menzinho

I don't see how Bradford could afford Jatta, given that we supposedly turned down offers for £750,000 before. Unless they are going all in on getting promoted, because the money you'd then get from being in the Championship would eventually cover it.

Having seen both the 11 v 11 practice match video from the Notts and then the training video Matt Palmer is present in both and therefore is surely going to be back in the squad, if he's fit and feels good you'd be mad not to start him in. Just in terms of injuries, because we've not played for a few weeks we should be in a pretty good space I'm thinking all but Robbo should be in contention now. And because we've had the break in theory we should look fresh and be more than capable of putting in a really energetic performance and in terms of opposition I think getting Crawley is the perfect first match back. They will play out from the back and commit to it, this fits perfectly with Martin's desire to see us become a more direct and pressing side, the chance to pressure their defenders into making mistakes will be there. I just hope we see it!

Considering we started the season with just Roos and Griffiths (and I guess Perott to some extent too) I'd be surprised if we bought in another keeper. In terms of our budget I think I'd rather see the money used for another area of the squad, like a No.10 or another forward.

Pleased with this, he clearly backs himself to be able to make the step up to League 2, I really hope he's great for us. He's been listed on our website as an attacker which hopefully means he's not going to play at wing-back and suffer the same fate as Jarvis.

Well there goes the debate about who starts at the weekend, not that it would've been much of debate in my opinion. I’m actually surprised we’ve found a club that is willing to pay a portion of his wages, which are apparently quite big for our level, in such a short space of time. It’s times like this we can be grateful for the Scottish Premier League. In a way the best-case scenario is that he does well and then Kilmarnock will want to sign him. It just hasn't worked for him here.

Here's a couple more rumours that I've heard/read. One is that Gordon could potentially go back to Crawley. I wouldn't be that surprised considering they've already signed former players like Orsi and Lolos, it's like their strategy is now to just get all their players who got them promoted back. Traore to be loaned out to the League of Ireland and Sligo Rovers is the team he could join. He's not getting a look in here so it would make sense.

It’s obviously tough trying to recruit a first-choice goalie in January, unless you are willing to spend silly money which we know we don’t do. I am happy enough with Belshaw, purely on the basis that he’s better than Roos.

Can't say I know anything about him, I'm very intrigued to see how he gets on and I've no idea what to expect really. The fact he was signed by Palace from Shelbourne after impressing them tells me he must have something about him though.

That is a really strange article on Tyrese Hall, how is a 20 year old who's getting to grips with League 2 suddenly going to be Premier League level? If he was close to getting in the first-team at Spurs there's no way he'd have been loaned to us, in League 2, in the first place!

There’s more likely to be something in a rumour when actual journalists are involved, that said it’s one of those that is easy to make up as he is a Notts fan! It’s felt like a move that could happen at some point, I just can’t help but think we would be 3 or 4 seasons too late. I know signing a goalkeeper in January isn’t ideal but I think I’d rather have a younger keeper in on loan to get us through to the summer. There were lots of good young keepers on loan in League 2 last year, Owen Goodman, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Tommy Simkin, Matty Young, Filip Marschall… They are out there. Also I'd imagine Barry Cotter is going back to Barnsley, he's not been involved at all for months now.

Sheffield United, Rotherham and Doncaster all off and they are close in terms of location to us, looks like even if we'd left it to a late pitch inspection it would've been off and that just makes it unfair for travelling fans. You just know right now there will be fans that are travelling to a match today and will inevitably get the news to say it's been called off.

I think we’ve got to look at the squad too, we’ve got a tad more depth this season but last season at the same point we had Bass, Abbott, McGoldrick and Crowley in the first 11 more often than not. In terms of closest replacements now, we’ve got; Roos, Iorpenda, Dennis and Hall. Dennis has been great, Hall and Iorpenda have been good additions but they aren't at the same levels as Crowley or Abbott. And we’ve had a goalkeeper who really struggles when a ball is played into the 6 yard box. Like you say 2 points difference is nothing but given the loss of quality in the squad this season I’d say we are probably over-achieving or just doing as well as we should be right now.

I do think Palmer and Robertson being out at the same is almost as disastrous as if Jatta and Dennis were to be injured at the same time. Playing out from the back isn’t Platt’s strength and watching him and Roos constantly play long balls to no-one was and is painful. But I do think getting Palmer back in the side will change things. Norburn in the middle is ok, but in terms of starting attacks and keeping us ticking over he’s just not doing it for me. Palmer always moves himself around to make himself available to collect the ball off the defenders taking the pressure off them to play. And we've missed Robertson’s energy in midfield, again not a dig at Norburn he battles but he’s no where near as mobile as Robbo. I’ll come in to defend Jatta a bit here. I think because of his size we think he should just bulldoze players all the time. But more often than not we play poor balls to him, he’s either chasing lost causes, fighting for flick on's or he has a defender tight to him pushing and pulling him. Play a half decent ball to him and he’s usually fine. Again, with Palmer and Robbo back, we should get a bit more control in midfield and be able to play closer to him rather than long balls from defence.

Not surprising, makes sense for everyone really. I thought he was ok defensively but I was more shocked with how poor his technical skills were, his passing, first touch and just general ability on the ball were far below what I expected from someone who’s been schooled in Man Utd’s academy. I’d have thought the biggest issue would’ve been adapting to the physicality, but there you go. I wish him all the best for his future though and hope he gets a club where he can play more often.

Tricky, because we needed someone to do something, I thought of the subs Bennetts was the only player who came on and tried to actually do something. I think it's a low bar but the picks for me are Bedeau or Dennis. Purely for being the only defensive player not at fault for the goal, I'll go for Bedeau. Had Dennis scored one of his headers it would've been him.

