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So frustrating! 1st half we really needed to take of advantage of Port Vale being so passive and not scoring one of those chances ultimately cost us. 2nd half was just a scrappy game off football really, Port Vale just put us under a bit more pressure and we really struggled to play out. That said we defended pretty well, they didn’t create anything other than the goal which was one mistake getting punished. I think we absolutely missed Didzy or Whitaker up top. We needed a bit more composure and someone to help drive us forward a bit more. For me Edwards looked more and more off the pace of the game as it went on, I know he’s just come back from a long lay-off but I’d have taken him off a lot earlier. Not sure what Gordon did wrong to get subbed either, Bedeau was played out of position for the whole game, he was fine but it’s not his natural game. It was strange that Stuart decided not to play our two wingbacks at wingback when Tsaroulla came on... Just gutted that Port Vale have taken 6 points from us, you can hardly say they dominated and outplayed us on both occasions.

I do feel like I'm in a minority but I genuinely feel Marias could do quite well for us if given the chance. He's pretty quick, he's pretty strong and he is capable of scoring and assisting goals too. His first goal is a corker and the second is a tidy finish. I hope he does really well there and if he does we'd be stupid to not to give him a chance, surely!

We have had a slightly favourable run of fixtures up until this one, it’s easy to get complacent though unlike us Wimbledon couldn’t beat Accrington and Port Vale couldn’t beat Swindon, so I’m definitely not dismissing our recent good results. It has been great run of form but Port Vale are different challenge, they are better than the teams we’ve faced recently. Part of me sees it going two ways, crashing back to reality with a damning defeat, or the run has installed so much confidence we just plough on and keep our run of good form going. I also hope Didzy can come back in, it might just be case of not giving too much away to keep Port Vale guessing. I think Jodi is more likely to miss it though but I’m hoping Tsaroulla will ok because I think he’ll provide us with a bit more defensive nous. I’d be happy to come away from this one with a point.

It's not out of the realms of all possibilities that his first job there could be to tell Luke Williams he hasn't got one anymore. Swansea are in really poor form at the moment and they lost at home again tonight mustering up just 3 shots all game! 😬 It's all good having future goals but they can't keep on losing, they are yet to win a home game in 2025. What happens if Swansea get to the end of the month and they still haven't won any of them? There's hardly going to be a buzz around the place and most fans will want something or someone to change...

Swansea will want our owners next! Just put some black stripes on their home shirts and that’ll be job done. It is a shame Richard will soon be departing; he’s been one of the reasons we’ve been successful over the years. It does feel like there’s going be a tipping point at some point, especially if we keep losing key members of staff and players over a short period of time. Yes, they are replaceable but it's not always easy to replace them, surely at some point it’s going to have a negative impact? Or do Chris and Alex just have some sort of super-human ability to seemingly never make a wrong call...

I think the Port Vale game will give us a good indication as to where we are heading... If we are serious about top 3 we simply can't afford to give all our rivals 3 points against us. From the current top 10, we've got 4 home games and 4 away games left. I think we'd need to be looking at something like 14 points to keep us where we are, anything close to that would be a very good return in my opinion. That would mean something like winning 4, drawing 2 and only losing 2. Possibly a big ask considering our current form against the top 10... It would help massively if we can get a positive result at Port Vale.

I was thinking a bit more about this yesterday too. Richard Montague has a very senior role at this club, he basically has a say in everything that goes on. He obviously leads our recruitment but being on the board of directors along with the Bros he does a lot more than just that. The relationship he has with the Chris and Alex is clearly very good, he knows the project here how well it's going, it's only going to get better. He wouldn't get that at Swansea, he'd likely get more money but I'm guessing his roll would purely be in recruitment, coaches and players, but with likely less control as those higher up are likely to want a say too. I don't know what Richard's personal goals are, maybe his dream is to be involved in a Premiership clubs recruitment, so maybe this does potentially get him closer to achieving that... Swansea needs a massive rebuild though, they might only be step away from the Premier League but in reality the gap is much bigger.

I think Palmer, Bedeau and Whitaker would be my top 3 from that match. Bedeau edges it for me, really strong performance from him.

