menzinho

I just can’t quite believe the transformation from a few weeks ago. We could’ve won 6-0. Brindley and Chicksen part of back three bombing forward, it's mad to see! Brindley carries the ball so well and Chicksen slots some lovely balls through for Miller. Reeves and O’Brien making late runs into the box. Wing-backs playing high. And Rodrigues and Wootton linking up well. It’s proper attacking football. Great that we’re in the play-offs now too. Got to solidify that 5th place but whoever we get we’ll have a real go at them.

Solid result, after the Altrincham game I was a tad worried going away to another team with nothing to play for could be frustrating but we kept a good tempo to the game and that goal before HT was huge. Some pretty big results elsewhere with the play-off chasers; Wrexham, Chesterfield and Dagenham all winning comfortably too. Bromley and Halifax both dropped points though so keep playing like we are and we should make it. Also I completely forgot Petrasso plays for them, I was gutted we never extended his loan when he was with us. Weird that he’s there on loan now but 7 goals in 26 games in a really poor side is quite impressive.

Like I said pre-match, never doubted them! ???????? That’s just us in a nutshell though. Arguably the best team in the league and we get a well-deserved win. 1st half was pretty even, a couple of good moves from us but Sutton looked more dangerous - Olaofe pretty much had the beating of D-KE and Rawlo that entire half. And then 2nd half, all us really. Should we consider playing the rest of the season with 10 men? We were on top before the red but then we went on and completely bossed it. Have to say it was incredibly unlucky neither Sam’s or Wootton’s efforts didn’t count… Luckily it didn’t matter in the end. And I'm really pleased for IB, really tough week with the whole departure and (some) fans starting to get on his back. Whether or not you think he should have replaced Ardley you never want someone to come in and struggle.

Anyone out there genuinely think we'll win it? Really not looking forward to this game as I can only see it ending one way. It's just a case how many goals will they get... Pfft. I'll say 2-0 Sutton. I don’t bet but I’m genuinely tempted. Imagine if we win though… Nope, I can’t actually imagine it.

Yeah, that was one of our easiest games from our run in (on paper) and we really struggled. We’re so toothless in attack, luckily we were bailed out by a great set-piece. And the dreadful passing giving it to the opposition in dangerous areas continued, somehow it didn’t cost us another goal today. Now I’ll spend the rest of the weekend just trying to block out the fact we’re playing Sutton on Tuesday - they recently went to Altrincham and beat them 4-0. ????

Quite unbelievable that it's 1-1 at HT. Need a much better second half if we're to get the 3 points here...

Yep. But then we'd probably go on amazing winning run and get promoted. That game really was typical Notts. Before the game I’d have taken a draw considering our and their form. But they were down to 10 men and we still managed to chuck three points away. No idea where the 8 minutes of injury time came from, but it sounded like we stopped playing after about 70 mins… Still, we had a huge chance to make it 3-1 and didn't take it.

I assume Luke Steele will be straight in as the GK and then formation wise do we finally go back to 4 at the back and players in their strongest/natural positions? With Cal out now we really do need Enzio in an attacking role. I hope the free week has been a mini-reset, all the videos that the club put out this week were very positive and encouraging (well they were for me anyway) and it reminds you we do still have good players here… You just don’t know if they’ll turn up at the minute. It’s a massive game and it’ll prove a point either way. I’m hoping for the positive, that we still have a bit of fight in us.

I can’t remember the last time I spent pretty much the whole stream shaking my head or rolling my eyes. How are we worse at the back with 3 centre backs now? And what is about Rawlinson looking like a completely different player when he’s part of a back 3? Can’t believe we persisted for 75 minutes with the 5-2-3/3-4-3 whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t working. We were better when we switched to the 4-4-2 but the crossing was atrocious. The most annoying thing about today, Eastleigh didn’t even need to get out of 1st gear to beat us today - they barely attacked us yet they came away with three points. That was absolutely rubbish.

If ever a game epitomises our season, it was that. First half was the tale of the of every first half when a team pressures us and pins us in, we just cannot combat it. No doubting the effort in the second half, it was better and we were positive but it just wasn’t too be. Another case of waiting for that moment of magic from an individual, a goal from out-of-nowhere to spark us into life. And then Cal. Pretty much the one-man we’ve pinned this season’s success on… It’s just not going to be for him is it? IB was quite literally cursing his luck when the camera’s zoomed in on him. I’m fearing the worst as there’s clearly something still not quite right there. I don’t and really didn’t feel too down after that result, we were beaten by a better team. I was hopeful we could win and I’d have absolutely taken a draw beforehand. For me that cements that play-offs will be the best we get and even then I think us going up will be reliant on a moment of magic.

