allardyces tash

I worry that the injuries and recent form, along with missing out on automatic promotion after doing so well to get there again, might be a setback the players struggle to move past. I do not think the season has been bad at all. We have had some great spells, and in other years those dips might have caused far more damage. I feel the club finds the playoffs difficult, and the pressure can become too much.

Thank you for all your hard work. It is good to see you back at your best and I like the changes you have made. There is one small thing I have noticed. I use the lightweight fluid theme and I seem to have a large blue pill shape showing with an adidas logo inside it. Other than that, I am very impressed.

Welcome to PON. It is nice to see a new member joining in, and expressing their thoughts. Keep it up, and have fun. You will be made to feel at home here.

It has been a long time since I was eighteen or even looked that age. I was lucky in a way, as I was born with a moustache, so even as a baby I never really looked my age. I have always felt that people who try to dodge paying for things are asking for trouble. Underpaying the club is not a good sign of support, and I would hope the club focus on the right people when they deal with it. I have never had any real issues myself. I have seen others get grief, and stewards do take a lot of stick for simply protecting people or doing their daily job. When the turnstiles work, they feel almost ghostly. I did have some problems in the past with my season card not scanning, but I would not blame the staff for that. The club rushed the cards out and did not have the right technology in place. Those poor scanners must get used more than an old magazine in a waiting room.

I am really enjoying the lightweight fluid theme. It looks very good and the improvements you mentioned will be well received. It feels like real progress has been made with the site and the ideas behind it are strong. I hope Notts can at least reach the playoffs so we finish the season with some fight.

Alassana Jatta has to take responsibility for what he has done, because he keeps letting this sort of behaviour affect not only himself but also the club that employs him. His suspension has come at a bad time, and letting him go does feel like the right choice, although I do think we are a better side when he is focused and fully committed. I do not feel he is fully behind us based on how needless that card was, especially at such an important point in the season. It is a real shame that a fee now seems very unlikely.

Performance does not really matter at this stage. What matters is going into the final run with some level of consistency, especially with the chance that even if we beat Barnet, we could still be sitting right on the edge of the playoffs. Winning is what counts now, and these points could be the difference between automatic promotion and the playoffs. The match might feel tense, but I think Martin Paterson will have pushed the players hard after the last defeat. Winning in a scrappy way can help rebuild belief, and once that belief returns, performances often follow. Football is never simple with Notts County, but getting the result is what keeps the season alive.

With three games left this season, it feels likely that MK Dons will secure automatic safety. The team that ends up joining them, along with Bromley, looks set to be either Notts or Cambridge United. We have dropped a lot of important points, especially in matches where we should have done better, and it has left us in the usual position where the players now need to fight for every inch to rescue what once looked very achievable. Promotion to League One had seemed within reach, but we have made it harder for ourselves. If some of the January signings had arrived earlier, which I know was probably not possible, I do think the squad would have been stronger. The Cambridge United match felt like watching Notts at the start of the season. Nothing really clicked for long spells, but there were small signs that something better could come together.

You do not win matches by being scared of the other team, and you cannot go into a game afraid to play your own way. At the same time, you cannot simply try to copy their pace. Teams that run too much often fade, so it becomes a matter of control and the chances you create. Under Martin Paterson we look more polished and less tied to the old habit of trying to control every match in the same routine way. Notts are taking risks that we would not have seen before, when the focus was mainly on staying tight. It is good to see us adapt so well, but the key will still be game management and marking. Bromley can cause problems in the areas where we are usually weak, which is why I am glad we have James Belshaw. The defence looks more alert and ready to deal with danger. Kelle Roos always seemed to want the team to depend on him, which felt risky. I hope the match does not turn into an end to end contest, and that fans stay patient. If Notts want to do well, they will need to test Bromley's defence, and working that out during the match is not always pretty. Even so, there is no reason to fear them. We just need to play to our strengths, avoid being soft in 50 50s, and stay physical without picking up needless cards. I expect Bromley to be physical and to keep the ball in the air in our half rather than on the ground. If we manage their approach, we should be fine.

Notts will need to dig deep to get past Bromley, especially with the match taking place on their ground. No one really expected Bromley to be this strong, which says a lot about the job Andy Woodman has done. They fully deserve their place in the table. Gillingham made a fast start by being clever in the league, but Bromley have shown even more street sense. Our away form often depends on things falling for us, and it is not always the most convincing. Even so, we can still take something from the match if we close the channels and stay firm in the middle of the pitch. The starting eleven will be worth watching. If I were Martin Paterson, I would make sure the bench has players who can make an instant impact. That might mean not picking the strongest side on paper, but instead choosing a team that can force the home side to work harder and tire themselves out.

Kelle Roos made some very important saves at key moments when the match could have gone a different way. A few of them were not the usual type of stop you see, but the double save on its own should be enough to put him in the conversation.

Portsmouth 1–1 Blackburn Rovers Wrexham 2–2 Watford Burton Albion 1–1 Wycombe Wanderers Peterborough United 2–0 Northampton Town Stockport County 1–1 Stevenage Cheltenham Town 0–1 Harrogate Town Chesterfield 3–2 Barnet Joker Crawley Town 2–1 Oldham Athletic

Leyton Orient 0-0 Luton Town Lincoln City 1-0 Barnsley Northampton Town 0-2 Huddersfield Town Stevenage 0-3 Cardiff City Barrow 1-0 Tranmere Rovers Cambridge United 0-2 Chesterfield Joker Fleetwood Town 1-1 Salford City Harrogate Town 0-1 Accrington Stanley

Burton Albion 1-0 Blackpool Luton Town 1-0 Rotherham United Accrington Stanley 1-1 Bristol Rovers Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet Joker Grimsby Town 1-0 Chesterfield Braintree Town 1-0 Truro City Hartlepool United 2-1 Wealdstone Woking 2-0 Boston United

Jamie Turley is another ex player of both teams, can we make a starting XI?