menzinho

Yep, home draw is always a bonus. I a way I'm glad it's not a team like Kettering or Tamworth, your proper non-league lower than even National League level. Still have horrible memories of losing to Hornchurch and Salford.

Stuart Nelson, joined them after leaving us. Dropped back into League 2 but I think he got promoted with them.

They won’t have a new manager before playing us so that’s a positive. It’s not always the case that a new manager guarantees a better result, but I always think players will usually try that bit harder to impress a new boss. They’re aren’t very good at scoring and recently starting conceding, probably because they’re trying to rectify their goal troubles and have pushed a few more forward leaving them more vulnerable at the back – I hope that’s the case anyway! We always seem to react well after a big defeat, the team will want to get straight back on track. I seem to remember after the Dorking loss we played York (who were no pushovers) we ran like 1/3 more than usual (maybe I made that figure up) but we definitely ran more than normal! I think the conversation afterwards was about how out-working the opponent always gives you a better chance of getting a good result. Same sort of reaction would be fab. Yeah I’m really hoping Bostock is fit too, guess we'll know when the pre-match press conference is out. Cameron should be back, I’m sure Luke said they found out he was unavailable on the morning. Suggests to me he was ill, It would be really unlucky/freakish to pick up an injury at home!

I thought Mansfield really did a job on us. Yes we started well and scored but after that we couldn’t get the ball into midfield or our wingbacks so the defence passed it around a bit, got pressed and then passed it back to Slocombe to kick long. We then didn’t pick up enough second balls and just looked a bit passive/all over the place. It was worrying how thread bare the squad was. Scott and Bajrami would’ve been good options for us that game it’s a real shame they are missing. And then to have Cameron, Chicksen, Randall (did we accidently forget to register him to play) and Jones all out. That meant the bench was weak, Morias was our only attacking option but the fact only O’Brien and Adebayo got on says a lot. Might as well send Macari and Tipton back as it feels like they’re just here to make up numbers at the mo. That result and peformance was very unexpected. Don’t get me wrong the overall picture is still very good, but the goals against is becoming a tad worrying now.

Like you say I've no idea what attacking a site like this achieves, no gain for anyone really. It's great that's it's back up though, I've been boring my family and friends with all my Notts thoughts and opinions this past week!

I know he's had an unfortunate start to his Notts career after picking up an injury during pre-season but by all accounts he's now fit and just waiting for that chance. I wonder how long he'll have to wait though. If the idea was that he'll play at wingback he's now surely 3rd choice (on both sides) behind Chicksen & Adebayo. Maybe he's being trained behind the scenes to play in the central attacking role behind the striker, I just don't know. With a little bit of rotation likely, he could well feature against Swindon and then I'd get my answer but right now I'm struggling to see how and where he gets into the team.

Am I right in thinking it's various in depth interviews, I'm sure he said something like that about how he's spoken to lots of different people at the club about the season. Does look interesting though.

They lost again today, and it was 2-0 so that's 10 league games* without a goal now! *12 games really, an own goal still doesn't cut it for me !

When you look at that starting 11, we’ve basically got 3 defenders and 1 defensive midfielder. Both Jones and Nemane are effectively wingers that have been converted into wingbacks. Crowley and Austin are attacking midfielders and McGoldrick and Macca are both forwards. That leaves 4 players, Palmer, Cameron, Baldwin and Brindley who are naturally defensively minded. I know people criticise the defence, and yes they could’ve defended individual moments better, but to see comments about needing “new defenders” is unfair in my opinion. We started with an incredibly attack minded team, which gave them little protection. I agree with @NottsLoyal about the importance of Bostock, in my opinion right now the midfield is heavily reliant on Palmer and Bostock playing together, they give the defence more cover. Not having Bajrami is a huge miss, he’s our only other defensive midfielder. Tipton is potentially an option here and I think we’ll have to use him as there’s no way we can go a whole season and expect Palmer and Bostock to play every second. We’re still top of the league and think todays game and results in general show there isn’t much difference in quality between all the teams, a whole host of teams will think they can get promoted this season.

