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Doncaster are basically promoted now, they’ve got a 4 point gap over 4th place Walsall who now haven’t won in 12 matches! It’s extremely unlikely they will win their last 2. I actually hope their promotion is confirmed this weekend, it might give us more of a chance against them!

I am slightly worried that we have a bit issue when it comes to playing at home under Stuart... Overall in his 33 matches the results have been as follows; W13 D7 L13. Last season we only won 3 matches from 11 at home under Stuart. This season we’ve won 10 from 22, but 6 of these wins have been against the current bottom 7 in the league, we’ve then only managed 4 wins against the rest of the league! (1st-17th!). That’s not good and right now we are currently 20th in the home form table which measures the last 8 matches. For the majority of Notts fans, this is where we see the team play more often. I’ve always thought generally fans are more lenient if your home form is solid but away form is patchy, but for us under Stuart it’s been the other way round. So now it's starting to put him under a bit of pressure... Is it just me or do you think our home form is becoming a major issue?

Honestly I feel like I could write an essay on that match, there's so much to cover, but I'll spare you all! It is just incredibly disappointing and frustrating, Cheltenham in the first half were just time wasting but I don't feel we ever did enough to trouble them. We scored because they made a massive mistake. 100% credit to Jatta for be alive and sharp, but we didn't create a clear-cut chance until Bedeau headed against the post late in the second half. And that was from a set-piece, like most our chances, in open play for all the ball we didn't threaten them enough. Even when they pushed forward and left a lot of space at the back we had no idea how to exploit it. I think some extra subs and earlier wouldn't have gone a miss either, by the 60th minute they had 4 fresh pairs of legs on the pitch but we failed to react. I don't know why our central midfielders are un-sub-able. It's a key area of the pitch, but we never change it. I think Palmer and Abbott are great but they had both just played 90 minutes against Bradford, they were tiring, surely Hinchy/Edwards would've been better?!

Well now that Bass is back this must go down as one of the most pointless signings ever. I can't believe we signed him just in-case Slocombe got injured, the chances of that happening were so slim but even if did happen we could’ve then loaned in an emergency keeper... I feel like we’ve just wasted money and Tyler’s time here…

So with just the two matches remaining now we have made this a lot harder than it should’ve been! Crewe are all but done, they could still make the play-offs but it’s extremely unlikely. Chesterfield can only get to 70, but they have favourable fixtures in Morecambe and Accrington. Salford play Colchester next and Grimsby are away at MK... We simply have to win against Harrogate because Doncaster at home will not be easy. If we scrape over the line, it’s going to be quite possibly the most bizarre play-offs for a while as no-one will be in good form or have much confidence they can win them.

I think we can finally put our automatic dreams to bed now. From those 16 matches that were initially posted we've picked up just 16 points (with 2 still to play) and we’ve only won 2 of our last 8, it’s quite amazing it’s remained a possibility for so long but it was always looking less and less likely...

Hull City 1-0 Preston North End Millwall 1-1 Norwich City Lincoln City 2-1 Bolton Wanderers Wigan Athletic 3-1 Rotherham United Accrington Stanley 1-1 Carlisle United Chesterfield 0-2 Bradford City Eastleigh 1-0 Yeovil Town Wealdstone 1-1 Maidenhead United

I’m half wondering whether Didzy from the bench might help both him and us. Give him the last 35 minutes against a tiring Cheltenham defence? I’d also be tempted to give Jatta a break too, I feel Traore might actually do better if he starts and plays upfront. Controversial but I’d start Jarvis over Jodi right now, I’m still not convinced playing at wing-back suits him but I really like him when he’s on the ball and going forward. I guess if the team is released on Monday and Jatta, Didzy & Jodi aren’t in it everyone will be panicking! My guess is that none of my thoughts will happen though, maybe just one/two changes from Thursday. Whatever the team I just hope we go for it a bit more from the off. We need to get out this rut of poor home form, I really don’t like these non-event first halves we have succumb to at the minute. When was the last time we scored a goal in the first half at home? Feels like it was months ago…

Considering we’ve only won 3 games since March it's nuts that we could still possibly finish in the top 3! I'm still looking the other way so I’m just glad that none of the play-off chasers won. Today’s results were almost perfect for us.

I think I'd have Abbott, Didzy and Bedeau as my top 3. Not much between them, except one did something extraordinary

Not going to lie I had pretty low expectations for the match so I was pleasantly surprised at how well we performed in the end. I think a draw was a fair result, neither team was really able to open up the other team’s defence but there was no lack of effort or endeavour from anyone. I think we looked slightly more assured at the back then them, midfield was solid but the attack just lacked a touch of cutting edge at times. Jatta has looked like a different player these past few games though, he’s seemingly lost all his physicality and balance. Have we just exhausted him or did someone switch places with him when he was on international duty with Gambia? Need to win at home on Monday now, otherwise that point will have been in vein.

George Abbott is up against Nathan Lowe and Bobby Pointon of Bradford... I'd make him the favourite, I think Nathan Lowe only having played 22 matches in League 2 is a bit unfair against the other two. In terms of Player of the Season for League 2 Cheek, Molyneux and Lowe (again) are the candidates. I am slightly surprised Didzy didn't get a nomination. No idea why only 3 players have been nominated in these categories, almost makes it look like there's no-one in League 2 worthy, especially when one of the candidates only played in the League for half the season!

Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Millwall Coventry City 2-1 West Bromwich Albion Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Wycombe Wanderers Stevenage 1-0 Blackpool AFC Wimbledon 2-0 Chesterfield Fleetwood Town 3-2 Barrow Altrincham 1-3 Rochdale Boston United 2-0 Wealdstone

@Chris No, you are not the only one who didn't recognise him. I actually assumed that article was bad journalism as the picture appeared to show a man in his late 50s! I genuinely couldn’t believe it until I googled Matt Hamshaw - he's only 43! He's younger than Stuart Maynard!

I think @ARLukomski should be docked points for doing so badly considering he posted his predictions during the second halves!

Just to add a bit of more info about why the price of chocolate has increased, I recently finished working for a chocolate processing company last year and there’s been a big downturn in cacao bean production since 2023 from West Africa, which is the largest producer by far. They’ve been badly affected due to the change in rain patterns (they’ve had none basically) and increase in temperature. Then they’ve had issues with diseases spreading amongst the remaining crops, sometimes to the extent that the ground can’t be re-used for next seasons crops. That’s why the price has risen drastically and sadly it’s not going to be any better in 2025… No idea if it’s a short-term issue, but cacao trees are really tricky to grow to regardless as they need a lot of attention and very specific moisture levels. I’d say in 10 years or so I’d fully expect a non-cacao chocolate to be widely available. From what I can recall there’s a company in Germany doing this right now and I know companies in the UK are trailing similar methods too.

We've signed some new and current academy players to scholarship deals for next season. https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2025/april/14/update--youth-players/ And it's as if they've read my previous comments, cos they've even added little bios for each player! A really insightful touch. Great to see Kameron signed up, the club clearly have high hopes for him. I think that evening out in Burton where he and the other youth players made their debuts is something the club needs to continue to do. I’d be 100% for using the trophy as a way of giving our young players an introduction to first-team football. And Luca Fletcher is the son of Darren Fletcher the sports commentator who used to be involved at Notts a few years ago. Luca used to be at Forest and is a very good footballer too from what I’ve heard.

Reasons to be optimistic: Notts under Stuart Maynard have two 3-0 wins over Bradford. Richard Smallwood, their captain, is suspended. We are seemingly better away from home. Reasons to be pessimistic: Bradford have the best home form in the division, they’ve only failed to win 5 times (D3 L2) at Valley Parade. From the current top 10 we have only beaten Grimsby away from home. Our current form against anyone decent is bad. I do think we need a win to make up for the back-to-back losses, but it’s a tough game so I'd take a point (assuming we can then win on Easter Monday). I don't think they'll be massive changes to the first 11 but I do wonder if Jodi will start this one, he looked well of the pace against Salford though.

Carlisle are owned by a very wealthy American family too they have assembled (badly) a massive squad. Salford having the 23rd worst attendance with an average of 2,800 fans each match but the 4th biggest payroll means it’s a very expensive vanity project for the Class of 92! I'm probably bitter after the two losses against them but I really don't want them to finish in the play-offs! If anything, that table shows spending big isn’t really working, only Bradford are really bucking that trend. The rest of the top 7 all have a lower-table budget.

I agree, I guess when you want both teams to lose a draw is the best outcome! If one team was to win I’d rather it be Doncaster though, I don’t want a queue of teams lining up to finish in the play-offs.

I also wrongly assumed he would just go straight into the team once he'd signed. The fact Bass is now being assessed on a day-by-day basis makes it seem even more strange... I don't think we're going to get to see him play!

Even having slept on it it's an almost impossible decision to make, I think if you asked the players last night they would agree that no-one was worthy. @Piethagoram I also thought Didzy had a poor performance last night by his standards, I agree he did far too much chasing back to make up for his overplaying/poor passing. Yes he scored but he was basically on the goal-line for his goal, it was a great header back across from Macari.

I do find the fact we haven't added to the coaching staff pretty baffling. 2 people are doing the job of what was previously 4. I can't find anything to say that Roberto Gagliardi has left his role at Goztepe Spor, where he was/is their head of recruitment. My guess would be this is why he starts May 1st. I don't think the January transfer window was that bad overall. Ok Whitaker is no Crowley but he's better than Grant and Edwards. Jarvis is looking more promising though, agree he is a tad lightweight still but he needs to spend more time in the opposition half than his own, his best qualities are his offensive ones!

Cardiff City 2-1 Stoke City Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 Oxford United Barnsley 1-1 Bolton Wanderers Bristol Rovers 2-1 Exeter City Accrington Stanley 1-0 Tranmere Rovers Morecambe 1-1 Carlisle United Dagenham & Redbridge 1-2 Hartlepool United Tamworth 2-0 Braintree Town

I would sadly say we now have to add Salford to our mini-league as we’ve just boosted their chances again. Crewe lost yesterday but Grimsby could go level on points with us and Colchester just the three behind so we are relying on some other teams to do us a favour tomorrow. A tough away game at Bradford for us next too, my confidence levels have been dented...