menzinho

Frustrating to lose the away record in that way, that first half was probably going down in history for the most uneventful and boring halves until we decided to let them score from our corner… I know we are hampered with injuries to our forwards but the 4-4-2 in that first half just didn’t work, especially going forward, only Tsaroulla looked like he knew what he was doing in the opposition’s half. Two upfront actually hurt us as both Brown and Scott looked a bit lost. I thought second half we were better but after that penalty (where Bogle just tried to do a cut/chop back completely lost his footing and fell into Platt) we just got a bit rocked. The attacking quality just wasn’t available and it really hurt us today. Even when everyone is fit I do think we are crying out for a bit more pace though, especially upfront/wide, we need to become more of a threat in behind teams. 6 yellows, 1 red for Crewe and the ref missed a nasty stamp on Abbott first half - that would've been replayed multiple times via VAR in the Prem... If we’ve got out of that game with no injuries we’ve done well.

The Gambian Football Federation has replied to Notts' tweet (and I'm pretty sure that is the official account) and they said he played the whole second half.

Can't be any worse than last week, so here goes... Blackpool 1-1 Northampton Stockport 3-2 Wrexham Accrington 2-1 Swindon Town Barrow 1-2 AFC Wimbledon Bromley 1-0 Carlisle United ???? Braintree Town 2-1 AFC Fylde Hartlepool United 1-0 Eastleigh Yeovil 1-1 Halifax Town

Before the season started I was just hopeful that we'd be challenging for a play-off spot, so to have basically been in and around the autos this season has been a pleasant surprise. That said it is all very close, there's only 8 points difference between 2nd and 15th at the moment! So a lot can and will change with 2/3rds of the season left to play. I'm still not sure we'll finish in the top 3, I hope we can and I think it is achievable. We've faced some good teams so far and no-one has really out played us. Also going into the second half of the season we'll have Jodi back, that will be a massive boost.

Notts had been making big losses even before the Bros came in, didn’t Alan Hardy lose something like £3million the season we went down? You’re not going to be able to come in and instantly reduces the loses, especially when you’ve just been relegated out the football league too. The key thing for me is that our debts have slowly been reduced, and Joe Palmer has spoken a lot about the aim of getting the running cost to 0 in a few years and that it is achievable. So whilst we still might be making losing we have a plan to turn it around and we're on our way to achieving it. I’d be interested to see why and how the likes of Chesterfield and Salford scored higher. Chesterfield were in the National League longer than we were and were pretty much run on loans whilst still spending comparatively large sums. And Salford are purely reliant on the money from the old Man Utd Boys and a billionaire! Their 1000 fans aren’t exactly covering much of the costs… And I agree with others that finances aren't the defining feature of what makes a well run club. Carlisle who are second in that list are nose diving in to the National League and you'd struggle to find a Swindon fan that thinks their club is well run! The Bros have stated on numerous occasions this is long term for them and I’m certain when they leave the club it’ll be in the best place it’s been for years.

I don’t want discredit and diss all the league 2 centre backs but the standard of player he’s playing against will have increased dramatically. For perspective Lee Gregory scored 9 goals in the Championship for Millwall, they were relegated and the next season in League 1 he scored 18 goals. That shows you the difference in quality from League 1 to the Championship is big. Even if Macca isn’t scoring, playing in the Championship will make him a better player. I think everyone would’ve been slightly surprised if Macca had gone two Millwall and continued his strike rate. He’s only had 9 shots this season, he probably used to get 9 shots per game with us! That’s just how it is at Millwall though. They don’t create many chances and so they don’t score tons of goals. They grind out results, in their last 5 games they haven’t scored more than 1 goal per game…

I think he would see himself as far too big to manage a team in a relegation battle. I've seen the rumours about him wanting the Newcastle job, they'd be daft to boot Eddie Howe out for him in my opinion. The only clubs I think would want him are those with more money than sense. Forest would’ve been likely candidates but they’re doing well with Nuno so you’re only really left with West Ham… No way a top 6 club goes near him and the sensible smaller clubs know he’s more hassle than he’s worth.

