menzinho

Yeah, I've watched a few. Haven't seen tonight's game as I've opted for Rangers v Frankfurt but I can imagine it's not great. I've been impressed with the quality and pace of the Championship games. But yeah L1 and L2 its more hit and miss, I mean Wycombe are incredibly direct and they've got no interest in short passing. But the commentators in the Sheffield Wed v Sunderland game banged on about Darren Moore and his 'passing style', they passed it out from the back like twice in 45 mins! It was just a game of attrition, I think the commentators were just trying to con the viewers! I didn't watch the second half of that one...

Before the Reedtz Brothers took over it felt like there was something going off at the club every week, but now off the field it’s all quiet these days and that’s a good thing! Most the articles now are just rehashed versions of pre-match and post-match interviews occasionally you get the odd transfer story but the media team at Notts cover pretty much everything you need to know. Given the reduced output I wonder if there won’t be a dedicated reported, just whoever’s got the quietest week... I can see why he's moved on and they are certainly not short of stories at Derby at the moment.

Yep, tough to predict who will go up. That said given how Chesterfield limped over the line I'd be really surprised if they won it. In terms of us, if we get to Wrexham and beat them I really would fancy us to do it. But those will be two tough games, Grimsby unbeaten in their last 7 away games and we just aren't as good away from home. I kind of agree with @DangerousSausage with regards to Wrexham in the NL next season. But I can't help but think of their documentary, they'll want a win at Wembley desperately for that. So them not getting promoted would be funny!

Dan Mooney was their number 7, a young attacking midfielder and with 11 goals for them this season will he be on the 'radar'? I've noticed his name pop up in the NL team of the week a few times too.

I also didn't think too much of it when the news first came out but as of now he's the favourite with the bookies! Interesting that nothing was asked in the post match interview, is this because it's a complete non-story or were they told they can't?

Yeah, I mean if Stockport lose to Torquay than I think they'll have blown it. I think they'll be feeling more pressure now than they thought they would, they really should have been able to wrap up the title given the initial gap they created. Wrexham just seem to be on a roll at the moment, and given they just turned Stockport over, I'd hate to go there away.

50K will be little consolation to the 10 years of Vanarama they are likely to serve! That is interesting though, Scunthorpe have been so bad all season that I wasn't surprised when I first saw the result. Apparently Northampton have made a complaint so maybe it will be looked into but I can't see anything happening.

Aldershot away has done us in again. We just can't seem to get a run going this season and it feels like a case of one step forwards and two steps back (again!) Teams will be battling like that in the play-offs and I just don't trust us to be able to match them at the minute, especially away from home and that's a big worry for me. And I get the ref obviously wasn't great but we've still got to defend much better, hopefully Cameron and Brindley coming back can give us a boost. The only bonus for us is that Chesterfield are getting worse and Grimsby couldn't beat Barent so somehow we stay 5th!

I'm amazed he managed to get another league club after getting sacked from Chesterfield when he was doing his best to put them into the NL North. The good news is that he is staying there (good for us, not Oldham)!

Wrexham will keep pushing until it's mathematically possible they can't win the title, I don't think Stockport will throw away a 7 point lead this late on but in football you just never know. Unfortunately for us 3rd is very unlikely, but win that game in hand and we'll be 5th and within 2 points of 4th. I think we'll be battling it out with Grimsby and Solihull for the home quarter-final places, it's in our hands which is a bonus. And right now based on form and fixtures it looks like Chesterfield will be battling it out with Dagenham for the final play-off spot. The only thing with the placings is who would you want for that play-off semi-final away game? Wrexham is the harder away game but you'll probably have to beat them at some point if you want to go up and I'd rather play Halifax in the final...

So odd how we need a goal to get us going sometimes, although we didn't start to badly we just seem to have these lapses where we switch off. I think the early goal for Kings Lynn probably didn't help they just tried to hold on to it and by half-time looked a bit defeated. Pleased for Nemane thought he was the best player on the pitch, another player who's not had much game time but I think he can be a big player for us.