It was far from vintage but I think considering how physical Morecambe were, I’m pleased we didn’t let them bully us no matter how hard they tried. I agree with those have already mentioned the ref (or lack off one!) that the first fifteen minutes was really poor, he set the tone that let Morecambe get away with pretty much what they wanted… Whitaker is settling in nicely now, again showed some really nice touches and I think there’s still more to come from him. I thought Will Jarvis did really well considering he had to replace Jodi, he looked comfortable on the ball, not sure wingback plays to all his strengths, he did have Bedeau in top form behind him who pretty much stopped most their attacks down that side. Defensively very good again, a couple of moments where we switch off but we are lucky to have Bass in goal, he makes it look easy at times when it really isn’t. And I think that Jatta goal summed up just why we needed to keep him. Who else does that for us? Holds off their centre back and turns him, brushes off another defender and then calmly rounds the keeper. He created and finished his own chance.

I’m hoping we’ve learnt a few lessons after our last home game against a team in the relegation zone. I wonder if the players had a touch of over-confidence going into Carlisle, it’s all too easy to see how badly they are doing and think it’ll be a straight-forward game. I hoping we’ll be more switched on and up for it this time out. Derek Adams is the kind of manager who sets his teams up according to the opposition, I couldn’t really tell you their style or what they set out to achieve but they'll be looking to stop us. Interestingly they’ve lost to everyone in the top 8 1-0, aside from Wimbledon who they lost 3-0 to. So maybe a 1-0 wouldn’t be a surprising score, but I’m hoping we can somewhat buck that trend and go the way of Wimbledon! I wouldn’t expect many changes from the team who performed so well at Gillingham, unless someone has picked up an injury or a knock I’d go with that same starting 11.

Burton Albion 1-1 Blackpool Huddersfield Town 2-1 Reading Barrow 0-0 Gillingham 🤡 Fleetwood Town 3-2 Cheltenham Town Salford City 2-0 Tranmere Rovers Aldershot 2-1 AFC Fylde Dagenham & Redbridge 2-2 Yeovil Town Solihull Moors 0-1 Oldham Athletic

Are Swansea fans just thinking because they got their head coach from us that because they’re now getting a new football director he’s probably coming from Notts as well? No mention of a name in the interview but there’s lots of people it could be and the great news Luke talks about could just simply be that they are now getting a football director, something he thinks Swansea really need. Richard Montague has only ever had to recruit for us, he’s not had experience signing players to get a team into the Premiership (or other equivalent top division), which is the aim for Swansea. I’m not saying he wouldn’t be capable but I’m just not sure he’d be Swansea’s first choice…

Sky Bet League Two Manager & Player of the Month January winners - The English Football League WWW.EFL.COM The Official home of the English Football League You'll never believe who won it... (Yes, the pic is the spoiler)

You know how in the other topic about our recruitment efficiency, it’s all really positive. This is the one current case that bucks the trend! Someone clearly doesn’t rate him if he’s out on loan again. I wonder if they’ll be some sort of mutual agreement to leave in the summer otherwise I guess he'll just be loaned out again. I agree, it doesn’t look like he’s going to have a future here.

Having been into the National League I think it makes a lot of sense now. The difference between the bottom half of League 2 and top 10 in the National League is minimal. But more importantly as bad as being relegated is, it will make it easier to get promoted again. For me the issues would be more with the National League Board which was pretty shambolic at times, when anything didn’t go as planned they had no idea how to deal with it. Their communication was shocking at times and the distribution of funding with the COVID payouts was scandalous. The teams might be EFL standard, not sure behind the scenes the league is though.

Last roll of the dice really, they need more than just the potential new manager bounce to stay up. Given how his time ended at Bradford, it doesn’t fill you with confidence either. I say last roll of the dice but I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if Hughes got sacked before the end of the season! Be interesting to see how this all plays out for Cedwyn too, I’m guessing a large part of why he joined Carlisle was not only to be closer to Newcastle but to play under Mike Williamson. No idea how Mark Hughes will play and if he see’s him in his first team, they have about 30 players so he’s not short on choice.