I really would love to see Pep just go rouge after his time at Man City and just pick some random club in a random league just to see how far he could take a team with an ordinary budget. I still think he's a very good coach it's easy to dismiss his achievements because he's always had great squads but lots of managers have managed big clubs with lots of very talented players and failed miserably. The idea that losing 4 games in a row for City is a crisis shows you how good they've had it for years. I fully expect them to go on some ridiculous 12 game winning streak later on in the season!

I’d up it a bit, maybe to 10, I don’t think the English national team is in a bad place at the moment and our recent good showings in international tournaments show this. It could potentially have a negative impact, if the number is too high you risk players just being named for the sake of filling the squad. Lots of very good young players get a season out on loan in the Championship and play proper competitive matches every week at a good standard. Surely this is better for their development then just sitting on the bench each week for Premier League teams. And, it also benefits the teams further down the football pyramid too. Like George Abbott, right now it’s a win-win for scenario everyone for Spurs, Notts and George. I don’t think England will ever have a shortage of good players, it’s almost too popular in this country, so many kids play for their local grass-roots team and progress into academies and professional football. Personally, I think the good-home grown players will eventually get to where they should be, even if players don’t get the chance early on in their careers and have to take a slightly different route their talent will always shine through at the end of the day.

I can save you the time calculating my score for this week, cos I got a big fat 0! ????????

Sounded a very lively and decent game. We did well first half and then Doncaster came back into second half, felt like that goal was coming given the pressure they seemed to put us under. I think we were crying out for some changes or something to try and turn the tide in that second half. The fact we made no subs tells its own story and not a good one, do fresh legs in Martin and Hinchy weaken us, SM clearly thought so. And Crowley clearly wasn’t fit because you’d have bought him on to help us get control, makes you wonder why he even travelled. Feels like if we could’ve made a triple change like Doncaster did, we might just have got the three points today. Still, unbeaten and I thought a point was a good outcome beforehand, we’ll just have to beat them when they visit Meadow Lane!

Great for him, not so good for us! We managed to cope without Jodi last season when he was called to the Mata squad. And with Jevani Brown in good form I’m hoping it won’t affect us too much. We should also have Austin and Crowley back by Crewe so one of them can play in behind with Brown and McGoldrick up top. But yeah, it does mean we'll basically have no other forwards for the Crewe match.

In their last home league game they lost 1-0 to Bromley and Crewe went there and got a 1-1 draw recently too so it's not like Doncaster have amazing home form. I do think at times playing away helps us because teams aren't just going to sit back, so we'll definitely have chances. That said if a team actually presses us aggressively we could really struggle like we did in the first half away at Barrow. Think Brown deserves to start, but I'm not sure he will. It would be daft to play AJ, Brown and Didzy from the off because then we can't really change the forwards. If Crowley and Austin are fit I think one of them will play behind Jatta with Didzy as he was rested against Alfreton. We're a bit short of options at wing-back, got to be Tsaroulla and Gordon here with our usual back three and keeper. We'll have a great turnout and we I think we are more then capable of beating them, even though they are a good side too. I think a draw would be a decent result.

Norwich City 2 - 0 Bristol City Portsmouth 0 - 1 Preston North End Exeter City 1 - 1 Charlton Athletic Stevenage 2 - 1 Reading Tranmere Rovers 1 - 2 Newport County Walsall 1 - 0 Crewe Alexandra Solihull Moors 2 - 0 Altrincham ???? Southend United 3 - 1 Yeovil Town

I think once you've said Notts County in the headline it's fine and I also just refer to us as Notts. And with Nottingham Forest being know as Forest, if someone says Notts it's pretty obvious who you are referring to. It's a big club feeling to be able to go by one word though, like if someone mentions "United" straight away you think Manchester, not Sutton. I guess if you were to say "County" at the minute with no reference most would probably think Derby, a few would think Stockport and us. If we can get to the stage where people think of us as "County" I'd take that as a compliment!

