menzinho

I think Walsall are a decent team and I wasn’t begrudging them of the win, but I can’t hide the frustration from our side. We started the second half well, but why couldn't we have started the first half like that? Even with our injuries, I feel this team is more capable than it shows at times! Walsall's game plan was more effective, but they didn’t outplay us, it was pretty even in that respect but we created two of their goals because we played ourselves into trouble. I think Walsall have a good chance of going up automatically because their home form is really strong and they’ve shown how they can be effective against the other good teams in this league. Saturday’s game between Port Vale and Walsall will be really intriguing.

I know we are lacking our better technical attackers, but we seem to persist with the intricate passing patterns even when we are struggling. Austin isn’t Crowley, Tsaroulla isn’t Jodi yet we play like they are. We really struggled to get Austin into the game yesterday and Tsaroulla was well marshalled by their full-back for most of the game. I think a slight change in style could've helped. Sometimes I just want to see us put the opposition defence under a bit more pressure, yesterday Walsall showed that just forcing defenders to do things quicker than they like can create problems. Don’t get me wrong I do think it’ll be a massive help when the better attacking players are back, but I just don’t think we’ve adapted as well as we could have. Maybe I'm being overcritical but I wonder why so many of our other attacking players have struggled to perform. Since the injuries Austin, Brown, Martin, Gordon and Tsaroulla have provided no goals and 1 assist between them, are they really just not good?

Considering Abbott missed out Hinchy stepped in and did very well, got a goal too. I thought McGoldrick was our best attacking threat and was generally very tidy on the ball. But Matty Palmer probably just shades it for me, didn't really do anything wrong, he just needed a bit more from the players in front of him.

It’s just not quite there is it, I know we are missing our better attacking players but I still feel like we’ve got the ability to get something from these games. I couldn’t believe for a team that passes out from the back how much we actually struggled to get the ball over the halfway line, especially in the first half. The movement and speed we moved the ball was just dreadful. It was a really poor half overall, Walsall weren’t even really pressing us they just kept their shape and we couldn’t get near their goal. I felt a bit sorry Cisse, not going to criticise him cos he’s very young but that was not the right time to put him in. I want our academy players to come through but just shoving them in when they are not ready doesn’t do much for me. Although, it makes me wonder just how bad Martin must be. Second half we were better but once again we were the architects of our own downfall, like how do you concede directly from a corner! Bass totally misjudges the flight of the ball, if Slocombe had been in goal tons of fans would’ve gone nuts over that. Their second goal came from our inability to pass it out and everyone got sucked over to right hand side for some reason. We needed a penalty to back into it but then you could see the confidence return a bit, we actually had Walsall a tad worried until we messed up again. Awful pass from Ness to Bass and then he hacks it into the middle of pitch again, when he just had to whack it into the stands… We had 76% possession tonight, I think that’s the most we’ve had all season yet Walsall had 23 shots… We had 14, that shouldn't be happening. No-one really had a shocker of a game though, there were some good individual performances, I liked what I saw from Hinchy, Palmer was probably my man of the match and McGoldrick was desperately trying to be a creative spark, but cohesively as a team it’s just not working right now.

Think our game is the biggest one in terms of position in the table tonight, MK are doing well now (boo) and face Chesterfield at home, Wimbledon at home to Newport and Port Vale away at Cheltenham. At the end of play tonight best case scenario sees us go within 3 points of the leaders and up to 2nd (if we score enough goals). Worst case scenario we go 9 points behind the leaders and drop to 7th place - let’s not think about that one though! Also, how are Grimsby only 3 points behind us, doesn’t seem possible given they’ve lost 8 games already!

Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Mansfield Town Leyton Orient 1-1 Bristol Rovers Stevenage 1-0 Northampton Town ???? Wrexham 2-2 Barnsley Bradford City 1-0 Barrow Colchester United 2-1 Swindon Town Salford City 1-1 Harrogate Town Tranmere Rovers 0-0 Morecambe

I do think this is a big moment in the season for us. Both us and Walsall have only played 6 games against the top 10 so far this season so we’re in a similar situation in that we don’t know quite how realistic a top 3 finish is. Their home form is solid though, their only loss seems to be a bit of a freak anomaly a 6-2 defeat against Fleetwood as all the other games were wins (5) or draws (2). I’m expecting Didzy to play in one of the second striker/attacking mid roles. I’d play Austin alongside him as his off the ball running pairs nicely with Didzy’s on the ball ability. Robertson and Crowley back in the matchday squad would be useful too. If Platt has to be rested I’d go for McDonald in the middle, think it’ll play to his strengths. In our last 10 league games we’ve only won 3 times so a loss would mean our form (and ability to beat anyone above us) makes automatic promotion seem a big ask. A win here though would be massive and galvanise everyone going into the Christmas period.

Always going to be tough against a Premier League Academy side, a good test for our young players and just getting to the 3rd Round was a good achievement. Just hoping all is okay with Zac Denman, sounds like a bad injury. I'm hoping well get some sort of update soon and that it's as good a news as is possible.

Yeah I feel like George Abbott has won a lot of the man of the match awards this month but Platt has been excellent overall too.

I’ve been watching Day of the Jackal and I've really been enjoying it so far, I think it's a 10 part series and right now there are about two episodes left to go. It's on NowTV & Sky right now for those who have either. The main story line is very engaging and the two leads, Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch are excellent in it. I’ve never seen the original film so I’ve no idea how true it is to that. It’s a bit gory and ruthless, if you don’t like blood or violence I would avoid it! Some parts are a tad coincidental and ridiculous at times but I think all short dramas/thrillers have to be in a way. It’s your classic things like people just being in the right place at the right time and inability of anyone (outside the leads) to shoot a decent shot… I get the story wouldn’t work if the lead characters died, but yeah it makes me laugh that these dangerous bad guys can’t shoot a gun to save their lives at times! It’s a bigger budget series and it shows, lots of locations and sets which all look stellar and the actual filming of it is great. Loads of slick camera work, which I think is undervalued sometimes in thrillers like this.

Seems on the socials the whole substitution situation is irking a few fans. I was only able to listen to the game but it did sound like Peterborough were on top and dominated that whole second half. Think tactical changes were needed more than personnel changes. For all our defensive nous in this league it does show you the level in quality in League 1 against the decent teams is another step up. No-one in our league looks close to being able to put four past us. Same thing happened to Walsall against Charlton too, except they lost 4-0. And just a quick point about the 3rd goal, this isn't the first time Bass has passed it out into the middle and caused us problems. This is just the first time it's actually cost us a goal. No idea why when a opposition player is following Palmer (or our other CMs for that matter) you would risk that sort of pass. Maybe now he'll be more inclined to pass it wider as then at least no-one would be through on goal.

Yep, I agree with the others, only playing 157 minutes of league football for us last season (equivalent to about 1 ¾ games) won't have helped. He’s played a lot more minutes for Dagenham this season and has only missed two games for them! I’d love him to return in January and do well, we basically loaned him out and loaned Brown in to replace him, and Jevani has been just ok. I am trying to think of the last time a player was left out/barely given a chance but then came in a did well… Chicksen was probably the last player to fall into this category. Neal Ardley never played him but then Ian Burchnall came in, played him in a back three and he was great!

I'll probably sign up to BlueSky at some point, especially if there is a growing Notts community on it. I'll be sure to follow PON and the rest of you guys on it too. That's nearly a full house for the PON socials... Just the TikTok account to go now!

I can remember my mum's Spaghetti Bolognese I think that was a staple of the 90s&00s. She used to finely chop carrots and peppers in hers to add more veg without me noticing! Sheppard's/Cottage pies too, again with the added finely chopped veg tactic. Sausage and mash was probably my favourite meal though, with proper thick gravy. Chicken Kiev's felt like another food of that time period, I haven't had one for about 10 years now!

