menzinho

Yeah, as a comfortable as we were at times and even though Crowley got applauded off by the Carlisle fans, Bass was crucial for us especially in the later stages of the match.

Great result in the end but I felt like that was a weird game. We were in total control for 60 minutes, having actually rarely attacked them. It was like a training session at times, but then we just stopped playing for that last 30. Crowley was great on the ball, but at the same time he was so deep at times, he was just basically toying with them and taking the p*** out of their players. But I’d have liked to see him doing that closer to the opposition goal, he’s too good to not be used as an attacker. We did defend well, but at times it was far too easy from them to get balls into our box and I feel like a half decent team could’ve punished us. Maybe after watching us defend last season I’m not used to us being able to deal with any sort of attacking pressure from the opposition!

Honourable mention for Abbott, really impressed considering he is so young and hasn't played competitive football before. But it's between Platt or Bedeau for me, I think they've both been as good as each other really so it's really hard to say! So in the hope of causing a tie, I've voted for Platt.

Norwich City 1-2 Leeds United Sunderland 1-0 Derby County Birmingham City 2-0 Huddersfield Town ???? Crawley Town 1-2 Mansfield Town Leyton Orient 1-0 Exeter City Doncaster Rovers 2-2 Barrow Newport County 0-1 Salford City Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Swindon Town

The players at some of these Premier League Academies are just a lot better than the younger players we have and that is just a fact. Abbott hadn't played a proper competitive match before he came to us (I'm not counting 1 minute v Leeds!), yet he looks like he's played in League 2 before and is a lot better than hundreds of players at this level. He's a very good player and Spurs will be hopeful in a year or two he'll be good enough for them in the Premier League. I think a lot of our young players show a lot of promise and I'm hopeful one or two will break through into the first team in the future but that doesn't mean we can't also sign other young talented players on loan too. I think we'd be daft to turn up the chance to sign good players on loan and at the same time I don't think it will greatly impact the chances of our own youngsters getting into the team.

I'll say Gary Liddle, a player who was very good for us in League 1.

By the sounds of it Morecambe came with plan to press and disrupt us all game and it worked. Playing direct to McGoldrick isn't his game, that's why Jatta is vital in helping combat teams that do press. He's got both the physicality to compete and a bit of pace to stretch defences too. We are struggling with injures and that showed in the team, last season I moaned because we didn't play any defenders today we played all the midfielders! All a bit too samey in terms of McGoldrick, Crowley, Grant, Palmer all like to be on the ball and pass it, a lot! We needed the likes of Jatta, Jones and Edwards who naturally make more runs. I'd like to know if playing inverted wingbacks is helping or hampering. I totally get why Jodi plays on the right, he did it his whole career before joining us and his skill level allows him to. I think it makes it harder for the players not as naturally blessed. Tsaroulla has spent his whole career on the left and likewise LWB is an unfamiliar role for Austin. But credit to the team, for getting the equaliser and keeping at 1-0 gave us that chance. Still need a touch more concentration when it comes to set-pieces, which brings me nicely to the topic we seemed to just totally avoid in the post match interview their "ghost goal". The Morecambe manager claims some of our players agreed it did go over the line. And if it didn't go over the line would their player really have got so wound up to the state he got himself sent off... I'll take that draw!

Now that we’ve had the press conference and heard nothing I’m slightly more positive - in that I don't think it's season ending that is! From what was said in the Martin signing statement they are currently assessing him, which to me suggest they aren't still 100% sure of the issue. Something major like a big tear/snap will be obvious and immediately picked up in a scan.

As a former Arsenal and then Norwich youngster he'll have been coached in a style that will be very similar to ours. I've no doubt he's technically good enough. He did well on loan at Doncaster a few seasons in league 1 by all accounts but hasn't really pushed on since then. It's got to be a positive that Pompey, a team pushing for the Championship at the time, extended his contract for the whole season after also signing him short term like we've done. I think he just needs a chance and with the injuries to Scott, Edwards and Jones he'll probably get it. I'd love him to turn into another gem!

