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menzinho
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Everything posted by menzinho
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Thanks for all the kind comments, glad you enjoyed reading it! I thought Curtis had a really interesting story, to go over to Sweden at such a young age was a brave decision and it payed off for him. I know moving away isn't easy but given how competitive it is in England for a lot of younger players joining a club abroad could potentially give themselves more chance of having a successful career. -
Much better performance, no way did Gillingham deserve anything and it was a well defended win in the end. If we’d have gone 3-0 up that would’ve completely killed that game off and we should’ve maybe gone for it a bit more despite being in total control throughout. Probably got lured into to being too casual at the end given how Gillingham were offering so little, but we saw it out well and didn’t drop too deep. The back three defended excellently on the whole, barely lost a duel. We were just was so much better on the ball this game and our movement off it was noticeably better too. I think you realise you get so much more when Palmer plays, he doesn’t always do stuff that is noticeable but his ability to just keep the ball moving and positional play to always be in the correct position is superb. I like what I saw from Whitaker too on his first start, maybe not as influential as we’d like on the ball but he hassled them, pressed well and made some intelligent runs forward and in behind to create space. Lovely little turn and spin midway through the second half where he gets away from a player whilst being pulled back. He was on a yellow, but because he didn’t actually stop him wasn’t a foul? Is shirt pulling only punished if it stops the play now? Which brings us onto the ref, don’t usually comment but he was poor. Stopped the match for every little bit of contact, 95% of them weren’t fouls just players going down, both us and Gillingham did it but you can’t blame the players if they know they’ll get a free-kick every time they feel the slightest bit of contact. And Jodi got a bit of kicking too, very little protection again. It was the right decision to bring him off, as much as he probably didn’t need too they were so frustrated you could see someone doing something nasty.
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Curtis Edwards has had far from an easy path to making it as a professional footballer. From working on construction sites to lining up against Jack Wilshere and Mesut Özil, his story is more interesting than most. After a spell on the sidelines, Curtis Edwards is now back at Meadow Lane, ready to make his mark in the second half of the season. I believe he's arrived at the perfect time to help push the team forward. But before we get to the present, let’s go back-right back-to when Curtis was just starting his football journey. He spent his teenage years in Middlesbrough’s academy on a scholarship with the Teesside club, but at the age of 18, like many aspiring footballers, he was released after failing to secure a professional contract. He then went on trial at various league clubs but was unsuccessful. After failing to impress even League Two sides like Hartlepool, he thought that was it. Eventually, he signed for Darlington in the Northern League Division One at the start of the 2013/14 season. However, it was only part-time, and he quickly found himself spending more time on building sites, focusing on earning money to enjoy the nights out he felt he had missed. He admitted that football wasn’t his priority at that time, which was reflected in his frequent club changes, signing for Thornaby, Spennymoor Town, and then Thornaby again, meaning he finished the season playing in the Northern League Second Division, five tiers below League Two. But the cold early mornings and the aches and pains from construction work soon made him reconsider his future. He knew he had talent and wasn’t quite ready to give up on his dream of becoming a professional footballer. So, at the age of 21, he made the bold decision to move to Ytterhogdal in the Swedish third division after fellow Teessider Brian Wake secured him a trial. With renewed determination, he quickly impressed at the club and earned himself a contract. For the first time, he produced consistently strong performances, scoring nine goals in 20 matches. Those performances were about to be rewarded in a way not even Curtis could have dreamt of. Perhaps there was a slice of good fortune, but that’s football, isn’t it? In the summer of 2016, midway through the Swedish season and during an international break, Curtis was invited to play in a friendly match for Östersunds, a newly promoted Allsvenskan side, as they were short on numbers. He played in two friendlies and impressed manager Graham Potter so much that he was offered a contract for the rest of the season. He made his competitive debut just days later in a 4-0 win over Sundsvall and went on to feature regularly in the remaining fixtures. He had stepped up from the third tier seamlessly, crediting the technical, possession-based style of play, similar to what he had learned in the Boro academy, as a key factor in his success. However, it was the 2017 season when Curtis truly started to shine. He played in nearly all of Östersunds’ matches and helped them to a fifth-place finish, the highest in the club’s history. That year also saw him win his first trophy, as Östersunds lifted the Svenska