I think there are four very obvious stand out choices in Bass, Bedeau, Platt and Abbott. All have featured a lot and played very well too. I think Tsaroulla is a good player, but he’s not quite clicking for us in the final third. We play him like he's Jodi though and I don't think that always plays to his strengths. Gordon is a bit 50/50 for me, possibly being played more on the left isn’t helping but then he played on the right when he came on against Newport and looked average. Could say the same about Jevani Brown, he’s not been terrible, but no goals or assists in the league is poor, especially when you consider his position. Hard to say much about the rest due to not seeing enough of them. Hinchy looks like a player who’s played a lot of academy football, technically good but a touch off the pace at times in a proper competitive game. He is young and will improve. Edwards was very lively and good on the ball, I liked him when he played just behind the striker. Grant is like an attacking midfield version of Matty Palmer, doesn’t ever really give the ball away and just links play up nicely. Ness has performed well in recently and McDonald looks more than capable from his limited appearances too. Cundy is possibly a tad unnecessary now, he’s not mobile enough to play in the RCB/LCB roles for me. He is only on a one-year deal, we might even let him go in January. I expect Martin will go in January though as his contract expires then. I think he doesn’t start at wingback because he isn’t trusted defensively, he is more attack minded but the fact we’ve struggled for goals recently and haven’t bought him on is pretty telling.

I agree that there was always going to be a biggish section of Leicester fans who would be against Steve Cooper regardless as to how he performed. I'm not quite sure what the expectations were though, avoiding relegation would have been an absolutely fine outcome to this season. Their defence is poor and they are still over-reliant on Jamie Vardy, I think Steve Cooper was performing as expected. Everton and maybe Wolves aside their isn't really a host of bad Premier League teams anymore. Relegation now is almost just a battle amongst the newly promoted sides, with one hoping to stay up.

Some things that stick out for me in that article… “Manager Paul Simpson survived relegation but the club hero was sacked in August after four games following a bad start in the division below” Anytime a manager gets sacked 4/5 games into the start of the season it is dreadful management from the top. Carlisle have basically wasted a whole pre-season, not only will Paul Simpson have spent all summer coaching his players how he wants to play, he’ll have bought specific players in for that system. The lack of foresight and planning is dreadful. Players brought in: 22 Players moved on: 16 That is a very high turnover of players, I’d like to know the last time a team turned over tons of players (without being able to spent a fortune!) and was successful – it was a hallmark of Notts many seasons ago and unsurprisingly we were constantly fighting relegation… "The Piataks wants to make Carlisle a real, well-run and sustainable Championship club” And there you have it, the dreaded “Championship plan”. Everything will be alright when we are in the Championship, inflate in the expectations of your fan base whilst making promises about something that is very hard to achieve… Worry about trying to stay in the league and becoming a competitive League 2 club first. I think Carlisle will do well to stay in League 2 this season, they were poor defensively and weak in attack when they lost to us. Morecambe are down there and as much as I don’t like Derek Adams, he’s a savvy manager. Accrington have unexpectedly gone on a bit of a run and given themselves more of a chance of staying up. Swindon look in real trouble too, I saw Ian Holloway saying the reason for their troubles is that their training ground is “haunted”. Fully expect to hear that there’s some strange magnetic field at Swindon’s ground that is stopping them from scoring soon! Still, I think Carlisle ranked quite highly in the best run clubs feature that someone posted on here a few weeks ago. We could offer to switch, but they wouldn’t want the 22nd placed Reedtz Brothers…

I agree with @Robbie, all the back 3 had good games. Ness did well coming in, Platt solid as always and Macari moved over to the left but didn’t look out of place at all. My only caveat is that Newport didn’t really commit many players forward though, so it was always very manageable for our defence. Not much between Palmer or Abbott for me, other than Palmer looking a bit dead on his feet by the end of the game. So Abbott just shaded it for me too.

Anyone on here a student a the Uni of Nottingham? Little scouting mission for the week...

