menzinho

Really great achievement for them, I heard a short bit about this on the radio at lunch today where they interviewed one the players called 'Pico'. He's actually born and raised in Ireland but his father was from Cape Verde and he was approached to play for them via LinkedIn!

Impressive to have roses still out at this time of year (assuming you took the picture recently @Piethagoram !) Yes, it’s suddenly got darker, cloudier and greyer and I don’t like it! Where I am it’s been cloudy since Friday, we’ve had pretty much no sun since early last week. I can feel a change in my mood, I think because of how lovely the weather has been since the spring not feeling or seeing the sun has put my body into a state of shock. And to make it worse my partner has gone back to Spain for a week to see her family, where it’s 24° and sunny in Logroño. So I’m jealous but I have the flat to myself after I work I can do as I please, that means I can eat what I want, watch what I want and walk around with nothing on (it’s too cold for that actually!)

I do think the goalkeeper position is the most unique, most teams now a days usually sign a goalkeeper with the intention of them being the first choice. It’s kind of the one position that doesn’t really get changed that much. That’s not to say the back-up keepers shouldn't be capable of challenging though, but more often than not they are there to step in when an injury occurs. We've found ourselves in a slightly strange scenario, where our first choice isn’t as good as we hoped and Griffiths isn't seemingly quite ready to be the main man yet. So it's a bit of a dilemma, with no obvious answer. Just from a boring budget point of view it doesn’t make any sense to have two proven goalkeepers because you’ll potentially be paying a lot of money for someone to sit on the bench for the majority of the season and that's just bad business. But by January, we might find ourselves in that scenario…

It's the replay for that match tonight, they drew 1-1 at Woking at the weekend. Think I'd prefer a Brackley win, only because we've never played them (I think) and they are closer! No idea who'll come out on top, both teams are down the bottom of the National League with not much between them right now. It's not a bad draw either way though, we’ve got a side that’s even stronger since the time we were in the National League so we have a really good chance of progressing into the second round.

Right now I'm torn between 4th-7th or 8th-12th. But, at the start of the season, I predicted that we'll either do better than last season or we'd have a shocking season and we'd finish somewhere like 17th... I can't see us finishing that low now, so I'll go with the more positive outlook!

Burton Albion 1-2 Bolton Wanderers 🃏 Exeter City 1-1 Reading Leyton Orient 2-1 Doncaster Rovers Wigan Athletic 0-1 Wycombe Wanderers Chesterfield 1-2 Salford City Crewe Alexandra 1-1 Bromley Fleetwood Town 1-0 Harrogate Town Tranmere Rovers 2-3 Barnet

Now this would worry me a lot, because that is a lot of money to lose and it doesn’t exactly make it appealing to investors. They are seemingly quite confident they've got a plan to fix it but I'm not so sure... By the sounds of it they are pinning everything on getting outside investment and I'm not sure what they'll actually do other than simply be used cover the losses. I've just had a quick look and Burton don't own the land the stadium is built on so it's not like they can easily start doing things like hotels, restaurants, sports courts as another way of bringing in revenue... How do you get a club that an average attendance of just over 4,000 to be profitable (or at the very least sustainable) and competitive in League 1 (or League 2 for that matter), it's a mammoth task.

I don’t think the club will openly say they are looking for a free-agent goalkeeper because that would basically do it for Roos’ confidence and he’s not exactly full of it at the moment. But that doesn’t mean behind the scenes they aren’t looking into it. I’m also not sure Blackman would’ve been the answer, the fact Shrewsbury had him and were heading into League 2 but chose not to keep him isn’t a great vote of confidence. A quick glance at the that stats do show he's good when it comes to dealing with high balls in the box, the rest of his stats aren't anything special though and I’ve not seen enough of him playing to know how good (or bad) he really is. Roos has definitely made some mistakes, I think his shot stopping is fine but his biggest weakest in dealing with set-pieces is (and already has been) exploited in League 2. He’s got to start showing some improvements in this area or he will be replaced at some point.

We had a whole new coaching team and lots of new players too, it was always going to take time. I'd say one of the biggest advantages to having the Brothers in charge is their ability to not react like fans... If they had Paterson might have been sacked 3 matches in! I wonder if the belittled and bashed technical board is having a positive impact too. It was after all bought in to aid the coaching staff. If it's giving Paterson new things to think about and flagging up points he was possibly oblivious it can only be a good thing. I think given how we've seen the team change subtly it could be having an affect, Paterson isn't stubborn and I like he's changed the team up in order to make us better. It was a pretty horrible start in away, before a ball was even kicked there were a lot of questions being asked and no-one really had much faith going into this season. I'd say we are in a much stronger place now and I'm cautiously optimistic we'll be at the right end of the table come the end of the season!