Cupen after a 4-1 victory over Norrköping, with Curtis playing the full match. Coupled with the club’s European success, he found himself facing top-quality opponents such as Raúl García and Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Club, Salomon Kalou and Vedad Ibišević from Hertha Berlin, and eventually Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal side, packed with internationals, in the knockout stages. By this point, he truly felt like a professional footballer, frequently recognised around Östersund and receiving compliments from fans. By mid-2019, after making over 100 appearances for Östersunds, his career took another step forward as he joined Djurgården, throwing himself into a title race. Just days after signing, he scored on his debut in a 4-0 win over IK Sirius. Ten wins, two losses, and a draw in the final match of the season secured the title by a single point over Malmö and Hammarby. Ahead of that decisive game, he described winning the league as the greatest moment of his career, admitting that he had initially moved to Sweden simply for a new experience, never expecting his journey to take him to the top division, let alone a title challenge. The following season, he continued to play regularly, helping Djurgården finish in a respectable fourth place. He also made his Champions League debut, featuring in a qualifying match against Ferencváros, although they were ultimately eliminated. After seven years in Sweden, his time there came to an end in 2022 when he moved to Norway. There, he helped Stabæk FC, who had just been relegated to the First Division (second tier), secure promotion back to the Eliteserien with a second-place finish. Finally, in 2024, he returned to England, joining Woking for the second half of the season. His performances impressed both their fans and manager. Michael Doyle, the former captain of Notts County, hoped to keep him for a longer period. However, Curtis chose Meadow Lane as his next destination, and it appears he arrived at the perfect time. Over the summer, Notts lost two key players in Jim O’Brien and John Bostock. Both had different playing styles and personalities, but they played significant roles in the midfield, maintaining high standards and morale. Their departures left a gap in terms of experience, but looking at Curtis’s career, it’s easy to see why Notts believed he would be a valuable addition to the squad. At 30 years old, he still has plenty to offer. In his early appearances, we’ve already seen glimpses of his quality, both on and off the ball. Technically, he looks very comfortable in possession, but he also works tirelessly, supporting the strikers and pressing the opposition. Just as he did in Scandinavia, he appears to fit Notts’ style perfectly. Unfortunately, an injury sustained against Accrington means we won’t see him in action for a while, but his experience could prove vital in the second half of the season, especially if Notts are pushing for promotion. After everything he has experienced and overcome, and with all the big matches and competitions he has played in, Curtis Edwards could have a major impact on Notts County’s season. I can’t wait to see him back in action at Meadow Lane! Check out our web store and support the Pride of Nottingham. Shop for stunning prints, stylish t-shirts, and a variety of other exciting items. Each contribution plays a vital role in fostering the growth of our community. Shop now and express your pride! Jacob Bedeau commended Notts County fans for transforming Meadow Lane into an impregnable fortress. Your support is key to the team’s success. Let's maintain a vibrant momentum! Join the Pride of Nottingham today!
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Hull City 2-1 Stoke City 🤡 Millwall 1-1 QPR Leyton Orient 2-1 Stockport County Reading 2-2 Bolton Wanderers AFC Wimbledon 2-0 Bradford City Newport County 0-0 Barrow Braintree Town 1-0 Hartlepool United Wealdstone 3-2 Solihull Moors
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I've not been able to find anything out but it wouldn't surprise me, as departing mid-way through the season, except for personal circumstances is odd. It's also both their first full time coaching job in football too. I'd find it strange you'd walk away from it unless you have something else lined up, which at the minute they seemingly don't.
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I feel like we need to get them back after we had that Sam Austin equaliser controversially ruled out when we played them earlier! I think we have to try and take advantage of their bad form, they are currently on a 7 match winless run. Don’t let them score early and if we start to dominate I’m sure their fans will soon get frustrated. I wonder if now is the time for some of the new signings to start, sometimes I think it’s easier than constantly having to come off the bench. I’d be tempted to start Johnson just because he is right footed at RCB and one of Jarvis or Whittaker behind Jatta. If Palmer is back and masked up, he’ll probably go straight back into the team likely in place of Hinchy which is a tad unfortunate as he has played well recently.
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He did get off to the worst possible start by getting sent off 10 minutes into his debut. That can't have been good for his confidence. I do remember some howlers in his first season as well but I agree the defensive in front of him was hardly rock solid. Unless Bass got injured he had pretty much 0% chance of playing, it's probably for the best.