I agree about adding another wing-back and I think I’d be looking to add someone more in the mould of Nemane. Matt Ward possibly, I’ve not seen him play and I think you’d have to be a clear cut above National League level to step up and do well for us in League 2. And I like Anthony Forde, not quite as quick but the guy was and probably still is League 1 standard. The money was clearly the pull that got him to Wrexham, would we be able to afford him? Kavanagh’s numbers make him stand out but I’m never quite sure of the standard of the League of Ireland and how it compares to the lower EFL Leagues. I remember Andre Wright was on trial for us (when we were in the National League) after getting in the LOI team of the year. We didn’t sign him and he went to play for Ayr United and then Telford and didn’t score for either of them. Obviously there will be players good enough to play League 2 but it’s about spotting the right ones.

Weird game, totally dominate and although we had 20+ shots we never really forced their keeper into a great save. And some of our shooting was really bad. The fact Jatta, our centre forward, only had 2 shots is also quite bizarre. Brown probably had the best chance first half when Jatta headed it back to him and he completely scuffed the ball from about 8 yards out, he should've scored. Second half Macari is unlucky that his header didn't drop in and Didzy had a decent chance again from a corner. But every other shot was pretty poor. I think a lack of quality with touch of slow attacking play did for us there. We pressed well against them and robbed the ball off them quite a few times but nothing ever really came of it, when it probably should. Teams used to punish us for that last season and we should’ve done it to Newport today. But at times I feel like we are so married to our patterns of play, when a half chance opens up to go forward, we don’t. Instead, we play safe because we are waiting for certain players to get into certain positions before we attack and then Newport can have a breather and get back into position. I think we are crying out for some pace. Not only do we need to attack quicker but a player or two that can break the lines more and cause more of a threat in behind would be helpful.

I don't think he would be classified as an overseas player, from what I can find he did grow up in England (living here from the ages of 7-18) so that might be enough and if it isn't he came through the English academy system. A “Home Grown Player” is defined in the (Rule 33.8) as a player who: Irrespective of their nationality or age, has been registered with either: their current club (who is a member of the EFL); and/or a club and/or any other football club affiliated with the Football Association (“FA“) or Football Association of Wales (for example, EPL or non-league clubs) for a period, continuous or non-continuous, of three seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which they turn 21). Basically a player needs to have been in an English Team/Academy for 3 years between the ages of 15 and 21. He spent 4 years at Leicester, leaving when he was 18. So he'll have had the 3 years.

Jatta and McGoldrick both go straight in for me and Crowley too if he’s fit. It does slowly start to feel like we are becoming very reliant on those 3 players and that’s not a good thing. I feel like Brown is at a bit of a crossroads now, I thought after Alfreton he’d kick on, but he’s still yet to score or assist in the league. Sam Austin also has the same issue. And I still feel like I’m yet to see the best of Gordon, and whilst Tsaroulla looks promising he’s still only provided one assist... Defensively I feel we are a lot more solid, but is that now coming at a cost to our attacking play? We are really struggling in an attacking sense (outside of Jatta, McGoldrick and Crowley) our other attacking midfielders and wingbacks, whilst having had more game time recently, have struggled to have much of an impact for me. That first half against Crewe, in an attacking sense, was probably the worst I’ve seen all season. We need to step it up a bit now. A game against Newport should suit us though, they are one of the poorer teams defensively in the league and one of the worst pressing sides (in terms of effectiveness). And we tend to very well against the lower mid-table sides too. Aaron Wildig has just been ruled out for the season for them and was probably one of their best players. We’ll likely see the tallest man in the world again as Kyle Hudlin (formerly of Solihull Moors) is now at Newport and he’ll provide a threat upfront.

Luton Town 1-0 Hull City West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Norwich City ???? Huddersfield Town 1-0 Charlton Athletic Peterborough United 3-2 Reading AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Walsall Chesterfield 1-1 Barrow Boston United 0-1 Braintree Town Tamworth 2-2 Dagenham Redbridge

Interesting, I was thinking we are a bit short in numbers in wing-back and he was rated by Leicester when he was younger. Having done a quick search he actually turned down an offer from them and was training with their first team before he left. He then signed for Dinamo, but never played for their first team. Clearly very talented but just hasn't been able to settle at a club by the looks of it. If he's out-performing Tsaroulla and Gordon in our training, he'd probably be worth signing (assuming he is actually training with us!)