Salford not winning helps us, be nice if that gap could get bigger though. Lets hope Morecambe have tired themselves out before visiting us on the weekend!

I’d be questioning the designers there, I guess they had some sort of a brief because it does mention it’s representing old red bricks that used to be made in Wrexham, but come on, given the amount of money that club has now they can do better than that. It looks like the kind of thing someone did quickly on a Friday afternoon when they forgot that was the deadline!

Sorry to hear about your leg break @CliftonMagpie, I broke three of my fingers last summer (garden DIY paving stone accident) and had to have them taped and splinted so I couldn’t bend them for weeks. That was frustrating enough for me having never broken a single bone before! I can imagine and feel your struggles, it’s no fun when you can’t do the things you usually do. I will say not being able to drive was really inconvenient at first, but I quickly got used to being ferried around by family and friends! I've had a quiet couple of weeks really, no big changes in my life. I’m currently looking into having a holiday at some point next year at about this time, I’m not someone who enjoys the colder weather. Canary Islands seem ideal just need to find a good deal!

Anyone have any idea how or who decides the player of month? A panel of former players, or do they just pick the name out a hat last minute... Either way it's a well deserved nomination, shame the weekends goal fell into Feb though as that would've surely sealed the deal. Shaun Whalley can't win it, he broke Matty Palmer's beautiful face! Someone from Notts need to send the scans in and get him booted off the shortlist!

I think the recruitment has always been good to be honest. I think it’s hard to compare being in League 2 to the National League because the quality of player you are able to attract gets better as you progress up the leagues. Our recruitment in the National League was, overall, very good though. It helped massively in the National League that we didn’t have a transfer window so we had the opportunity to sign players before EFL clubs. Cal Roberts being the first example of that. It was also a sign of things to come and the main idea around our recruitment; we’re happy to pay a fee for a player if we think they will become even more valuable in the future. It's hard to say how much it's improved, because I think just being in League 2 opens up more doors. I'm sure the recruitment process has developed in terms of its strategy and we'll have been able to analyse why certain players didn't perhaps turn out as expected but ever since the Bros have come in we’ve signed lots of quality players.

It is sad the Welsh Prem is so weak. I occasionally flick through the channels and end up watching some highlights on SC4, you wouldn't know it's the top tier at times as a lot of the facilities are reminiscent of Sunday league football. No idea how you improve the standard, and it won't ever happen but imagine if you did stick Cardiff and Swansea in the Welsh Premiership, it would mirror the Scottish Premiership with Celtic and Rangers. They would just dominate it for eternity.

You just couldn’t make it up could you. Like you say Carlisle have literally just spent the entire January brining in players that Mike Williamson has worked with before; Cedwyn Scott, Paul Dummett, Stephen Wearne and Callum Whelan. He's also added other players to suit his style like Will Patching and Elliot Embleton. Their January window has just been a complete waste of effort time and money has it not? All Carlisle need to do now is bring in a manager who says all the new players don’t suit his style and they’ll have messed the season up perfectly! I think they are doomed personally, all to reminiscent of the season we went down, but somehow worse! Mike Williamson was all the hype 1 year ago, many would’ve wanted him as the Notts manager had he not already taken over at MK when Luke Williams departed. Look at him now though, he’s had an afwul 9 months or so, embarrassing loss in the play-offs, awful start with MK and then tanked at Carlisle...

I'm almost the same as @liampie, except I've gone for Platt over Bedeau. So it's: Bass, Palmer, Jones, Jatta & Platt for me. I agree, it’s so marginal and those that miss out are simply just unfortunate as we have a lot of quality players at the moment.

A very exciting signing, hopes will be high given how Jatta’s transfer turned out! I trust the recruitment team, in terms of strikers they usually get it spot on. Jatta’s goal stats from the Danish Superliga weren’t great, but a lot of his appearances were off the bench. I’m not too worried about Traore’s goal return in the Eliteserien, because it’s a similar scenario. The top teams in Sweden and Norway are a lot better than the clubs at League 2 level, so I’m really hopeful we’ve signed another top attacking talent! Can't wait to see him in a Notts shirt soon!