menzinho

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.

Yes, he was good for them. Also, Tovide always looks decent when he plays against us, he's not really a goal-scorer just more of a battering ram but he causes problems and brings his team mates into play.

Disappointing result but the well organised good teams in this league always are our biggest challenge. That said I wouldn’t start panicking too much yet and I certainly don’t think we need to rip everything up and start again. I thought we created more chances yesterday than we did against Harrogate and at 1-1 we looked more likely to score. But we didn't and after that we looked like the confidence had gone from us. Even breaking it down, their first goal is incredibly lucky it could’ve deflected anywhere, if that had been us the ball would’ve gone to an opposition player! 3rd goal didn’t really matter in the end but that shot should not have gone in. Interesting idea about changing tactics, I don’t think we’ve got the right players to suddenly start sitting back deep and relying on defensive stability and winning matches by the odd goal. I wouldn’t want us to have suddenly defend 10-15 set-pieces every match, it’s bad enough having to defend 5 or 6 at the minute! I just think we need to really focus on breaking teams down and playing quicker and braver, that can be fixed with training sessions alongside a bit of creative thinking from our coaches.

This is to avoid back to back 0 points... Derby County 1-2 Watford Ipswich Town 3-1 Wrexham Bolton Wanderers 2-0 Bradford City Mansfield Town 1-1 Huddersfield Town Crawley Town 2-1 Accrington Stanley 🃏 Crewe Alexandra 1-0 Chesterfield Eastleigh 2-2 Hartlepool United Morecambe 3-2 Yeovil Town

I hope they can both force their way into their starting line up and do well. Edit - Turns out Kettering aren’t in the National League North, their google profile says they are but it’s wrong, they are one level below in Southern Prem. Bit of shame, the standard is lower but I guess the trade off will be that they should be guaranteed more minutes.

Elliott Hewitt, doesn't feel like he played 135 league matches for us but he did!

I agree with @Robbie 's comments above about how Colchester will approach this. I think they are going to press hard for the first 20 minutes with the aim of going 1-0 up. Then I'd imagine they'll sit deep and just play to counter. If they go into half-time 1-0 up, get prepared for a master-class in time wasting. I thought Harrogate were pretty sporting considering they had no subs, a team managed by the Cowleys will go through every trick in the book. I think in the big matches it's important that we get the first goal, then that puts the pressure on the away side, they can't just sit back and that will open up more spaces for us to attack too.

It does feel like we are lacking when it comes to right footed wingbacks, as of now Jones, Tsaroulla and Bennetts are probably our top 3 players in these positions and they are all left-footed. He came on as a sub with about 5 minutes to go in the Crewe match and decided to try and dribble past a Crewe player (as the last defender) on the edge of our box, he lost the ball but we just about won it back and cleared it. It wasn't a great cameo that's for sure and this was his last time he played (over 2 months ago now we've seen him). I've not heard anything but it's strange he hasn't been part of the squad for a while now, he didn't even make the squad for the Man United Academy Trophy match.

Hard one to call, the defence wasn’t really that tested, they were so high up the pitch second half you would’ve mistaken them for midfielders. And then attack wise we struggled to break them down even though we were camped in their final third for the last 30 minutes of the match. The subs did make a difference, Palmer did what he does, he even had a shot that went just over (he's going to score this season, I can feel it). Jarvis won us the penalty he looked a tad lacking in confidence in times and he's not played regularly either but it was the right match and time for him for come on.

Such a weird match, first half we just looked off the pace everything was a tad too slow and we struggled to really get into Harrogate and put them under too much pressure. That said we still created the best chance and their goal was a bit out of nowhere as Grant slides in and ends up playing their forward in on goal. Second half was just all us, we must have had about 90% possession. Harrogate were done by about the 60th minute or so and we just lacked that bit of bravery or magic. We were regularly at the edge of their box but the final ball wasn’t great and Harrogate were just so deep by the end there wasn’t much space for anyone in and around the box to even get a shot off. I was unsure about the penalty when it was awarded, and having watched it back I'm still not sure. The Harrogate defender puts his hand in the back of Jarvis but it didn't look like it was with much force, if anything him then falling over causes the Harrogate player to go over and that makes it look worse. l I think the pressure got to the ref, there were a couple of shouts for pens (all which I think he got correct) and he didn’t give them. Fair play to Harrogate, they’ll be gutted after that. I think their defensive resilience merits a point but my word how did the ball just not fall to us at all, not one deflection or anything went our way. It feels like had that been us playing so deep for 30 minutes we’d have conceded a couple.

Burton Albion 1-2 Blackpool 🃏 Luton Town 2-0 Rotherham United Accrington Stanley 1-1 Bristol Rovers Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet Grimsby Town 3-1 Chesterfield Braintree Town 1-1 Truro City Hartlepool United 1-0 Wealdstone Woking 2-1 Boston United

Great news to start the weekend, he's been really good since returning to the side. It's great to actually be in a position now where we are renewing contracts before the end of the season too, means we definitely won't lose him on a free as I'm pretty sure League 1 sides would've been interested in him. I wonder if we in talks with any other players whose contract is up at the end of the season? 🤔 Tsaroulla and Platt will be out of contract next year...

Yeah, the he calls for his return have quietened down now he hasn’t scored a goal or provided an assist in the League since August… If we had an unlimited budget I’d say yes, but I just can’t see how we can justify paying his wages (he’s probably on even more than he was at Notts now) knowing he can’t play every 90 minutes anymore. There’s also an argument that due to how we press more and play more direct he might also be less effective now.

I’m going to go for the obvious one; Rod McDonald. Probably the best small fee signing for years. This is tricky, genuinely can’t think of many players here. The only other I can think of (here’s a little clue for someone who is maybe scratching their head) currently plays in League One…