menzinho

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!)

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."

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.

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.

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…

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!

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.

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.

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.

Rumours were North Carolina FC were in for him but a yearly pass to the Newport Medieval Ship Museum swayed him!

Nooo! I say the rest of the EFL needs to get some good recruitment of their own! I think that’s more than we got for Langstaff, every player has his price so I’m just hoping no-one matches that this January. My guess would be as we’ve just lost Crowley we would be reluctant to lose another key-player so soon. But if a club offers silly money, the worry is that it is going to be hard for us to turn it down.

Yeah I quite like how no-one knows who we are signing now. I’m not sure how in the know Paul is though as he had no real idea about Crowley and that transfer happened the next day after his podcast! Generally speaking, whenever a player is linked to us it turns out not to be true. As for Langstaff, like @Mapperley Pie said he started last night so it would be strange if they suddenly thought he wasn’t going to be part of their team. And they do have a new manager now so he might suit him more. Strangely @liampie there are two other strikers who used to be at Notts currently in the Championship. Colby Bishop, but he is a big part of the Pompey team so it can’t be him. Kion Etete, who we sold/lost to Spurs when he was 17, plays for Cardiff and he wasn’t in their squad at all last night

MK only managed 4 shots against Fleetwood as well. That’s 1 win in their last 8 games now for them too. The Bros did say we never sell to a promotion rival…

Great news, indeed! I had a small suspicion that Spurs would've been tempted to loan him to a League 1 club for the rest of the season, given how well he is doing. I think the guaranteed game time he'll get with us (due to Robertson's injury) will have helped our case. He has become a vital part of the team and we really do need him for the second half of the season.

Having done a bit of digging they definitely weren’t at Accrington… No idea what the reason was but there’s no way Stuart Maynard told them, “I think you both need to scout this Wealdstone v Hartlepool match” on the same day Notts were playing. There's almost nothing to be gained from it, so it makes think something is not quite right here... Just when everything was seemingly going well, this January has rocked up and decided to give us some unneeded challenges. I guess we just have to wait and see how this all plays out but given how Stuart always talks about “the management team”, if it were to happen and they do depart, losing two coaches mid-season is far from ideal.

They basically lost the best thing they had when Pete Wild left them. I suspect they might look at coaches/managers from the National League again, they aren't afraid of going for a younger up coming coach over a older 'been there done it' type so I'll be interested to see who ends up in the hot-seat.

A bit like when we had Jim O'Brien, Didzy will be a leader regardless of whether he's wearing an armband or not. I'd have no issue if he got it and I get it makes total sense. But I think you can potentially give a player a bit of a boost and added responsibilities if you give it to another player that perhaps isn't as influential yet. I agree with the shout about Jodi, I think all the players like and respect him but Platt would be my choice. He's vocal in the team, comes across as a positive and driven guy and at 27 has plenty of experience now.

Brown missed his chance after that confidence boosting win against Alfreton where he was excellent, he should've been able to kick on after that. Considering the injuries we had in attack you can’t say he didn’t get his chance but 0 goals and 0 assists in the league in a team like ours is bad. I think Martin got a slightly rough deal having to play and cameo at wingback, not only did he have to adapt to a new team but a new position too. I hope he gets a deal somewhere, dropping into the National League wouldn’t be a bad thing he just needs some consistent game time. I think he’s a promising young player and I hope he gets another deal soon.

Not surprising scouts are watching Jatta @Piethagoram, to be honest I imagine a scout, after watching Notts would want to sign several of our players! I think we’re safe this Jan but if he keeps scoring and playing well this season we are likely to get a few testing bids over the summer. Given that everyone else bar Salford won that was a vital 3 points, there’s a little bit of a gap developing between the play-offs and midtable now, this potentially is very handy for us. That Abbott goal was special, even better than the one against Cheltenham for me. The level of technique, the distance he travelled to get to the ball, watching it all the way, get one bit of that wrong and it’s probably not a goal. If that is not goal of the season I will be gobsmacked.

The article from the BBC a good little read, interesting to see he says the first 3 months was a huge learning experience for him. I always thought the job he did at Wealdstone was excellent, to keep a part-time team in a full-time league was really impressive. But Notts was always going to be a challenge, not only becoming full-time for the first time, but also dealing with the step-up in quality. He had a tough start, coming in to replace probably the most popular manager (head coach) from the last 20 years was never going to be easy but he's definitely settled here now and this season overall has been good. We've put ourselves in a really good position to have successful end to this season, I think a play-off spot is something the squad is capable of achieving, albeit we are hoping for more! He's got a lot more right than wrong, but I never understood the inverted wingbacks I thought it was a massive hinderance for us and in that little run of poor results I was frustrated at how slow we played/passed the ball. Our recent form is good now though so I hope he can end his first year with a win.

Tough one, sadly there lots of candidates to pick from. 2004-2008 the League 1 relegation season and the League 2 relegation season are peak times for really bad players for me. I’ll go for Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, felt like he got sent off almost every time he played and in his few, winless, appearances.

Coventry City 2-0 Bristol City Luton Town 1-0 Preston North End Crawley Town 1-0 Burton Albion Mansfield Town 1-3 Wycombe Wanderers Reading 2-1 Stockport County Grimsby Town 1-2 Chesterfield Swindon Town 1-1 Barrow Eastleigh 2-1 Altrincham Forest Green Rovers 2-2 Rochdale Halifax Town v Dagenham & Redbridge

We certainly have the options in terms of who replaces Crowley for this game. Edwards and Grant seem the more obvious choices but who knows, if Evans or Whitaker have really impressed in training they could go straight in. We are not short of attacking options now which is a good thing. I think Jodi will start too and I'd keep him out wide for now, it's were he preforms best in my opinion. Accrington are down the bottom for a reason, we've certainly got the quality to beat them. Not sure why our record there of late is so bad though, last 5 visits over the years have all been winless. It's not like it's an intimidating place to go, hopefully we can put that right on Saturday!

Very good, I guess they were going to show it before the Grimsby game on Sky. I think they film some training sessions in house as well now, just so they can review it and see how to improve. I'm sure they've mentioned they use the drone for this too. There's also a training video on the club website from earlier this week too, a chance to look at some of the new signings in action. I noticed Jevani Brown was missing from it though

I have no insider knowledge but given how they are currently trying to sign a load of new players as well it suggests to me something like a possible transfer ban and fine as the more likely worst case scenario from the current case. Their lawyers will know the most likely outcome and will have been advising them. No way they tie Haaland down if they think they are playing in the National League next season… I just can’t see them getting kicked out of the league anyway, City would fight the verdict, it would go back to court the whole thing would just drag on for years.