Probably another discussion topic but I feel like they cram far too many football matches in over the Christmas period when it’s not really necessary. No idea if a postponement will suit us, on the one hand I think we'd look a a totally different team with Palmer and Robertson back in midfield. But Gillingham aren’t in great form, so maybe a quick chance to get over Accrington isn’t a bad thing. I was actually surprised we made no changes for Accrington but surely with the turn around of just 3 days we’ll see changes. Given that Traore is basically AWOL I think a striker one the bench to come on for the last 30 would be useful. Hall is back now so I’d be tempted to play him with Grant and then either Jatta or Dennis upfront.

Southampton 2-1 Millwall Swansea City 1-1 West Bromwich Albion Leyton Orient 2-0 AFC Wimbledon Reading 2-1 Burton Albion Wigan Athletic 0-2 Barnsley Fleetwood Town 1-0 Grimsby Town 🃏 Shrewsbury Town 1-1 Bristol Rovers Swindon Town 2-0 Gillingham

This is really tricky because before McDonald, Palmer and Robertson got injured they’d have easily made my top 5… I do think number of matches played has be taken into account because those who have played more minutes really have helped get us to where we are in the table. 5) Jatta, we know what we get from him in terms of goals but his defensive work and pressing is so valuable too. 4) Iorpenda, been ever present in the team, versatile having played in both deep and attacking midfield roles. Never stops running and I love how he can just pick the ball up in midfield and breeze past players. 3) Palmer, even with his recent injury he’s played the 5th most minutes in League 2 for us so far. You realise how much we miss him when he's not there. 2) Bedeau, think he’s played every minute so far and has been very steady and reliable as our left sided centre-back. 1) Dennis, signing of the season so far for me, he’s really surprised me because I wasn’t expecting him to be as good as he has been. Honourable mentions for Tsaroulla, Hall and Macari who have all been impressive in this first half of the season too.

4 points against a promotion rival is a good return and they are the top scorers in the league too so all in all a good result. Interesting hearing Adam and Stall talk about Aljofree being the only defender that has scored this season so far. Given we don't usually struggle for goals you do tend to sometimes overlook things like this but we are actually the joint 3rd worst, having only scored 5 goals from set-pieces and this is where defenders usually score. I know our strength is in open play but the average across the league from set-pieces is 9. And given how right at the end against MK we had a number of corners and free-kicks it would be nice to feel like we can be more of a threat from them.

You’d think Tom Iorpenda had some personal grudge against MK the way he’s played against them so far… They’ll try and sign him now!

That would probably stop it, means it’ll never happen then! I don’t like it but we are no angels here at the moment. Roos has needed treatment (almost certainly under instruction) at Bristol, against MK and then Grimsby.

Always seemed like a great character even though he never really broke into our first 11, it's always good to see ex-players doing well.

A very good in depth read as usual, lot's of players I'm not too familiar with, especially in the Irish Leagues but I love seeing all the stats and how they compare. In terms of the keepers I’ve no idea why Finlay Herrick’s loan got cut short, maybe to get him playing at a higher level but I’d be happy to see him at Meadow Lane. I like the sound of Harry Tryer too, I think having just played 38 matches in League 1 it shows he’s got something about him. And being out of contract too he’s probably the only keeper we could realistically sign permanently. I’d be keeping on eye on Braybrooke (the midfielder on loan at Newport) some good similarities to Matt Palmer when it comes to comparing his stats. In terms of a dream number 6, Max Sanders from Crewe, he’s out of contract in the summer but give how well he’s doing this season I think we’d need to go up to make that one happen. I think the attacking midfield position will be key, we've not heard much about Luker's recovery but given he required surgery it's clearly long-term. I don't know if we've filled our overseas quota and if we haven't I wouldn't be surprised if we looked even further than just the UK and Ireland for this position. I'd be more than happy adding someone like Matt Rush from the National League upfront. There's also a player in the National League North called Ricardo Rees who's out scoring Langstaff's numbers at that level at the moment, with 24 goals in 22 matches. Hardly a hidden gem with figures like that but you never know how these players would cope with the step up. For example Jaze Kabia who now plays for Grimsby played in the National League South for Truro last season, he only scored 16 goals in 44 matches but he's coped with the step up quite well scoring 5 goals in the league and 5 goals in both cup competitions already.

I think it's between Norburn and Iorpenda for me too. The back 3 all defended very well and didn't actually have to do much box defending at all, they spent most their time on the half-way line! And Dennis looked the tidiest on the ball in terms of an attacking threat through the middle. I love the way Iorpenda picks up the ball and looks to drive us forward, and he was up and down the pitch all match. Norburn had his best match and he didn't pick a yellow card either! He was the linch-pin in midfield for us today, won his battles and was great on the ball too so he just shades it for me.

I think today it showed we need a bit of spark in the No.10 role, Luker and Hall coming on with 30 to go would’ve been ideal. The fact Traore remained on the bench, even when we needed a goal was telling, this situation needs addressing in January. Overall very solid though, we completely dominated the team top of the league all that was missing was a goal. I was also surprised that Bennetts was taken off so early. Ok he made that one awful pass which gave Walsall their only chance but he actually had the beating of Barrett, Jodi’s crosses were better but I don’t think he got past Barrett once. He hasn’t played for a while though, I suspect it’ll take a couple of matches before he starts to look his best again. I was glad we didn’t suffer a smash and grab by the end because that would’ve been totally undeserved. A lot of talk about that performance by Walsall being anti-football, if that’s how they want to play we can’t change it. They were organised and got exactly what they came for but their unwillingness to push forward didn’t make for a great match.