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Genuinely thought he’d take us to League 1, maybe not straight away but we’d have got there at some point with him at the helm. Shame his last game was a loss, not the last memory you want or he deserves. The fact we’re getting a large compensation sum softens the blow. When he said he still lives in Wales it did worry me a touch that if he did get approached he could well leave us. A big pay rise too so I get why it would’ve been hard to turn down. Not going to lie but I think finding a coach as good/better than LW is a big challenge but Chris and Alex seem to know what they are doing given that our last two head coaches have effectively been “sold on”. As long as they are still here the future looks good for this club.

I don’t want to be too harsh as he suffered a really bad injury and didn’t play for a year before joining us, but he had no impact on the team on the pitch. He is (probably is - I don’t know him) a decent guy with lots of experience and a good pro for the younger players. However it just didn’t work out, we’ve got Robertson in now so I’m not surprised he’s not staying.

Now Luke has officially gone, I’ll back Stephen Bradley the current Shamrock Rovers manager. Ticks all the boxes in that they play the same style of football, press high and do it all in a 3-4-2-1 formation. And he’s done very well, you can’t fluke winning 4 Irish League titles in a row. On paper he seems perfect. I don’t think it’s too unrealistic either. It’s also the end of the season in Ireland now, and surely, he’s achieved all he can there. Just be a case of how settled is he in Ireland...

I hate all this drip-feed of developments. Just get it announced now, put us out our misery...

How much does Steve Cooper really love the city of Nottingham, he’d have had a good pay-off after being sacked… Surely that can compensate for the fact we can’t pay him £10k a week… I’m not really that inspired by anyone in the league below in terms of being at the same level as Luke Williams. Stuart Maynard is an interesting shout but the only memory I have of Stuart Maynard’s Wealdstone is how we beat them comfortably, twice. Was that just down to having superior players, surely a well-coached team would’ve done a bit better. I really don’t know, though, it’ll probably be someone I’ve never heard of! ????

I merely just reply to a lot of topics started on here but I'm glad I can contribute and share my views, it's a great site and it saves me from annoying/boring my partner!

Yeah, once it starts getting reported by actual journalists you know there’s something to it. The only glimmer of hope is that nothing has been signed yet maybe they won’t be able to agree terms… (He says desperately clutching at straws ????????) Not the start to the new year we want.

For me though the frustration is about not being able to just stay a bit more compact away from home. It's not great to concede early but it was a real blow to concede just before half-time especially having done so well to take the lead. Given we look to dominate we know we have to be switched on to deal with counter-attacks but it sounded like we really struggled with that in the second half. I think given the same team started the last 4 games in the space of about 10 days the levels were always going to drop slightly but the squad is thread bare at the moment. Particularly worrying that we had no attacking options on the bench! But James Sanderson seems light a bit of bright spark, seems to have been fast-tracked into first team so maybe we’ll see a bit more of him before the season is over. I think Tranmere have got a very good manager in Nigel Adkins too. Clearly improved them a lot since he’s come in, I’d expect them to push for the play-offs second half of the season now. A bit of break now is actually very handy for us. It’ll give us a chance to get some injured players back, Robertson a bit of time to bed in and possibly another addition too!

It’s hard to take much from a video but from the few I’ve seen he looks a lot quicker and stronger than Tipton did. He’s also actually played in the first team a couple of times too and I think he’s part of their first team squad. In an interview he did he talks about training with the first team everyday… So he’ll be coming up against the likes of Ashley Barnes and Josh Sargent whilst training with a host of internationals. I get the doubts given Tipton was effectively filling his role whilst here but he was very much a youth team player. He’d never been involved with Wolves first team nor had he ever played a professional game before. Whilst Jaden is still inexperienced, given he’s actually part of Norwich’s first team setup, I’d expect him to be a lot better.