Just on the topic of free-agents, I’m amazed Hakeeb Adelakun hasn’t got a club yet. He turned down Salford’s offer of a new contract in the summer but I’m guessing his wages (or at least what he’s asking for) has been the issue here. Scored 9 goals and got 7 assists for Doncaster on loan in League 2 for half a season and then he signed for Salford where last season he scored 13 goals in 30 matches for them. Problem for us right now our squad is pretty stacked, we aren’t light on players so if a free-agent was to sign they’d have to basically be first team quality. I think there are a couple of players from @Ash ’s list that could be that, like Dennis, Redmond and Andersen but I think realistically they’d be well out of our budget.

Funny thing is @Chris , we’ve had the maximum number of subs this season, even though we haven’t had one of our academy players on the bench! I think, and I could be wrong here, we’ve registered Griffiths as part of our academy setup and therefore he's become our “home-grown player” and that's how we've had the full 7 subs. I terms of my team, I really don’t envy Paterson here! On paper you'd want a front two of Jatta and Dennis in, but in reality think the 3-4-2-1 formation does suit us more. I really like Dennis, he couldn’t have started the season any better to be honest. Defence isn’t easy either, I think McDonald has to stay for now, I’m not sure Platt is suited to playing at RCB so I’d have to bench him. I’ve liked Ness when I’ve seen him, he just needs to stay fit and I think he'll be really good. Macari is ultra reliable and you know you'll get a committed performance from him. Finally, think I’m looking at Iorpenda or Luker for that last attacking midfield spot (even as a member of the Jarvis fan club, we've not seen enough of him here). I think Luker is going to get you more goals and assists but Iorpenda gives us a touch more physicality and his ability to stride forward with the ball is really good. It’s a really tough choice. First 11: Roos, Ness, McDonald, Bedeau, Tsaroulla, Palmer, Robertson, Jones, Hall, Luker, Jatta. Subs: Griffiths, Platt, Bennetts, Norburn, Iorpenda, Jarvis, Dennis. If we ever have a fully fit side it’s almost an impossible task choosing the side and subs, I feel bad for leaving Macari, Grant & Kouhyar out but I just can’t fit them in.

Feels like it's been something a long time in the making. I’d be interested to find out about the really early days, in the build up to the League forming and how Notts were involved with that. And the idea that we could’ve then been voted out of the league after that first season for some reason! The recent history section from about 2000-2020 will be pretty bare, we’ll have the infamous Munto season along with the League 2 Title… Maybe a picture of Russell King as Public Enemy No.1. Oh, and a plaque for the time all we had to block the whole of Hungary to stop our website from crashing after we signed Bajner!

I think there were a lot more positives than negatives to takeaway from that match which is only a good thing. Since that Crawley match I'd say the performance levels have improved quite a bit. My worries about the squad not being competitive enough at the start of the season are gone now, I think actually overall we've got some very good options in a number of positions. And this slight tweak in style where we are a tad more direct at times means we aren't as reliant on a number 10 to dictate which last season it felt like we 100% needed Crowley or Didzy to play. It's not the case now, we are almost just as effective if not more by making runs and playing a balls into the channels at times. You just need committed runners with a bit of skill and we've got that. In terms of the goalkeeping situation I think we’ll have to persist with Roos in goal and hope that Steve Collis can work some magic and get Roos looking confident when it comes to corners and set-pieces. He works with the keepers day in day out, if Griffiths was out-performing Roos in training each week he’d have had his chance by now. Sam Slocombe isn’t the answer either for me. He’s not played a competitive match of football for months and I’d imagine as he’s now one of the assistant coaches he’s done zero goalkeeper training. I agree with @Scotty 's point about triple substitution second half, I think that was of the most important bits of game management. Jatta, Hall and Iorpenda, whilst still trying, weren’t able to press or trouble the Oldham back line as effectively. That was just down to being a tad tired nothing to do with ability. After their goal the Oldham defence were able to step onto to us more and that got the rest of their team up the pitch. But when they had to deal with three fresh attacking players, in Dennis, Grant and Kouyhar who could run and press hard, we were able to force them back. I think we’ll see more early subs this season if we want to maintain that ability to press and run hard. Asking the forward players and midfielders to do it effectively for 90 minutes is a big ask. We can make 5 subs now, so that is a big help in terms of keeping the side as fresh and energetic as possible.

We didn’t have to postpone it but because we got the minimum number of call-ups required, we did. Now we know the players missing are; Bedeau, Jones and Kouyhar do you think it's the correct decision. Without these 3 players would it greatly impact the chance of getting a good result? Personally, I think I’d have just played it as right now we are in a good spell of form and as it’s is only three players, I think we’ve got a big enough squad to cope. Also in a way I feel like it gives the message that some players aren’t good enough, it’s almost as if without these 3 players getting win is impossible. What do you think?

