menzinho

I’m probably in a very small minority of fans who share my opinion but I actually think our stadium is too big, or you could say equally it’s arranged badly. For the majority of the season, it’s basically a 3 stand stadium, so we never get that cauldron of noise or atmosphere like you do at smaller grounds when it’s close to a sell-out. We get a handful of teams that bring 1,500-2000 fans but the majority of the time the Jimmy Sirrel Stand is basically empty. Yesterday the turnout was impressive but it was more of a one-of, I think our average attendance has hovered around 10,000 (which is great) but it also means we’ve still got 7000/8000 empty seats most weeks.

He also won Kidderminster's Players Player of the Season award! This is from their official site: While all players relish and enjoy the adulation of supporters, there’s something to be said about having the respect of your peers. In that respect, massive kudos and congratulations go to Ryley Reynolds, who was voted by the Harriers squad as Players Player of the Season. What a fantastic second season in Red for Ryley. So much energy and heart from midfield, and 12 goals to boot! Congratulations to Ryley, and thank you so much for your contributions during your stay here.

I’m not sure Palmer was 100% hence why he didn’t start, maybe it was a bit of test to see how he was before the play-offs but I thought he looked like he wasn’t able to really run properly. I wonder if he's got a big of muscle irritation or something? Iorpenda claimed all the awards at the start of the match but then he went on to have a really average performance for his standards, I thought Norburn played a lot better then him. Jones was great first half, pretty much all our attacks came down that side, he was just knackered by about the 60th minute, which is a tad worrying. Still think he had the biggest influence so I went for him.

I was kind of relieved at the end when I saw Cambridge drew, had Crewe got a surprise goal I think we'd have gone into overdrive analysing if Bedeau was offside or not! I agree first half was really good, second half we didn't quite get to grips with Bristol's changes but I thought when we bought Robbo and Palmer on we regained that control. It just then all went a bit wild and disjointed for the last 20 as we tried to get the winning goal. I might be in the minority again here but I thought the ref was actually pretty good. Although I thought the yellow for Tsaroulla was harsh, it just looked like a coming together but not a dive. But all 3 of the penalty shouts (2 for us, 1 for them) were all really soft, I think he got them all right. Last time we played Chesterfield it was with 10 men for 75 minutes and we did pretty well on the whole, I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to the play-offs but I think if we perform like we can, we can get the better of Chesterfield over the two legs.

Just a marker on Bristol's winning run, they haven't played anyone in the top-half since the start of their run. The fixtures fell rather nicely, Fleetwood in 15th were their highest opponents so I'm half hoping they'll be suffering from a touch of overconfidence when they play us. Expecting Crewe, a team who have nothing to play for, to beat Cambridge is asking a lot. I think at worst Cambridge get a draw. I think Salford have enough quality to beat Crawley too, but that match has two sides with something to play for, it could go either way. Knowing us we’ll probably miss out on automatics by goal difference because that is the most excruciating way to miss out!

Milai Perott (the young goalkeeper) and Nick Tsaroulla are also out of contract (according to transfermarkt) and then we've got the option to sign Tangen. For me it'll depend on what League we are in next season, if we make it to League 1 I think we'd need a big summer of solid recruitment to make sure we don't come straight back down so I'd only really be looking to re-sign one or two, Tsaroulla being the main one, and probably Platt too. If we are in League 2, I think the overall team is solid, for me the focus would be on adding a couple of good attacking midfielders. So I'd keep McDonald and probably Norburn because I think he's proved, red cards aside, if he keeps his head he's a good option at this level. I'd try and get Luker because I think we haven't seen the best of him. Tangen was starting to look good before his injury, but I feel like I haven't seen enough of him to properly judge him though.

I was in two minds at the end of the match because on the one hand we kept a very slim chance of automatic promotion alive, but we’ve lost just as much with the injury sustained by Lewis. It looked bad and the reactions of the players told a story, he's clearly going to be out for a while, however long it takes I'm sure he'll back playing for us in the future.

I thought overall everyone played well, in terms of stand outs Iorpenda was everywhere as per usual and so good at bursting into space on the attack as well as pressing. I was impressed with Luker in the attacking midfield role, he’s actually able to hold opposition off and has the skill to turn away from them. If his shooting was a bit sharper he could’ve had a goal too. But I’ve gone for Bedeau. I thought did really well dealing with Tovide, who usually is a nightmare for us because he is incredibly strong and quick, but they had little threat down that side all match.

Well after the weekend result for us, if Cambridge win their game in hand tonight against Grimsby I'd say the dream of automatic is over. I'd still back Cambridge to finish 3rd, I think GD is always a good way at looking at how good a team is. There's is +31 and they've only conceded 31 goals up until now, the likeliness of them losing their last 3 matches is very slim.