I do think we’ve been on the end of some bad refereeing at times, but I think you ask any fan in the league and they’d say exactly the same. Think Morecambe fans won’t be too pleased with the penalty decision last night, the defender puts his arm out but doesn’t really grab Nemane, no way in real life does that action make you fall over. I guess for us though it equals out as I thought the penalty for Doncaster wasn’t a foul. I’d like to see ex-players start refereeing after they retire from playing. Football in this country has so much money, I think the FA should have program specially for lower league players after retiring so they can have a viable career. You’d have players who have been in those moments on the pitch, they know what it takes to knock you of balance, how much force is in a tackle. I think the standard would increase dramatically. On a slight side note, I don’t think going down the route of constant criticism of refereeing mistakes is the answer either. It’s become the norm now to blame the ref and some of the abuse a lot of referees get specifically at grass roots level is horrific. I play for a Sunday morning team, just for the fun of it and it’s such a low level of football it’s completely meaningless but I can’t believe how many grown men get so upset and angry at the man who’s given up his time to ref it. In our league last season one of the referees got punched by a player and the sad thing is this isn’t even a rare occurrence anymore... It'll definitely have a knock effect in the future, who want to become a ref right now?

That was as about impressive as I’ve seen us and I wouldn’t say Morecambe are particularly bad side either, probably finish mid-table, but we just absolutely tore them apart. We’ve got that swagger and confidence back now, it’s back to possession with a purpose and we’ve adapted to losing Matty Palmer by basically rotating Crowley, Austin, Langstaff and McGoldrick to drop deep and take the ball. The Langstaff contract was a masterstroke, I wonder if it hadn’t had happened how many clubs come January would have been putting in bids? 18 goals in half a season is insane and I think he’ll be looking to get to 30 this season. Everyone played well, Crowley just doesn’t know how to give the ball away, Austin kept popping up between the lines, McGoldrick looked like a Premiership player, JJ too hot to handle as usual and we dominated so much the defence didn't really need to defend! The rotations, the movements of our players were just superb. Forget the rumours about LW and Swansea, keep playing like that and Barcelona will be after him!

If it was genuinely driven by a desire to create a better European club tournament, I’d be for it, but it’s just greed. Football is in a right mess at the moment, FIFA and UEFA are just as bad at the minute, the whole thing needs a massive shake up but a European Super League just isn’t the answer.

We generally kept Stockport pretty quiet, yes disappointed with the corner but if we scored that we’d praise our team for the creativity and execution. And it did make we laugh how they bought Jayden on and chucked him upfront because he’s quick, proper school ground tactics (not really laughing cos he won them a pen!) That was much more like the Notts we know, bolder and braver taking the game to the best team in the league. We didn’t keep passing it backwards, we used Stone like the last option rather than the easy option which is a bit of a trap we’ve fallen into lately. Cameron and Brinds pushed forward, passing and movement was much better too, just needed a bit of luck with some of those crosses. They we’re very organised and defended pretty solidly through-out and it was an enjoyable game to watch. I think we deserved at least a point, but hey that’s the nature of football, just got to take that performance into Boxing day now and end this little run of losses. Oh and anyone got any footage of the Notts fans at the end? Great support as always but clearly made LW and the team a tad emotional.

I do feel the defence gets a hard time at times, I agree with @The Heff the midfielders are just as culpable as the defenders at times, when they get pressed they pass it back simply giving the responsibility to the defender. So when a defender gets pressed they can only really play it back to the goalkeeper. He'll play it out to another defender, who passes it to midfielder… If they don’t go forward it can become a vicious cycle! We’ve kind of sorted the individual errors and awful decision making from the Wimbledon/Shrewsbury games but in the last two games we’ve just lost that dynamism and the whole team’s ability to quickly win the ball back isn’t quite there. I think the general health of this squad this season is definitely hampering us now, especially as we are running with a small squad. Bostock is still clearly struggling as he only managed 60 minutes against Harrogate, so the midfield is in a right state at the minute. This is not a dig at O’Brien, he’s been great for us, but when you are suddenly relying on him to be the main man in midfield something has gone very wrong. Gosling looks to have been a proper cross your fingers and hope for the best signing and so far with January less than 2 weeks away it's not worked out. But it’s definitely not all doom and gloom, far from it. We’re still in the play-offs and whilst it would be amazing to get promoted, not getting promoted isn’t the be all and end all. We’re not in some race against the clock to get into league 1. I think when you get promoted you want to do it like last season when you are comfortably one of the best teams in the division, that way you have a better chance of continued success. There’s no point going up only to come straight back down. The Reedtz Bros have shown they like to build, and it’s absolutely the right way of doing things and that takes time. Luke Williams has shown last season he’s 100% the right man for the job and I’m certain we’ll have a few fresh faces in January. The club is the best position it’s been for years, probably the best in my time supporting Notts.