I don’t think Pep has ruined football, nobody is forcing anyone to play a possession style but I can see why lots of teams adopt it. In theory it sounds too good to be true. You have more of the ball so you should be able to create more chances and by limiting the opposition's time on the ball they only have a short window to try and score. I guess to counter that you now have teams that play a very aggressive press and look to take the ball of teams who play out from the back. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have teams who will set up to frustrate with a low-block. That can make things a tad boring, a bit like watching attack v defence instead of an actual match! I do agree sometimes coaches ask too much of players that aren’t capable and it relies on bringing in the right players for the style. But that goes for any style of football really. And sometimes the coaches won’t admit it but they aren’t always good enough to coach it!

Middlesbrough 2-0 Stoke City ???? Millwall 1-0 Preston North End Blackpool 2-0 Burton Albion Wigan Athletic 1-1 Exeter City Gillingham 2-1 Barrow Newport County 0-1 Crewe Alexandra Woking 1-2 Sutton United Yeovil Town 2-1 Aldershot

Some footballers will be more suited to certain styles of play so I get why players and managers clash, especially when new managers come in and change the style of football. As long as you do what is required of you as a player you don’t have to like the manager, but getting along with someone always makes things easier. A bit strange for a goalkeeper to have such strong opinions about the style of football though, their roles are so different to the on field players the fundamentals of what they do are basically the same. And also by not passing out from the back so much it would’ve made his role even easier!

I really hope it's not true, no pre-match interviews released either yet and we usually get them on a Thursday. Suggests to me either there's nothing wrong (I doubt it though) or he'll be waiting for test results to see how bad the injury truly is...

I know the club have spoken about the academy and wanting it to play a big part of the club’s future and nights like last night will help to promote it. Given the competition we face we definitely need to showcase that there are opportunities to train with our first team and then even get to play. For Kameron it’ll be a night he never forgets and it’s brilliant for him (and all the other academy players that were involved too). But for the club to give him his debut at such a young age they must really rate him. I just hope he stays around as he could potentially be an excellent player for us in the not so distant future!

When you're off on holidays and someone asks; are you going anywhere nice? No, I've paid all this money to go somewhere unpleasant to have a horrible time!

I'm also going to continue the trend of not really having any interest in this competition. I know there’s a trip to Wembley at the end of it but I really don’t see the point of it. It’s basically like a best of the rest competition for the teams that aren’t ever going to get close to reaching the final of the League & FA Cup. They’ve put in rules that stop teams from just playing their reserve/kids which is exactly what I would do (along with the players who need it for match-fitness) but it’s not as restrictive as I originally thought. I thought you had to start a minimum of 4 outfield players from the last league fixture but the rules stretch to also include; any outfield player with 40 or more first-team appearances in their career and any outfield player on loan from a Cat.1 academy. It’s a minimum of 4 from that, so as long as for example we started; Chicksen, Cundy, Abbott and Brown the rest of the team could be from our academy! I doubt the changes will be that dramatic though. Potentially a good time to ease McDonald and Robertson back in if they are fit, but I wouldn’t risk them if not. This competition is just about avoiding injuries for me. So rather than picking a team here’s who I don’t want to feature: No Bass, no Bedeau, no Platt, no Tsaroulla, no Palmer, no Crowley, no Didzy, and no Jatta please (obviously no Jodi too but that’s highly likely given the possible injury!)

Was half expecting to see Colt Construction listed on the wiki page as a club given he moved to America and played over there! ???? I’ve looked a few up, in their second division they have teams named El Paso Locomotive, Charleston Battery and Oakland Roots. They sound like industries not football teams!

Yeah tough one because their goal was the only stain on an otherwise very solid display. Was Platt a bit slow to react to the through ball? Should Bedeau score that chance at the very end? Crowley was his usual self in that he was very tidy on the ball but didn't cause too many problems for their defence this time round. Think I'll say Bedeau though, his general defensive display was very good, I'll let him off because he's not a forward!