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If it did happen, I think we’d need someone with a touch of physicality and speed. Like you say a defender for the last 10 minutes to be another body in the box is fine but if we ever started a defender upfront, I’d think Stuart Maynard had lost the plot! Jodi would probably be my pick too just because of his skill level, generally speaking you need your most skilful players at the top end of the pitch. To be honest, given our style of play, we’d probably do what Spain did when they won the Euros play a 4-6-0 formation! We’d just adjust it to be a 3-7-0 though!
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Here's a fact, unrelated to our current form and more historical... We all know Stuart Maynard left Wealdstone and became a full-time head coach for the first time by joining us, but did you also know Harold Smith was the first ever player to leave Wealdstone FC for a professional career, joining Notts County in 1930...
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I am happy about the result, I realise I did focus a lot on the negatives (but there was more bad than good in my eyes!) We are a lot more organised and defensively sound and I get this isn’t to be scoffed at, but my frustration came from when we won the ball, we struggled to get at Carlisle and in the second half at times there was a ton of space for us to potentially exploit. That game, for me, didn’t need to become so edgy during the last 15 minutes. We did restrict Carlisle but their style of play was like a poor version of ours, they were comfortable on the ball but when they got into the final third they didn’t have a lot of creativity or incision and McDonald, Platt, Bedeau and then Johnson did defend our box very well. Luckily we have the quality and that ultimately won us the game.
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They are a very similar style of player so you would hope so!
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Well Pete O'Rourke is usually spot on, interesting that if League 1 clubs were interested in taking him that he's picked us. I don't know anything about him but if he can run fast, he's already won me over.
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Yeah, Abbott was the best player on the pitch for me. His energy was vital and he somehow carried our attack despite playing as a 6 for the majority of the match. Hinchy was decent again, just needs to be a bit quicker on the ball at times but his general defensive work was solid.
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That was a really poor and strange performance from us, from the off we just looked so off the pace and nothing really changed through-out the entirety of the match. Even our goal kind of came out of nothing, it wasn’t like we were putting Carlisle under any real pressure, if anything they were the better team for the first 20 minutes. The goal did give us a bit of lift and we did start to take the ball off them high up a few times but we still got caught out too easily. Platt had no answer to Hugill’s pace, he probably should’ve been able to do more with the freedom he got a times. Second half was just really flat, we continued to be off the pace and just ponderous and directionless on the ball. We just struggled to move the ball forward, apart from a couple of fleeting moments, it was disjointed and far too slow. I thought our wingbacks were far too deep, JJ did more defending than attacking, McGoldrick for all his effort was poor on the ball, Grant was pretty ineffective and too anonymous Abbott even though playing behind him did more to cause them problems. No-one was able to/wanted to get on the ball and drive us forward. It screamed of a team missing Crowley. By the 70 minutes we were crying out for subs and fresh legs, but they somehow made us worse. Playing 5-4-1 (although it felt like 5-4-0) and hanging on against a team second bottom doesn’t fill you with confidence that we are League 1 bound. It was just so far off the high standards we’ve set, can only hope that was a one-off and we perform much better at the weekend.
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Charlton Athletic 2-1 Bristol Rovers Lincoln City 1-1 Blackpool Peterborough United 2-4 Wigan Athletic Accrington Stanley 1-1 Cheltenham Town Chesterfield 0-1 Bromley Crewe Alexandra 1-2 AFC Wimbledon Barnet 3-0 Hartlepool United 🤡 Southend United 1-0 AFC Fylde
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Junior Morias returns to Notts County | Dagenham & Redbridge FC DAGGERS.CO.UK We can confirm that Junior Morias has returned to Notts County upon the expiration of his loan deal. An intriguing end to his time at Dagenham though, after scoring 3 goals in 3 games he was dropped and then only featured off the bench against Millwall and West Ham Academy in some stupid National League Cup Competition. He’s not massively rated by the majority of our fans, but honestly, I don’t think he’s that bad. He’s never had the consistent game time with us and he’s been unfortunate with injuries. He’d have 100% been better than Jevani Brown, I still think he can offer us something. 11 goal contributions in half a season in the National League is a solid return (especially in a mid-table team!) What do think? Are you pleased to see him back?