Dreadful. But that awful first-half set the tone. Hearing that we couldn’t even win the 4th ball in our own penalty area sums it up. Then suddenly you think we’re going to get something when it gets 2-1 but we just implode. It’s been the tale of our season, just when you think we’re about to string a run of wins together we drop an absolute clanger. And when you lose like that it feels as if all the good work from the last 4 games has come undone. If we’d lost 2-1 we’d have bemoaned the poor first half cos second half (up until about 70 mins) we had some chances. But to just get done like that, I thought we were over that kind of performance. We’re lucky Grimsby drew and Boreham Wood’s shocking run just continues, but in terms of the bigger picture of promotion, after today you can’t help but think it’s a big ask.

Great result, and I'm liking this defensive grit we seem to have gained recently. Winning headers in our box, putting bodies on the line, it all bodes well for a strong finish to the season if we can keep it up. Maybe we're getting a bit of luck too as if that pen had gone in 2-1 makes it a very different game. But credit to Jaros for reading the pen and making the save. A home semi-final doesn't seem out of reach now especially with teams in the top 7 still having to play each other, it's got to be the aim. And that also puts Ruben level on league goals with Woots now, both have 15. I think he might finish as our top scorer too.

Big dilemma for me is do we stick with the 3-5-2 which is probably better overall or switch to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 which is better for getting all our attacking talent in the side. Last season we clicked under the 3-5-2 and nearly got to the Play-off final and that was down to playing a formation that allowed us to fit our better players into their most effective roles. Ruben, Miller and Ellis are prime examples. Now it's slightly different, and I feel Southend's defenders will be made to work a lot harder with the likes of Sam and Roberts on the pitch. Southend were on a fantastic run recently, but like Dripsey says they've tailed off recently. Dagenham were 3-0 up at half-time last time they played a home game. I'm hoping for a similar outcome.

For a so called derby game I thought the first 20 minutes were quite tame, Chesterfield just let us have the ball and when they did get it we didn't want to tackle them! That goal was bad and Whittle was just able to stroll into the box completely unmarked. Then for the equaliser watching in real time I thought it was a nailed on pen. Having seen the replays it's soft, he retracts his leg but his momentum takes him into Ruben. When you dive in the penalty area you're asking for trouble though. We had some nearly moments but the first half was a bit meh... Second half was better the tempo was quicker but weirdly for us I thought we lacked numbers in our attacks sometimes and we took another touch when we could've had a shot. How Woots missed the header I don't know. Should we have got some fresh legs on upfront for the last 15? Nemane and Sam combo, would that have worked? Who knows. Still had a few ffs moments when we dallied on the ball a few times and nearly gave Chesterfield a goal. Asante's miss was almost as bad as Woots, luckily he was not on it for a lot of that game. 7 points from 9, I'll take that, so called big games out the way (until the play-offs at least) can we finish the season unbeaten now though

Chesterfield have injuries and Kellerman is suspended for them so not a bad time to play them. I think we'll stick with the 3-5-2, it's working at the moment, so same team that won against Boreham wood for me. Hopefully Lacey is okay and D-KE deserves to play LWB but I can see him coming off after about 60 mins, cos I'm almost certain he'll be on yellow and last warning by then! Really tough on Sam though (and Roberts if he's fit again). But a 3-5-2 just doesn't play to their strengths. And I even think Nemane's been very unfortunate to not get more game time, I like him. I'm never confident when it comes to predicting a win, but given the recent results and introduction of Arter I am a lot more more hopeful!

We've got some players back for this game! Some still ill but from the video Notts released of training O'Brien, Sam and Brinds all back so no emergency CB role for Wootton now! I couldn't see Lacey in the vid so I'd guess it'll be Rawlo and Brinds in at CB. Got to get Sam back in too so that for me means going 4-2-3-1. And do you just chuck Arter Straight in too? Not played for ages and only had a few training sessions... I want to see what he can do! We need to get something out this game, Dagenham back in a good spell but they are even more inconsistent than us! It won't be easy but a win would be massive.

A bizarre one then, it leaves me with more questions than answers. Could we have actually postponed that game? I don’t think you can do it for Covid now... But if 50% of that matchday squad were ill, then why even bother playing them. We were never going to get anything from the game if we had players trying to play when they were clearly in no physical condition to do so. And then does that mean we had fit players on the bench? Lacey and Rawlo were highlighted as particularly struggling. I’d have played only non-ill players and just taken the hit. Just explain to us that you can't postpone the game but some players were just too ill. If that meant Woots and Chicks as a center back pairing and Doyle and D-KE as the CM pairing, so be it. Chances are the result would’ve been the same anyway. Also sadly for what is our season defining month, it’s not going well. I still think we have a good chance of finishing in the play-offs we’ve got an easy run in (on paper) but I just think if we have to play a team in the play-offs away from home (very likely), right now I just can’t see us progressing.