I thought this too but he hasn’t actually played for them for a month now, and he’s not injured so I’d be surprised if he played. In terms of the set-up, they play 3-5-2, so do we continue and match them up or does Ian Burchnall think we’ll have more luck with a different formation? I think I’d stick, only change would be Wootton for Sam. And maybe even have Rodrigues in instead of Griffiths. We’re good away from home and they’re unbeaten in their last 11 home games, you’d think it would be quite tight which would suit us at the moment. We'd get to bring on Roberts and Knight for the last 30 mins, the last thing Hartlepool defenders want! I think they'll be the ones that help us secure a positive result here.

Big win, needed to keep that faint hope of top alive (I haven’t given up hope yet), but more importantly keeping in touch with that 2nd/3rd spot. I was worried after the first 10, we could’ve easily been 2-0 down. Our slow starts have cost us games this season and if not for Slocombe that could’ve been another one. Luckily Wrexham sort of gave up after 20. Still didn’t create a lot, we looked comfortable but their keeper didn’t really have a lot to do. Thought Chicksen did well (after a shaky start) and agree with @Super_Danny_Allsopp about Griffiths and Knight. Still confused as to why Wootton was sent off, just a 50-50 ball and then play was restarted with a drop-ball. Did he say something? Pfft, anyway he needs a break he’s been carrying the attack all season. Hopefully that’s the end of the set-backs for Roberts, a massive boost for us and Burchnall – he really will make the run in easier. Part one of Easter done, got to back that up another good result at Woking now.

That was painful to watch. Lets get that penalty decision out the way first cos it was an absolute shocker. Ellis’ arm just brushed against his back, and he goes over like an Olympic diver. Woeful decision from the ref. We still had 88 mins to get something out of the game, so I wasn’t worried… (But I should’ve been!) I know Aldershot had no intention of having the ball but was the whole idea of passing between Reeves and the defenders an attempt to put them to sleep or something? That was like watching Notts years ago under Ian McParland pass it round the back before one of the CB’s finally decides to just pump it long... Second half wasn’t much better, except Aldershot actually realised if they have a bit of the ball they could easily make it 2-0. Thought we’d get some sort of reaction after Saturday but that was just as bad if not worse.

The worst possible start for Burchnall. And the worst possible way to lose that (apart from getting thumped like 5-0). Pfft… 3 goals against a team levels below should’ve been more than enough. We were so open at times and it felt like Hornchurch were only one good ball away from being in. The fact we’ve struggled of late passing out from the back I thought we’d mix it up a bit more, especially as Wootton looked good in the air today and there’s been very little time to rectify it on the training ground. So poor from us though, half of that Hornchurch team didn’t look fit (kindest way of putting it!). Fair play to them. Would have been interesting what some fans would’ve made of Ardley starting Reeves and Doyle in CM again and then bringing off Rodrigues for O’Brien early on. Also thought Kean shouting to put their player off taking his pen was petty and unnecessary, no fans I know but they didn’t do it when Kyle stepped up first. Positives from today. Sutton drew with Halifax... ????

Match postponed! Due to a covid case in the Aldershot team, even though it's just one team member they all have to isolate for 10 days... League rules. Not good for us, we already have a packed schedule so this game will have to be crammed in somewhere - you'd think the league might consider extending the season by a week or 2 considering everyone has been hit with more postponements than usual this season.

I think Kelly-Evans would be my last choice. Absolutely fearless, but I’d be shooting from the halfway line if I saw him in goal! I know what you mean, first thought is to get someone bigger there but the likes of Rawlinson and Wootton are too influential. Considering the formation we switched too Doyle ended up being the ideal choice.

I’ve only ever seen Notts play as high as League 1 so for me I genuinely think that is the most impressive performance I’ve seen. When Slocombe got sent off I would’ve absolutely taken a 1-1 there and then. Probably wouldn’t even been that gutted if we’d lost 2-1 but to win that like we did is… Wow. Glad Doyle pulled rank and got that kit off Ruben otherwise we wouldn’t have seen his goal as it was an absolute beauty. I can’t fault anyone’s performance, about 70 mins in I thought “yep we’re actually going to win this”, they were all so dominant. And so much for our defensive manager who kept 2 strikers on when we went down to 10. The hardest decision he’ll have to make for Wrexham will be Pilling or Doyle in goal? ???????? Glad I’m not a Dagenham fan…