Yeah, just have to wait and see. Sometimes the impact injuries where you get kicked are the worst in terms of soreness for the early stages and it could all just be precautionary. I’m hoping it’s nothing more than a horrible bruise that will calm down and recover quicker than actual ligament or bone damage. But then again leaving on crutches seems a bit sever for just a bruise…

I think it’s more frustrating because Gillingham weren’t exactly world beaters, it does feel like points lost in a game we should’ve got something from. First half we should’ve scored and then second half at the at the end we had a couple of decent chances too. I heard Stuart’s post-match interview on the radio on the way back, not sure I’d agree that we were excellent though and unfortunately I think the officials got both the penalty and offside call right. I’d need to double check the rules but even though Brown doesn’t head the ball, he does still go for it making him active which would then cause Austin to be offside - feel free to correct me here! But we just started that second half a bit sluggishly, almost too calmly like "we've got 45 minutes to get a goal here, we don't need to rush!" And so we didn't really didn’t threaten Gillingham that much. I think that Macari shot was all we could muster for about 30 minutes until the later stages. It was all a bit samey lots of players coming short, no-one really making any runs in behind. And we really missed Jatta, we got into a lot of decent crossing positions but didn’t always deliver the ball and when we did we didn’t always have the presence to compete with their CBs. But that said other than a few long-range efforts our defence was hardly under much pressure for a lot of that game, fine margins really and even though I wasn't overly impressed with them I'd still expect to see Gillingham in the top 7 come the end of the season.

Luton Town 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield United 2-1 Derby County Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Reading Peterborough United 2-0 Bristol Rovers ???? Bradford City 1-1 AFC Wimbledon Salford City 0-1 Walsall Hartlepool United 1-2 Dagenham & Redbridge Oldham Athletic 2-0 Yeovil Town

Now I never saw football in the 80s or earlier but my dad usually reminds me of all these great players from back in the day and which of them he was fortunate to meet and most of these stories have one thing in common – they all met in the pub! Football was a totally different sport in a way, I would guess the level of fitness was on a different level and that players were rarely pushed to their limits, unlike the players of today. Players these days are like finely tuned machines, they train a lot more, they play more games and are basically pushed to their maximums. I think it’s also worth noting that even before players make it as professionals, they’ll have played loads of games and trained regularly in academies – again almost in the same way as pros do. I think a good few years ago there was a bit of research done by arsenal looking into why their academy players who had graduated to the first team suffered so many injuries and it was do with young players in academies effectively playing too much football. At a young age bodies aren't fully developed and picking up injuries at this time can make you more sceptical to picking up injuries again the future.

Yes! Swansea was the last time in the FA Cup we faced Premiership team (just ignore the replay). I’d love another game against a big team, I can pretty much remember all our big draw FA Cup ties in recent history. We’ve had some great ties and the Man City one is up there as one of my all time favourite games at the Lane.

I don’t think so, not anytime soon anyway. Macca was probably the closest we’ll get for a while and considering he was only here for 2 seasons he did astonishingly well to get as many as he did especially when you consider Les had the luxury of 11 seasons! Imagine if Macca had been here for that long, we’d probably be looking at a total of over 200 goals! Jatta has made a good start but he’ll probably need to be here for a number of seasons to get close to the total and that rarely happens these days. And even if he continues scoring, he’ll soon attract the attention of clubs higher up and that’s another problem. A striker who’s banging them will always have bigger clubs wanting to sign them and sadly there's always going to be a club that can offer a contract that Notts just can't compete with.

Let's hope we can extend the record come Saturday, I wonder how long we've managed to go unbeaten into a season before? In our NL promotion season we also went 8 games unbeaten before we lost to Dorking... That's still a league, albeit not in the Football League. Is 8 the best streak?