I think you could make a case for most of the players that played the majority of that match, I went with McDonald he didn’t really put a foot wrong. Tsaroulla also very good, worked tremendously hard and was a good threat down the right hand side. The early set of subs second half were actually really good in that they allowed us to press Oldham again, that shouldn’t be underestimated, it totally swung the momentum back our way. Kouhyar came on and had a really intensity about him.

Is Hall’s time at Notts now going to mirror Abbott’s? It took him a few weeks to make a mark but once he got into the first team there was no stopping him…

If Palmer scored 10+ goals a season, he wouldn’t be in League 2 as he’d be the perfect midfielder. He’s been a lot more pro-active and finds himself more advanced than usual compared to last so I think we’ll get a Palmer goal this season. Grant seems to be able to do everything right and then it gets to moment he has to shoot, if he can change that he should be able to get a decent number of goals because he’s got the knack of getting into good goal-scoring positions. But yes right now scoring looks like the most difficult thing in the world for him.

Big credit to Martin Paterson for turning our poor home form around so quickly, we start matches with a lot more intent and actually make opposition defences defend. It’s been refreshing recently to see us go in at half-time with a lead. I thought it was a solid and dominate first half-performance, our box midfield with Palmer and Robbo at the base and Iorpenda and Hall in front gave us a lot of control. Oldham didn’t really press us either, so that massively helped us. And again, I thought our off-the ball play was good, we won a lot more tackles and 50/50 balls in the middle of the pitch too. Their goal was the only blemish, it certainly gave them a boost but the most important thing was the reaction. We stayed solid and then got our composure back and pretty much dominated the last period of the match and spurned some good chances to make the win a lot more emphatic. I Still think we need to do some work on set-pieces cos I feel like that’s where teams can still hurt us. Very good win overall, could’ve/should’ve scored more which is impressive when you think Oldham before that hadn’t lost away and had only conceded the one goal.

Derby County 1-3 Southampton Swansea City 2-2 Leicester City Huddersfield Town 1-1 Stockport County Port Vale 1-0 Northampton Town Bromley 1-0 Tranmere Rovers 🃏 Salford City 2-1 Grimsby Town Braintree Town 1-1 Sutton United Wealdstone 2-1 Altrincham

I know it's far off but his contract expires at the end of the season, I'd have thought this second season was the one he'd be more involved but that's not happened for him. I wouldn't bet on him being here next season given the fact he wasn't registered to play for the first of half of the season. However, things can change quickly in football, if he impresses at Altrincham then maybe he'll get a chance here. I really hope he does well.

Whilst our starting 11 compared to last season isn’t quite as good, I’d argue overall we’ve got a lot more depth to the squad this season. I do think we’ve got to try and find a way to get the best out of Jarvis, he’s possibly one of the most naturally gifted players we’ve had in a long time. He’s definitely not a wing-back though, can he work as one of the two attacking midfielder’s if he’s given a bit of freedom to drift out wide?

Lewis Alessandra, Oldham was his first club and he came through their academy. He joined us later in his career when Kevin Nolan was our manager.

Maybe I’ve got my head in the sand here but I genuinely don’t know what awkward questions there are to ask, other than the departure of Roberto Gagliardi… But I’m sure the Brothers will be prepared for that question and I’ll be amazed if they don’t at least tell us a bit more about how that scenario played out. I guess they’ll be a few questions about this season’s recruitment too, but that isn’t looking as bad with each passing match now.

Sounds to me like an apprenticeship could be well worth looking into @KingofCounty, you get the best of both worlds, actual employment but working towards qualifications as part of it too and you can go as far as you like once you are in, even getting paid to do a university degree if you are lucky! You can start at different levels, depending on whether you've just finished your a-levels or GCSEs. I did mine in Logistics after I left sixth-form college, working for a food production business, and that was a higher apprenticeship scheme. The great thing about it was I got proper training and a qualification by the end of it all. And the skills I learnt were very transferable too particularly as organisation and communication skills were so important, even after a few years I was able to change my career. No idea what you're interested in but there is a good variety of apprenticeships out there and some big and impressive businesses that you can work for too. Hi @TheSkipper 👋 I think I started typing long before you but you've managed to get your message across much quicker than I have!

Funny how after I posted we had the Crawley match and I feel like that is exactly what Martin Paterson wanted us to be. Aggressive, on the front foot, full of energy but keeping that ability to play good football. Even at Crewe we competed well, looked dangerous and we were unlucky to come away with nothing. I feel like the expectation level of Martin Paterson is quite low from most fans and in a way, assuming we keep picking up points and putting in good performances, this could help him. Even after 3 matches if felt like some fans were thinking he's going to get us relegated, so even if we only finish mid-table he'll have surpassed a lot of initial scepticism and negativity. We are now 10 league matches in and I feel more confident about the season than I did at the start. It's funny how just a few changes can make a big difference in football though, all that's really happened is Robertson is back in and Jodi is on the wing, yet we look a far more balanced and better side for it.