Interestingly we actually switched to a back 4 in the second half of yesterdays game. I don't think there was much difference to be honest. People can read into the formations too much, we've played a variation of a 3-4-2-1, with an ever changing back 3, all season and our form has only recently started to dip. For me I'd say that's more to do with the application of the players more than the positions they are playing in.

Worrall recently signed a new contract and according to FM earns about £40,000. McKenna is on about £25,000 (I know it’s a game but they usually aren’t far off with these things). Nice idea and I wouldn’t say no but they aren’t going to let them come here for free, nor can I see them dropping 3 divisions! I’d say we’ve got about 0.1% chance of either happening.

Yeah, that was not good. Shrewsbury was all about individual errors, the Walsall game (although I didn’t go) was a dreadful second half. Well this was the complete performance, pretty dire for the whole 90. Harrogate looked up for it at the start, almost waiting for us to make a mistake, but they didn’t need to. They did in 5 minutes what we struggled to do all game, attack and get us running backwards, a neat-cut back and an annoyingly great finish and that’s us 1-0 down. Then Harrogate just sat back, and let us pass it around for a bit until they decided to string together another 5 passes and score. For all our possession it was too easy for Harrogate we played far too safe and just had the ball for the sake of having it. Far too many backward passes when a bit of bravery was needed. We must have played about 1 or 2 balls in behind their defence that first half, I could’ve played in at CB they were that untroubled. Our ability to get the byline and put dangerous crosses in has just gone. 2nd half wasn’t any better, our goal came out of nowhere but it gave me hope we could nick a draw... That hope lasted for about 90 seconds, just an inability to read the game, it’s like we got too over excited and went all out to immediately equalise. Just like in the first half, Harrogate made about 4 passes, got up the pitch and nice bit of play in the box and it’s 3. No defensive howlers, Stone's contribution for the second aside, but that was so passive we just let them run past us constantly and failed to make tackles time and time again. It reminded me of the Sutton game. We had our best spell in the last 15 minutes of the game, not a positive though, Harrogate had pretty much given up by then, they knew they could take it easy and we hadn’t really laid a glove on them all game. I don’t know why we’ve gone so off the boil at the moment, we’ve gone from all-out attack to no attack. We look off the pace, we look vulnerable as soon as we lose the ball. So yeah, all in all an awful day out! Only made better by the fact I was there with an old friend who lives nearby, so I was able to have a few drinks after and forget (try to) the whole 90 minutes. I saw the Stockport score and they are next up. Play like that and we are in serious trouble, don’t even bother turning up in fact. What’s the punishment for not fulfilling a fixture? A fine and a 2-0/3-0 loss? I’d take that.

That's a long contract we've given to him, the club and coaching staff obviously see a lot of potential in him. I've been impressed, you're going to be inconsistent when this is your first spell in men's football but he's very comfortable on the ball and has slotted in nicely. I think the one criticism I have with Notts squad is the lack of younger pros, Macari is in a pretty small group of 20-24 year olds. In terms of proper first teamers, there's only Stone and Baj and they are both 24. I think this type of player is someone need to be targeting, someone who can play in the first team when needed but is someone who can also improve (a lot!) with us over the years. I know in hindsight it's easier to say but an understudy for the likes of Palmer/Bostock would've been ideal for this season too.

I think we missed the chance after having 2 bids rejected earlier in the season, that’s not a dig at the club though, I respect the fact we have a strategy and limit which means we don’t overspend. If Conor had really wanted to join us he had a good chance to kind of force a move there. Whether or not he’d have been good we’ll never know, but the club will have kept tracks on plenty of defenders and I still fully expect us to sign one.