Points wise we can’t complain as that’s 7 points from 9 in 7 days. However performance wise, and I mean in an attacking sense I’m a bit worried. We won that through a flukey goal, yes we dominated possession but chance wise again we didn’t create a lot…

It was a strange game, Ardley said he thought it would be more open. Solihull did have a lot of players behind the ball but that’s no excuse for being as poor as we were particularly in the first half. At the moment we’re relying on moments of magic to win us games, which hardly ideal! I get the frustrations, early on in the season we were scoring but conceding - now we’ve fixed the conceding part we need to rediscover that scoring part again! I still find it odd that we’re only 16 games into the season… And I think I can look at that as a positive. Under Ardley the team seems to need a run of games to get going, we had our best spell last year over the Christmas/NY period we continued that into the second half of the season but sadly had to stop playing just when we’d won 5/5! I’m hopeful we can replicate that type of form again.

Solihull play at bit like us by all accounts, so it could be a case of two teams cancelling each other out – I’m not expecting a goal fest especially considering our lack of goals at the moment. Sounds like Brindley won’t be available, so D-KE to RB and Miller in at LB? I'd be surprised if Chicksen started. And It’ll be interesting to see if Reeves and Doyle continue to play as the CMs. I’m still not sure which formation suits us best this season. Assuming we want to play with Rodrigues the 4-2-3-1 probably just edges it for me… Head says another 0-0 but I hope we can win it.

Would’ve been a great statement if Notts could have won that, I feel a bit disappointed we didn’t. Couldn’t fault the work rate/battling and again, defensively very solid. Another clean sheet but is it coming at the expense of our attacking play? I feel like our attacking play is too predictable now, I don’t mind us cutting inside but it’s almost every attack. Yesterday it forced Enzio to shoot with his left foot, he bangs them in on his right! Play him on the other wing or just switch it up a bit more - he was only up against a now 35 y/o Dean Moxey, no disrespect but Enzio should've been able to cause him constant problems one on one. When we’re in the final third, still, almost every ball is into feet we never want to play a ball in behind – mainly because no-one makes the runs but the one time we did Effiong caused a big problem. He won a good free-kick another yard in and he would’ve got a pen. I’m slightly worried we rely too much on Roberts in an attacking sense, since his injury in the league we’ve scored 5 goals in 7 games… Is that just a coincidence? I’m not so sure…

Started too slow. First half was a bit of a non-event, we did actually get into plenty off good positions but we ended up crossing to just Wootton in the box a lot of times, desperately needed more bodies in there. Second half was much better, if we’d have played like we had in the second half all game I’d have backed us to win that. Linesmen were shocking, no way was Enzio off in the first half and Knowles looked level to me. The overall performance did deserve at least a draw if I’m being honest – but ya know that’s football. Can’t argue with the defence at moment, but we aren’t going to keep clean sheets every game – just conceding the one goal isn’t bad. However since we scored 3 against Wealdstone, we’ve only scored 2 goals in the last 5 league games…

Yeah, not great news for us at all especially as it’s a double header of games so that’s another set of games to catch up on. So we’ve played 13 games in 3 months, that’s basically 4 games a month, and we’ve got 31 games (+ FA vase) left to play. If we keep averaging 4 games a month it’ll take us 7 months to complete the season! Lots of teams in the same position and some have even played fewer than us too, Dover have only played 9 games! And now there’s a more contagious strain of Covid-19, I agree @DangerousSausage that a PPG finish is looming again….

Yeah maybe, @Piethagoram I think he was our last signing but he’s played his entire career in L1, and Bolton fans liked and rated him. He’s two levels lower now; he should be more than solid enough for us. I like DKE but it's got to be so much easier for a natural left-footer in that position. I’m not writing Chicksen off just yet, I need to see more of him – but yeah, he hasn’t exactly had a standout performance so far...

When I first saw the team, I was surprised that Chicksen couldn’t get in at LB ahead of our two RBs! They and the rest of the team didn’t start very well and the passing and touch was so bad if you’d have told me they’d been out drinking heavily the night before I would’ve believed you. Second half we did go more direct and improved slightly but Woking pressed well and had a lot of players behind the ball restricting that space. Enzio will have felt a little hard done by not getting a start but he effectively got us that goal today, great strength and run before squaring it Wootton. Wootton didn't have his best game but he kept working hard for the team. Think that’ll be him off pens though! 2 in 2 he’s missed and we can’t afford to mess up a gift like a pen especially at a times when we desperately need a goal... Ok we weren’t the usual fluid team we’ve seen recently but I guess the biggest positive to take from the last couple of games and today is how much more assured our defence is looking now. We’re solid again, and 3 clean sheets in a row proves it!