams in that section, they are still reliant on their older players but they beat France in the Nations League this year. Panama are ranked 30 in the world right now, no idea how that happened but they are not the 30th best team in the world and I can’t say I know much about Ghana, they didn’t qualify for AFCON though so they clearly aren’t that strong a side. Croatia is the only real tough match for me, if we can't beat Ghana or Panama than frankly we don't deserve to get out the group!

Given how it’s all panned out I feel so close to just admitting defeat with Jarvis. I can’t see him ever being a regular in the side and that’s not because he’s not talented but he’s a winger or an inside forward and we don’t play with either of these. I’d actually like to know what the plan was when he signed because it can't have been to get subbed on against poor teams when we need a goal. And I'm not sure if he'd be as good out as he is out wide through the middle. You have to be quicker on the ball and more aware of your surroundings. He’ll be up against the centre-backs and I think they could bully him. His biggest skill is his dribbling but it’s so condensed in the middle of the pitch it won’t be as effective. JJ is a similar player and played a few matches through the middle at the start of the season but he looked awkward here. Iorpenda like Grant lacks the goal threat, but I think it’ll be him or Dennis against MK. Like you say it could depend on the formation we choose, either way I’d bring Dennis into the side.

Just to bring the boring technicalities into our fun fantasy window 🤓😅 we can register a maximum of 22 players, but that doesn't include goalkeepers or any players under 21. Right now, we have 19 players registered, as Hinchy was left out. Even with the 3 free spaces we’ve got a pretty big squad (thanks to most our loan players being under 21). I think we’d need players to leave as well and I agree with @Piethagoram that Cotter and Ajofree going back would make sense. I don't think we need tons of movement, assuming Palmer's injury isn't too bad I think my main priority would be a top attacking midfielder but I agree this could be challenging in January. I don't think we need any more wingbacks and we only play 1 striker so another would mean we'd have 4 of them. We need to make a decision on Mai Traore though because at the minute we act like we’ve only got 2 strikers, we either have to start using him or replace him. I’ve no idea why it's not worked so far, he’s played over 50 matches in the top division in Norway so he’s clearly got something about him, is it just confidence?

Oh wow, yeah a quick google search tells you that it probably is Jaiden Campbell-Ryce, the son of Jamal. He was at Forest Academy’s and then Doncaster’s. Also Darren Fletcher the commentator, his son signed for the academy this year so that’s him in the side from the Wrexham match too. I know there’s probably a bit to do with safe-guarding in terms of posting tons of content about under 18’s, but at the same time other clubs do provide updates so it clearly can be done. It would be nice to know a bit more and report on the potential next generation of Notts players.

Yes, he was very lively and made lots of good forward runs for them. I’d say sign him up but when you look at his career for an attacker he doesn’t tend to score many goals (I guess you could say that about all the Bristol forwards though!) I thought Tom Lockyer was good at the back for them too, he was one step ahead of Jatta for most of it. Now that we’ve won considering what he went through I can say it was good to see him back playing!

To be fair, the appointment of Dr Rhodes was head of performance and it was to help to reduce injuries by tracking players more closely and probably introducing methods that can help put less strain on them. But he wasn't magic and you'll never stop getting injuries it was more about trying to help reduce them. As for Palmer I don't need to state the obvious, I'm just holding onto the fact it's all pretty vague, it could be a few weeks or it could be months... Paterson also said he needs some rest and that it's unfair to keep playing him with respect to the injury too, that makes it sound less bad.

Yeah, I think the main candidates will be the back line and Roos. Shout out for Grant and Bennetts who I thought worked really hard when we did go down to 10. Platt just shades it for me, he came back into the side and didn't really put a foot wrong in the middle of that defence.

That match is the epitome of why football makes absolutely no sense and we are even more foolish for getting sucked in by it… But when you come out on the right side of the result it makes it worth it, those scenes at the end were magical! Having seen the Hall tackle back, I’m still not sure it was a red. It wasn’t a good tackle but after the ref pulls out the red the Bristol player jumps back up onto his feet like it was a job well done by him. Full credit to the boys for getting 3 points out of that, once we went down to 10 with so much of the match remaining I was almost expecting the worst and I’ve have taken a 0-0, 100%! Maybe we can sit back play two banks of four, attack a couple of times and win every match... 😉 Also, anyone know how luck works, have we emptied our season’s worth in that match?

Millwall 1-2 Southampton West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Swansea City Burton Albion 0-2 Leyton Orient Huddersfield Town 2-0 AFC Wimbledon Chesterfield 1-1 Swindon Town Walsall 1-0 Bromley Forest Green Rovers 3-1 Southend United 🃏 Yeovil Town 1-0 Boston United

I liked him when he played for Notts and I can remember being disappointed when he signed for Chesterfield over us. Pretty sure his arrival on loan was the first time we properly switched to a back 3 and wing-backs too, I can't remember Notts ever playing a back 3 and wing-backs as their main formation in my time supporting us (that goes back to about the mid/late 2000s). Was he our first ever left-wingback?

I never like playing teams that are on dreadful losing runs, like Bristol are on right now, because it always feels like their luck usually turns when they face us. They are going to get a draw or win in the league at some point even though they are currently on a 7 match losing run. And I'd imagine Bristol are desperate by now and will be changing things up more to try and get a good result. That said, I’m hopeful they won’t end their run against us and in a way I think the result against Colchester might actually help us because when we’ve needed a result/response this season we’ve got it. I’m thinking beating Shrewsbury at home after the last-minute Barrow defeat, beating Crawley after losing 1-0 and playing badly at Gillingham and then most recently the performance and win at Cheltenham after Brackley. These are all good signs for me. No idea if Martin will make changes, maybe one or two but regardless I think the team will be going to Bristol to right the wrongs from last weekend.

Colchester seem to very good at playing the better teams away from home, they haven't lost to anyone inside the top 10. However Shrewsbury aside, they haven't beaten anyone outside the top 10 away and they've only won 2 matches at home this season... So they've got problems too, they certainly aren't the blueprint to an amazing League 2 team in my eyes. I'm not overly worried because we weren't outplayed, it was more individual errors that cost us but I agree we do have issue when it comes to playing the well organised teams in this division, Martin alluded to it in his post match interview, when he spoke about us being hesitant in the final third and slowing it down to much, which is something I agree on. I think in the final third we still need to be braver, try quicker one touch passing at times and look to get the ball in behind defences more. We play too safe at times, it's like giving the ball away is worse than trying something that goes out for a goal kick... But we tend to almost overly keep the ball in the hope that a space is going to open up and against well organised sides it never does.

I think the issue could be more how the safe passing patterns are still ingrained in a lot of our players, like you said the majority of that team played last season. I've not been overly concerned with our physicality this season we stood up to the barrage from Barnet and competed really well against Bromley early this season at home and they are about as physical as you get in this league, so we can do it.