When he was first announced I had no real gut feeling that he’d be the one to get us back into the league. I’d never heard of him and his only managerial/head coach spell was at Swindon (albeit they were a bit of basket case at the time) and whilst he’d had coaching jobs this was his first time in 5 years since taking the lead role again. Then I remember watching a video the media team put out of his first day of training and at the end he spoke to the players about how he wanted to play. That passing game we'd become accustomed to but now when we lose the ball to be aggressive and win it straight back, “like playing against 20 outfield players” is I think what he said. Then we had the pre-season and I was really impressed how he’d actually implemented that philosophy and so quickly. I was more hopeful we’d have a good season but I didn’t think we’d have a record-breaking great season though! Luke Williams did a phenomenal job last season, no-one can argue that. And right now I just feel so lucky to have him. I love listening to him speak, he’s really smart in footballing terms, he spots things that have completely gone over my head. And he’s an absolute perfectionist, even if we win a game 3-0 he talks about how there’s always something we can do better. It feels like there is no ceiling to Luke Williams ability right now and I hope he’s here for a long time, because I think he'll take us up again. He’s got my backing 100%, I genuinely can’t think of anyone (in the realms of realism; so no Pep, Klopp or Arteta) that would do a better job than him.

Notts 1 Wycombe 0 (2008) It was our last home game of the season and last but one game of the season. I’m 99% sure a win would keep us up, not a great game but Butcher scoring meant we did! We actually had a relatively large crowd for the time. Notts 1 Man City 1 (2011) I’ve just looked back and the City team is stronger than I remember it and we were so close to actually winning it too! Still an amazing memory for me. Who’d have thought with a performance like that we’d go on and lose 9 games in a row later that same season…

The Athletic did a piece on the Scunthorpe owner David Hilton (if that is his real name!) and how he’s been previously convicted of fraud. Like @DangerousSausage says they’ve spent big and I agree, I'm doubtful they even had the money to do it. It’s all very reminiscent of us and Munto (granted on a smaller scale). Big money signings for the level, quickly followed by questions being asked about the owner when someone does a bit of digging. He also got the seal of approval from none other than Alan Hardy! Speaking to ITV Yorkshire about the proposed takeover, Hardy said: “To be fair to him (Hilton), he’s taken Ilkeston on to the next level. He’s put in a 3G pitch and he’s done loads of work around the club. I hope he does exactly the same job that he’s done for Ilkeston Town that he does at Scunthorpe because that would be amazing. I don’t know the people of Scunthorpe. I’ve only interacted with a couple of dozen on Twitter, but what I have found is an immense passion and desire for great football and success at Scunthorpe United. If David Hilton does for Scunthorpe what he’s done for Ilkeston, then I think they’re going to be in good hands.” It was doomed from the start, it definitely doesn’t look good for them.

I terms of what’s posted on twitter, Tom’s comments were relatively tame. I can tell you right now the replies to Notts’ tweet about him giving away a pen or the reaction (overreaction) to the tweet about MK Dons scoring will be much worse. Feels like he’s picked on the wrong guy here. Especially when you see the same names posting things like “X needs to do one” or “X is so bad” (that’s the expletive subbed version!). If he replied to one of them I can’t imagine the backlash would be as bad, they offer no critic and are just personal insults. Instead, he went for someone who slightly criticised what he did on the pitch.

So they’ve played 11 games and the only goal scored was an own goal, none of their own players have scored for them yet. Even though it's officially 9 league games they’ve basically not scored a goal in 11 games, that is shockingly bad. Even when we’ve been rubbish over long periods (I’m talking relegation season or the years before that) we’ve never had a goal scoring drought that has been that bad. Even when we had our record-breaking losses (what a time that was) we were awful yet still scored! We'd scramble the ball over from a corner or have someone score a goal out of nothing. They must be really terrible or the unluckiest team ever for that not to happen so far this season.

He's had a great managerial career but I think he should give it up now, definitely agree with others that say he should enjoy his retirement. I always find it odd when people say they don't look forward to retiring, I think it suggests you don't have much of a life outside your work which can be pretty tragic. There's no reason he can't still be involved in football, I'm sure there'd be tons of grassroots projects nearby where he lives that would love to have him on board. A little bit of weekend coaching for a local youth team even, imagine him coaching 8 year olds, someone would have to film it!

Yeah I'm not far off with @Elite_pie's ratings too. I'd up Austin, Crowley and McGoldrick by .5 (Austin 6, Crowley 7 and McGoldrick 7.5) and take off .5 for Stone who I thought should've done better for the 2nd goal.