I definitely agree the National League North is below his level, I’d actually like to know why he dropped back into it with Scunthorpe though, were there no National League clubs in for him? I don’t think he’d work as a striker, an attacking midfielder would probably suit his game more. That said, League 2 opposition is a world away from the part-timers in the NLN. He missed a large chunk of last season too through injury I think he needs a whole season, minor knocks aside, injury free otherwise it’s a bit of a risk for me.

I’d guess Deliveroo, Just Eat & Uber Eats all operate in the same way. They will all take a percentage of their sale, no idea how much, but I guess in theory it is to cover this. But equally they could still hike the prices and make even more money because not many will double check the prices. They kind of have to be on these apps now, it’s the new way, not many young people will go onto a restaurant's website anymore. And the concept of picking up the phone to order a takeaway... What is this 2008?! When I get a curry from our local restaurant my partner finds it strange that that I walk down to the restaurant and order it in there… But it means I get to have a nice walk, a little chat and most importantly a beer whilst I wait. So I know who the real winner is!

Not one proper defender on that list... Quite unbelievable really, it's like the universe doesn't want us to be a fun attacking team! ????

It’s a really impressive throw and I don't want to be a killjoy, but I'm going to be... Is it just me seeing a foul on the keeper? The striker throws his hand into the keeper’s head? That’s a foul. There's another angle that's missing that shows it more clearly and it's missing from that clip, I guess they are trying to not spoil the feel-good moment everyone wants. Huddersfield still should’ve been able to come back from it though, they only needed one goal and if you can’t score one against a team two divisions lower than you I guess you don’t really deserve to go through.

The rating “calculated from more than 300 individual stats per player per match from Opta” has an opinion...

Just watched the highlights this morning and it looked like a bit of stroll in the end. Having watched a bit of the Tamworth game last night it’s easy to see how good teams can get knocked out in a one-off game. So that was very good night's work for us! Brown has really settled into the team now, he’s taken his chance and has looked very good in his last few appearances. I’ll be interested to see how others thought Ness, Hinchy and Martin did against what seemed to be a physical team. Any signs of improvement/promise? I’d like another home draw too but I think avoiding any team with a plastic pitch would be a good outcome!

I feel like a lot of our youngsters over the years have ended up at Alfreton due to how close it is. I'll pick one of them... Pierce Bird

Good luck to the lad! They've made a mistake showing us our shirt without the sponsor on though, where can I get one like that!?

Man United are in desperate need of direction from the top; What is their plan? What is their philosophy? What are the types of player they want to sign? Nobody really knew under Ten Hag and it's a big job for the manager to come in and solve everything. Just look at us, when Stuart Maynard came in he didn't really change much he made some subtle changes but the main reason for our struggles was that the defence was in desperate need of better players. After 1 pre-season everything has seemingly clicked into place. It’s helped by that fact it’s evolution rather than revolution at Notts now, we have a clear identity and goal. I’ve no idea what the plan is at Man Utd. Amorim, is by all accounts a very good coach, but he tends to play 3 at the back something United hadn’t planned for this season and he won’t have the luxury of a big transfer budget either when he inevitably will want to bring in his own players for his style. Man Utd would do well to look at the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford in terms of strategy and planning. These are small clubs on the up, I can’t see the decline at Man Utd stopping just because they have a new manager.

Recruitment is the one of the most important parts of football and if you get it badly wrong in the summer, you’re basically fighting against the tide all season. We made the wrong decision to not strengthen our defence when we went up, was that the head coaches decision or recruitment? Our recruitment this summer has accounted for that now though. We are quite lucky as ever since the Bros came in it’s something that has massively improved, you are never going to get every signing right but we seem to get a lot more good players than bad.