Top spot is a big ask, just feels like we've been eight for an eternity now, luckily our game in hand is against Dover... Yeah, I hate this whole thing with referees that once they’ve sent someone off they all of sudden become very lenient with that team. The one thing you could’ve guaranteed if one of those penalty shouts had been at our end Halifax would’ve got one. I’d like to know the stats regarding us (or just the teams in the NL) and red cards, is it really a big advantage anymore? We usually do okay whenever we go down to 10! I remember the first game against Halifax in this league, Doyle got sent off but we scored and got a 1-0 win. Last night Solihull went down to 10 and they won. Woking also went down to 10, they went 1-0 down but got a goal back and drew...

No idea why we persisted with the same players and formation for so long, earlier in the season IB changes that to 4-3-3. We needed something different in midfield, Brunt and Cal offer pretty much nothing defensively and we needed to switch it up more with balls over the top into space to beat the Grimsby press, probably with Mitchell on as he has the pace for that. It feels like Cal is a bit shoehorned into this 3-5-2 and now I’d argue Brunt is a similar case, it’s great having all this high technical talent but you need a balance and that midfield was set up to only go one way. And it’s so bizarre after being so awful for the 2nd half how we suddenly kicked into gear right after they’d scored… It shouldn’t take a goal for that happen. Just felt like one team wanted it more today and it wasn’t us.

I just have this image of the scouts heading to watch Notts these last 2 games, just before the window closes, to really double check before submitting an offer. And them just sat there utterly perplexed... There are some good teams in this league and you’re not going to beat everyone in the top 8, these games away from home are hard. For me it’s the game against Wealdstone I’m more annoyed about. With the talent we have that we should be able to score at least 1 goal in, or at the very least come away from that game thinking how the hell did we not score! Breaking teams down has become our biggest problem at the moment. We’re only just into the second half of the season, still loads of games and twists and turns to come. Weren’t Chesterfield going to win the league a month ago, now it’s Stockport… Rochdale were 14 points ahead of us the last time we won a league…

Bromley have the best home record in the division (but they’ve also played 1 more home game than most, 2 more than us). We all know what they are about and defending balls into our box will be key to getting a good result here. I think it’s probably a good time as ever to get Rawlinson back in and play Lacey and Cameron either side. I think we’ll need to score at least 2 as well. I think you can bet on the type of goal in football now, feels inevitable they’ll score a header… Hard to predict, our recent away from isn’t great but we do play better against teams in the top half of the table.

Yeah I’m really going to struggle to get any enjoyment out this competition and I don’t think I’ll be watching it. In some ways it’s shame it coincides with England being good again but you can’t just forget how corrupt it is and how many workers lost their lives. I'm amazed how many companies are willing to be associated with it for the sponsorship and advertising. This might have potentially caused some issues but from what I gather the likes of McDonalds and Budweiser are signed up. And David Beckham I’ve no idea who advises him (someone greedy) suggested he should be an ambassador for this tournament, it’s embarrassing and thoughtless. As what for fans could though, that is a good question. I’m sure/hope as the World cup gets closer it’ll be make the news for the wrong reason and some organisation will do something that can be beneficial and allow the protesting voices to be heard. I’ll be amazed if there aren’t already groups organising protests and I’ll be amazed if all the games run smoothly, I’m sure they’ll be some sort of disruption.

Pfft, not great but not a disaster either. Second half sounded better, very disappointing to not score though. The non-event first half was probably just as if not more costly. Very similar to Kings Lynn expect this time Wealdstone shut us out. There’s just something sometimes about these away games to the teams nearer the bottom that we really struggle with, just can’t seem to get going quickly enough in particular. I’d have taken 4 points from these two away games, just means there’s more pressure on the Bromley game now, but weirdly that probably suits us.

Half expecting the team to get there but be locked out the ground, that or 15 mins into the game the floodlights fail. I just want it to be played, so please let there be no problems. I think it’ll be similar to the Kings Lynn game, they’ll set up to frustrate and if we can’t get much joy we’ll switch formation to get Roberts higher and wider. I noticed they had one of their players sent off against Woking at the weekend, hopefully he’s their star-man!