I think Gosling needs to have an impact now before Jan otherwise it’s not worth keeping him on. I Feel for Tipton as this loan hasn’t done anything for him but there is no point in him staying. And I know we’ve only just signed him but I’d look to send Randall out on loan. I can’t see where he fits in, he doesn’t get in ahead of either Chicksen or Adebayo-Rowling for me he’s like a 3rd choice wing-back and that’s unnecessary. I don’t expect us to sign a GK, not just in terms of the budget but 4 keepers is too many, we’d have to get rid of one and I can’t see that happening. I agree it’s an area that needs to be reassessed, but I’d expect that to happen during/over the summer. So it would be 3 out and 3 in for me. A centre back, a centre back/def mid, a centre mid.

I was only able to listen but we did sound very lacklustre and then to have LW say he didn’t recognise the team after the game is worrying. Sounded like the ball spent as much time out of play as it did in, our passing game just not there. But to not create a decent chance and have a shot on goal in the second half, especially against a Walsall team who sounded bang average, is shocking. I know people bang on about the defence but yesterday’s bench was limiting in terms of attacking talent, when the game is desperate for someone on to add a bit of creativity, we only had Morias the rest were central midfielders and defenders! I don’t know why we played so badly but I’m starting to wonder is it just a coincidence that our form has dropped since Matty Palmer’s injury or does it tell us how much we rely on him when he is in the team? I can remember last season against Maidstone, our final away game, we were 3-0 up. Then we took Matty Palmer off and almost immediately after they scored 2 and nearly got a 3rd!

It was interesting to hear at the club forum that the level of the academy dropped in terms of quality during our spell in the NL as we lost a lot of talented youngsters. Looks like we've been able to keep a few though! A very well taken goal, hopefully he stays around and makes the step up in the near future.

Yeah, given that the temperature today is getting up to a colossus 1° I'm not going to be venturing too far! Got a bit of tidying up and cleaning to do and then I'm going to treat myself to a parsnip curry. It looked delicious when made on the TV by a professional chef, here's to hoping I can do it justice!

The annoying thing is when opposition teams actually put an attacking move together the defending in general play isn’t that bad, we can cope on the whole. Yes we occasionally leave a man free or miss a tackle but but I’d say those type of errors are the same for most teams in this league. What really is hurting us is the decision making from our defenders and that’s costing us goals from seemingly unthreatening and defendable scenarios. All of yesterday's goals were avoidable. It's not like recently teams have been this unstoppable force who can play through us, we just keep giving the opposition the ball!

I’ll admit I was so disappointed with the starting line-up. I thought we’d make a few changes but we really disrupted the side and for no good reason. Then we had the appalling start with Baldwin gifting them a goal, a poor pass back from Randall I thought he slipped but I think he actually just falls over trying to bait the attacker. Then second half another early defensive mistake. Randall just switched off and then he crossed it into our own box, utterly dreadful play. Awful header from Rawlinson too and we gift Shrewsbury the lead. Third goal was just really awful from Baldwin why is he doing a step over as the last man? He's got to knock it back to Stone. No awareness at all. I’ve no issue with us wanting to pass out from the back and keep the ball, but sometimes you really do just need to clear it! We have to stop giving away goals like this, honestly giving away a throw-in is a lot less costly than giving away a goal. Shrewsbury had only scored 2 away goals all season before tonight so for them to score 3 and in the manner they did is a joke. They weren’t even particularly good, they were there for the taking. How many passes did they make all game? If someone had said they were a NL team I would’ve believed you. They didn’t do anything other than sit back all game. But we needed to show a bit more belief instead of showing them too much respect. Brindley bailed us out of that first half with a great strike. In the end for all the control and possession the defensive howlers gave us too much to do. It was a great moment for Sanderson, sadly that won't get talked about but hopefully we’ll see more of him in the future. Really annoyed with that performance, we gave Shrewsbury the win. Could’ve been a 2-0 win but their twitter full-time post sums it up; “On the first day of Christmas Notts County gave to me, Ryan Bowman scoring three”. A massive opportunity missed in my opinion, if Shrews get a premier league team in the next round good luck and fair play to them. Hopefully it’ll remind us next time what’s at stake.