Entertaining, but nervy at the end there! First half was us in control, a little bit of off passing but generally pretty solid stuff. Second half we just never got going, well not until they scored 2, stood off them and they got into the final third too easily. That said they didn’t really create much, just relied on our inability to defend a corner. We played into Deeney’s hands, he wasn’t very mobile in the flow of the game. He wanted to stand in the 6-yard box and do his work there and we let him. 2nd goal was particularly awful the ball seemed to bounce into the net in slow-motion, really thought Stone should’ve dealt with it much better. We’re just blessed with superior attacking play at the moment, Jones and Crowley both great again. We scored 4 really good goals, yes their keeper fumbled the 3rd straight to Bostock but the build up to get to that moment was on point. 4th goal was the best for me, quick break, great ball from Jones and you just knew it was going in the moment McGoldrick got that first touch right. I’ll take an exciting 4-3 win over a dull 1-0 win, I’m not complaining but there was too much sloppiness from us in that game (yeah I know that's a complaint!). And a little bit of set-piece work to be done before next weekend I think…

He's a very talented footballer but has suffered a similar fate to Bostock in terms of being marked as the next big star. He signed a professional contract at Arsenal at 17 and whilst it's a huge achievement he must have also felt a lot of pressure. Yes Arsene Wegner talked him up but he never really gave him a chance, just loaned him out. For a young player he's had too many clubs and being able to settle yourself in a team is big part of being able to fill that potential. I've no doubt he can do that with us now, although it's early days you can see he's a much better player than the "standard player" at this level.

Only positive about Salford’s attempt to get some City and United fans down there (they probably won’t rush back after that) by changing it to Friday was being able to stream it. Thought 2-0 flattered them, they couldn’t complain if they’d lost that 4-0. Macca could and should be on double his goal tally already this season, but the fact he’s in those positions all the time means he’ll score a good amount this season. Press was excellent, probably aided by it not being 30°C, we never gave them time on the ball to build out from the back. Crowley was probably my man of the match, absolute quality touch and finish for his goal. I was also very impressed with Austin in the wing-back role (can we even call them wing-backs anymore, wide-midfielders now as they are so high up the pitch!) looked like a natural and he’s an excellent crosser. And I agree with @JohnTheBost about Stone, although he didn't have to make that many saves his ability to play out from the back is a step up from Slocombe, I've been pleasantly surprised by him as when he signed I was a bit unsure about his ability.

He wasn't that bad over the course of the whole game, it's probably his first game where he's made a big mistake all season. Lots questioned Brindley after his performance v Sutton, now he's probably one of the first names on the team-sheet. Players are going to have off days every now and again. At the same it's good we're not over reliant on him either, we've got good competition for the CB roles now, I hope both Macari and Tipton get play against Wolves and show what they can do. And we've only signed Macari until January too, makes me think getting Keeley is still plan a.

Surprised by that but I agree at the minute the German national team isn’t at strong as it once was, they did recently rely on the experienced players, although they are definitely trying to phase out the likes of Neuer, Hummels and Muller. They are definitely short of a good striker playing Havertz there doesn't work and playing Kimmich, one of the best ball playing midfielders, at right back doesn't make sense to me. I thought Flick was an elite level coach, I’m surprised he’s not got them to improve. When he took over at Bayern he basically made them unbeatable, even won the Champions League something Pep Guardiola couldn’t do whilst he was there.

The first half was a bit of a case of both teams not wanting to over-commit, I thought we looked comfortable without creating much. Macca has the one huge chance to put us one up, did Nemane need to cross it as hard as he did or 9 times out of 10 does Macca score that? Not the start we wanted to the second half, we lost the ball with Nemane high up the pitch but someone usually fills in when the wing-backs bomb on. For me Rawlinson has to go and close the ball carrier down, tell Brinds to mark his man, then Cameron marks the spare man (Leko). Easy to fix in hindsight but surely the immediate danger was the man on the ball charging at the goal!? I can only assume he thinks Nemane's going to get back, even though he’s 10 yards behind him... Hey-ho, it spurred us on anyway and we more than deserved a point, great strike from Cameron, that heavy first touch actually benefitted him there! We probably could’ve gone on and won it. I thought Adebayo-Rowling put in some great crosses just needed more runners to get on the end of them. Can’t argue with another point away against a team who were in League 1 last season.

Yeah, I'd love to finally get to see Randall and what he's capable of but I think this game has come too soon for him. Chicks get's my vote too!

Yeah, very good little interview that. Very Partridge with the "he's used to putting the ball in the net" comment over footage of Macaulay hitting the padel ball into it

The one and only Jude Stirling. I Think he was bought in for his DJ'ing skills, and who says the club wasn't run well all those years ago?