Who’s Noris Counry? Why are there two dead flowers on top of a rugby ball? And what were they doing in 1942? AI has a long way to go yet… I’d say I’m probably not one of those fans, maybe that’s because even when we win I can come away from watching a match thinking we were lucky and I don’t have the same feeling of joy when we’ve been deserving of a win shall we say. I’m a kind of sun covered by cloud fan! I totally get why fans feel like this though, it’s an emotional sport for us, we are all desperate to see Notts do well and it pains us when they don’t.

Manager of the Season is no surprise and I'm not saying Drinan hasn’t had a good season but just giving the top scorer the Player of the Season is a bit predictable. It seems to be the given in this league I’m almost certain Cheek won it last year. Can you bet on this? Cos whoever is top scorer next season, congrats! First time we’ve not had a player in the team of the season since we’ve returned to the EFL, can’t really say anyone was super deserving either… Which in a way makes it even more impressive that we are still very close to the magical top 3 spot. I think we need to give the ol’ radar recruitment machine a good whack and reset over the summer!

I’m not sure how much form counts in the play-offs. Take last season, Chesterfield were the in-form team whereas Walsall since January had been struggling, yet they won 4-1 overall and were than a tad unlucky to lose in the final. We have been a bit better this season against the stronger teams in the division overall and on our good days we can compete with the best teams in the division. For me we should almost go into them with a nothing to lose attitude, no sitting back playing for 1-0s. Go man for man, press hard, front-foot brave attacking football. If we lose we lose but at least do it having tried to be positive. Jatta back will be a massive boost and if we can get Tsaroulla, Tangen and Robbo back too I’d be even more optimistic. If it is to be play-offs I’d be more hopeful than last season so that’s something (assuming we avoid Salford!)

I totally think you can get out this league playing the way we do, just my opinion, I think we are just a couple of pieces short in the puzzle. At the start of last season, we had the luxury of both Crowley and Didzy in the attacking midfield roles… It’s tragic that Crowley has only started 13 matches for MK this season and spent more time off the pitch than on it. I hurts me to think where we’d be if we had players with the quality of these two... No idea if we missed out on certain targets, I think we probably did due to the late loanee signings, but going into this season and basically asking a handful of very inexperienced 20-year-olds to shine in this position was too much.

I also went with Palmer, just for the kind of default he did what he does. It was good to get McDonald back, I thought he did well too, I just feel more assured with in the middle than Ness... (even though we lost!)

I kind of feel like we’ve ended up in a situation where Iorpenda has become the go to attacking midfielder because none of the other players are really up to scratch. Luker is just back from a serious knee-injury, Hall has got worse as the season progressed and Grant sitting on the bench when we needed a goal tells a story... I agree he should be playing alongside one of either Palmer or Norburn in CM. I don't think the Palmer and Norburn partnership works because they are too similar in terms of style. And playing them both also means we have no other genuine central midfielders on the bench. If we potentially want fresh legs for the last 30 minutes or so we have none! The side just feels a tad lacking and unbalanced at the minute, and we've also had the situation where basically for a whole season we’ve had no natural right-footed wingback, that for me has been a massive hindrance. Anyway as for today, it seems the pressure has got to the players, it was far from a confident performance or one where they were up for the challenge of catching Cambridge. The thought of the play-offs just fills me with dread, especially if we have to play Salford again.

With the goal difference swing, we need all the help we can get right now. So for one night only I'm team Bromley. 0-0 with 15 left to play as I type...

Port Vale losing £6 million for the privilege of one season in League 1 was so not worth it. Fleetwood with a small fanbase and such big losses isn't good either. In fact it makes for pretty dreadful reading, a bar chart with the bars all facing the wrong way... Who'd be a football club owner eh?

There was a lot wrong with last weekend’s performance, mostly defending set-pieces, but luckily Barent aren’t a big physical side and in theory shouldn't worry us in that way. But they are still a good side who have beaten Cambridge and MK Dons recently and with an outside chance of play-offs they’ll need the 3 points as much as we do… Should be a cracker, but we thought that last weekend! I think Jatta is still missing, so purely for his goal threat I’d have Dennis starting. I wouldn’t be against him and Ndlovu upfront, but I would be against a midfield three of Palmer, Norburn and Iorpenda which I think would likely back them up… Right now I’m all for the win-loss run continuing, just for this weekend anyway!