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Carlisle are signing lots of new players in an attempt to stay up. And the likes of Embleton and Dummett won’t have been cheap. I guess the good news for us is that whilst their confidence might be a touch higher after beating Fleetwood, the cohesion and understanding between players won’t still won't be great. That’s not an issue for us really, it’s only Whitaker and Jarvis that will be getting up to speed with our patterns. I’d expect a few changes just because the turn around is so fast. Didzy could possibly be benched and Tsaroulla could possibly start. Abbott and Hinchy are young enough to cope, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Edwards came in for one of them. We do finally have some options and fit players now though which is a good thing. I can’t see this being as easy as the away game but that said they won’t be as organised or as defensively sound as Bromley were. We should be able to create enough chances in this game, just got to make sure we take them. (Oh and if Scott plays I hope this is the one game he has a nightmare, then he can be great for the rest of the season!)
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Yep good spot, but I'd say hold on popping that champagne! From the Millwall match report: "Head Coach Alex Neil made two changes to his starting XI at Kenilworth Road, with Tristan Crama - for his first Lions start - and Ivanovic coming in for the injured duo of Ryan Leonard and Macaulay Langstaff."
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Yeah, he's got potential, his last loan spell at Accrington was his most successful one. Ok, 5 goals in 17 isn't amazing, but in a team like Accrington it is more impressive. He's 22 now, I think his chance to get into the Burnley squad has passed, but he looks more capable of being successful in a League 2 side.
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Great for Lucien and I’m pleased for him but at the same time it’s a tad depressing for us. Are we actually going to be able to see one of our own academy players ever progress into the team? Any time we seem to have someone promising or talented they get picked up by Championship/Prem clubs… Once Didzy retires we’ll need someone! EFL Rule: Clubs also need to name at least one club developed player in their matchday squad; if they don't, they must name one fewer player on their bench. Ok it’s not the biggest penalty ever, but constantly having a player less in the matchday squad isn’t ideal.
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I agree with a lot that’s already been said, think we file that one under “frustrating”. We had the chances but just didn’t take them. It was unfortunately for us a “classic Bromley” performance, they just wanted that one chance and they got it (we gave it to them), they didn’t really trouble us for large parts of the match. The fact so many teams visit Meadow Lane and think we can’t go toe-to-toe with these is a massive compliment, but at the same time we’ve got to make sure we punish teams that do just sit back and basically hope for the best. Whenever a well organised team has come to Meadow Lane this season we have struggled to break them down, we were much better than against the likes of Port Vale and Gillingham but we’ve got to be more ruthless in the future. I’ve seen the Jatta chance back now, my initial reaction was that he should’ve had a shot, I’m even more convinced now! He actually had the ball under control, all he had to do was toe-poke it towards goal and it would’ve gone in. And then right at the end Whitaker had a chance to make himself an instant hero, a Bromley player would’ve buried that header…
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Yeah, if Stuart's aim was to relax us about Jatta it didn't work! To me, he basically said if someone pays enough he's theirs... Going to have launch Jatta's phone into the Trent and send his agent on impromptu holiday to a very remote island if we want to tip the balance in our favour!
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Bialkowski went to Ipswich for free but with a clause that if Ipswich had got promoted to the Prem we would've got some money. So basically we gambled and lost there. We barely had players move up the leagues pre-Reedtz brothers, that's how shocking our recruitment was! We are sadly going to be a victim of our own success in terms of recruitment, assuming it keeps being as good as it has been. The reality is if a player is really good he'll move on and up as we can't compete with what clubs higher up can offer wage wise. We will at least be compensated with a large fee which can than be used on a replacement. I think we do have to strike a balance though, because losing too many key players at once will inevitably have knock on effect on the pitch. For me I think losing 2 key players in one season is the limit and in Langstaff and Crowley that has happened. If Jatta is to move on, it will be a lot easier to replace him and integrate his replacement over the summer. Losing him and getting a firing replacement in about a week is a massive challenge, probs even one that's a step to far for us.
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STATEMENT: MATT TAYLOR DEPARTS WWW.WEALDSTONE-FC.COM Wealdstone FC can confirm that First Team Manager Matt Taylor has left the club to take up the Head Coach role at Solihull Moors. This follows the activation of the release clause in Matt’s contract... An interesting development today... Could be purely coincidental, but it would perhaps give a reason as to why the Saunders Brothers were there last Saturday. Still nothing from Notts this week though and I don't think any probing questions about the situation were asked in Stuart's pre-match press conference.
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You wouldn't think he was 19 by the way he plays... The way he's adapted to the physicality of the league, usually where a load of academy players struggle, has impressed me just as much as his on the ball abilities.