4 goals, 4 set-pieces. Well let’s get this over with quickly. First goal is a mess, but we’ve got Iorpenda, Ness and Macari all marking no-one but the same one bit of space. Second goal, Ness exerts so much effort trying to push Bedeau over he then misses an easy chance to to just head the ball away. Third goal both Ness and Bedeau get beaten to the ball, but fair play it’s a cracking finish, they can have that one. Forth goal, Gibbons is unmarked and we’ve got a player advantage, I’ll say no more… I guess that can be fixed but it’s the manner of the defeat that is so disappointing, this was supposed to be two good teams going toe-to-toe, a chance for us to show what we can do and why we deserve to get that automatic spot. But we just never got going and all our confidence was clearly drained by the time the third goal went in. It's matches like these that really don't fill you with hope with the potential of play-offs looming. I still don’t know what was worse being 3-0 down after 30 minutes or playing a whole 2nd half against 10 and not being able to score, but still concede.

It was a strange one in that the combination of us being so tidy on the ball and Newport being so poor meant the first half wasn’t much a contest in truth. At half-time Newport had a decision to make, carry on doing what they are doing and probably lose 4-0 or go for it and just see what happens. And that’s what they did. We didn’t really adjust to it, first half where we could have maybe 3 or 4 touches turned in 1 or 2 because they actually pressed us. I know we are limited in terms of players but it does seem like some players on the bench are just purely their because we can name 7. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of Enoru, someone with his pace could’ve been an outlet to turn the Newport defence, I think him and Ndlovu could’ve worked nicely to alleviate some second half pressure. I’ve been impressed with Luker since his return, he kind of showed what we’ve been missing in his 15-minute cameo. He’s not a really lightweight youngster, he’s got a decent turn of pace and obvious skill. I’d be tempted to stick him as one of our starting No.10s because he’ll cause more problems for defenders and actually looks a goal threat. I am just nit-picking here, obviously I’m really happy with the win and performance overall especially because after the way we lost against Salford we could’ve come out looking sorry for ourselves but that didn’t happen.

I’ll say Robertson, but I think this is very optimistic! Even though Newport are down the bottom and aren’t in the best form when they’ve lost matches recently it’s only been by the odd goal. Part of me was thinking that because this match was sandwiched in between Crawley and Harrogate (which are effectively 6 pointers for them) they might treat our match like a mid-week trophy match. But they lost to Crawley, so I think the chances of them resting better players will be slim because they will be desperate to get at least a point. But we usually react well after a defeat, a chance to right the wrongs from Salford and kick start a mini-run that can see us finish top 3. (*albeit now a tad harder by the news of Jatta's ban)

Because I was only watching on the TV I didn’t see anything but I do remember feeling very nervous when there was mini-brawl, with a Salford CB on the floor, all seemingly aimed towards Jatta. He’s accepted the ban, without a challenge, so it’s pretty obvious he’s done something he shouldn’t. I’m almost certain the Salford CBs will have wound him up all match, alongside the usual grabbing and stepping on toes because that’s what a lot do. He’s got to not let it get to him though, or failing that be as sly as them. I’m not enjoying this period of a different player getting banned each week, it’s like we are try to self-sabotage our promotion chances.

Yes, I’ve been following the progress of Artemis II, I didn't stay up to watch the launch but I caught up with it all the next morning. There was a great clip I think of the BBC's science correspondent reporting live at the launch and her childish instincts took over because she was just in total awe of it all, you could tell that it meant a lot to her. I was reading about the Artemis programme and if everything goes to plan Artemis III will launch next year and then Artemis IV will see human's back on the moon. All in preparation to eventually get to Mars, which would be pretty incredible to see.

I've been a fan of Dennis this season but I would agree his performances have dropped these last few matches. I would slightly caveat that yesterday in particular we played a lot of high balls to him and challenging big center backs in the air is not his strength. We should've tried to play more balls in behind for him to run onto... I'm in agreement with everyone else so far for MotM. Belshaw made a really great save down low early in the first half, I was certain it was going in and then his hand appeared from almost no-where and tipped it past the post! Same in the second half, Longelo (who impressed me) cut inside and curled one that was going in the top corner if it hadn't been for Belshaw.

You're right @theAnticlough , for some reason I thought we had 71 points, so that's a slight bonus for me waking up and seeing we've actually got 73! 😆 Just the 5 to go now... I don't think any of the sides in the top 7 have a particularly easy run-in, including us. Newport will be desperate to get something, Barnet have beaten both Cambridge and MK recently and Colchester, whilst they might not have much to play for a bit like Salford have been a bogey side for us. I can see it coming down to the last day against Bristol. I would probably take 82 points if you offered it to me right now, whether that would be enough for an automatic spot, who knows?