DangerousSausage

Roll up and get your prediction league points! Providing you don't predict them all wrong of course. Kick-off is Tuesday at 7.45pm! @ARLukomski, @Robbie, @Dan, @Megan_Elizax, @william1984, @menzinho, @liampie, @thommo, @Fan of Big Tone, @TheSkipper, @Chris, @cheeky~k8, @JustLikeJuve, @allardyces tash, @Joshua, @Blake, @DonnyNotts, @NottsTastic, @CliftonMagpie, @The Heff, @NottsLoyal, @upthepies, @OoooooTommy, @JIMBO, @Harry Buckley

I'd be happy to see him being brought on at some point tomorrow, now that he's got some games under his belt. McGoldrick and Jatta need a rest sometimes and the new additions aren't out-and-out strikers.

We have a few historic links with Eastwood Town @Fan of Big Tone. Their ground is also one I've visited and as far as I'm aware the new club play there too. The UCL Premier Division is just one level lower than the Northern Premier League, where the old club could usually be found. Fun fact while we're in anorak mode: Macclesfield Town were themselves a phoenix club, replacing the original club that was wound up in 1897. That's why their badge says "since 1874" and not "founded 1874".

Charlton Athletic 2-0 Bristol Rovers Lincoln City 1-1 Blackpool Peterborough United 1-2 Wigan Athletic Accrington Stanley 2-1 Cheltenham Town Chesterfield 1-1 Bromley Crewe Alexandra 2-2 AFC Wimbledon Barnet 2-1 Hartlepool United (joker) Southend United 2-0 AFC Fylde

Mality Mality Mality Mality... That's the formalities out of the way.

The scores: Bristol City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers Cardiff City 2-1 Derby County Exeter City 1-3 Blackpool Leyton Orient 2-0 Reading Chesterfield 1-1 Port Vale Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Gillingham Aldershot Town 2-2 Tamworth AFC Fylde 2-0 Wealdstone --- @ARLukomski and @4everapie knocked it out of the park this round with impressive scores! --- Looking at our league table, @ARLukomski has wiped out @super_ram's seemingly comfortable ten-point lead to take top spot! @4everapie jumps into the top five, while @Fan of Big Tone is now in the top half of the table. --- But don't get too used to that table - round 29 is coming up on Tuesday night and the fixtures are online now! Go on, give it your best shot. Thanks for playing!

Thanks for this update @Robbie! I'm always interested in how some of the familiar names are doing. I've been to Nuneaton's old Manor Ground before, it was a proper traditional non-league ground too. They moved to Liberty Way in 2008, but the future of that stadium is up in the air. They're currently groundsharing with Bedworth United a few miles away. They're going well, but the tenth tier is very modest for a club like that. The NLN table is incredibly tight, and Darlo, Chester, Scunny and Hereford are all in with a chance of playing in the National League next season. Just out of the screenshot are Scarborough Athletic in 15th. One tier further down, in the Norther Premier League, Macclesfield are currently 16 points clear and looking all set to return to the NLN next season. With Boston and Aldershot in relegation trouble, it's possible that there will be nine former league clubs (or phoenix clubs thereof) in next year's NLN...

And now we can round off January with a midweek round. These all kick off at 7.45pm on Tuesday evening, don't forget your jokers and good luck! Charlton Athletic v Bristol Rovers Lincoln City v Blackpool Peterborough United v Wigan Athletic Accrington Stanley v Cheltenham Town Chesterfield v Bromley Crewe Alexandra v AFC Wimbledon Barnet v Hartlepool United Southend United v AFC Fylde

How frustrating. I thought we played some really nice football in the first half in particular. It was a thoroughly enjoyable watch until I remembered we weren't winning! Mark Stallard was spot on though, there wasn't quite enough end product and we didn't finish Bromley off when we had the chance. Two points dropped. On a different note, while I hope Palmer is back very soon, I think Hinchey did a very good job of filling in for him and very nearly had an assist to his name.

I'll add up the points for this round tomorrow. As we've got a midweek round coming up, I'll post the fixtures for that already!

I noticed that, missing from the squad. I still wouldn't get excited, but it's curious...

Bristol City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers Cardiff City 2-1 Derby County Exeter City 1-1 Blackpool Leyton Orient 2-1 Reading Chesterfield 0-2 Port Vale (joker) Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Gillingham Aldershot 1-0 Tamworth AFC Fylde 0-2 Wealdstone

Right boys and girls, you know what to do - 3pm Saturday is kick-off time and you get a joker each. Good luck! Bristol City v Blackburn Rovers Cardiff City v Derby County Exeter City v Blackpool Leyton Orient v Reading Chesterfield v Port Vale Tranmere Rovers v Gillingham Aldershot v Tamworth AFC Fylde v Wealdstone

I can't see it being Langstaff as he's still starting games for Millwall. Etete could be a really good shout though! I doubt Paul Mace is close to the current hierarchy, but he's well connected in the world of football - perhaps he's heard it from an agent? I think it's obvious we're in the market for a striker. But just because there's talk, that doesn't mean it will come to pass.

You're all spot on - I know every player has his price, and 750k is a huge amount of money at this level. However, having already let Langstaff, Nemane and Crowley go, this would be a very negative step. It's also in an area of the team where we're thin already. In my heart of hearts I don't see it happening though - with Crowley we had a player whose mind was clearly elsewhere and would have left for a free in the summer. That's not the case with AJ; if we want to cash in, we can also do so in the summer when it's easier to get replacements in.

Glad he's found another League club, this could be a good signing for them. Hope he gets the regular games he needs and scores some goals against our rivals!

My last comment, as I don't really want to get dragged in. But I couldn't resist this one time. On his first day, Trump passed an executive order attempting to ban birthright citizenship, directly contradicting amendment 14 of the US constitution, hence lawsuits. Trump does what he wants to do; as ever, the constitution is cited only when it's convenient to him. The Surpreme Court is dominated by judges loyal to Trump. This is the court that decided that a US president has legal immunity. Very convenient for a man with a, let us say, chequered past and allegedly (ahem) launched an attempted coup that cost several lives. During his first term, there were old-fashioned Republicans around him who stood up to him and reined him in when necessary. He's had four years to weed those out and replace them with nutters who will do his bidding (the health secretary who wants to ban vaccines gets a special mention here). If he wants to, and is able to, govern for longer, he'll find a way. His friends in the judiciary will see to it. The Russian constitution also specified a maximum of two terms until it was no longer deemed connvenient. It'll be interesting to see what happens next and I hope his bark is worse than his bite. I do think some of the most outlandish remarks were intended as a distraction. But I'm not so optimistic he can be stopped if push comes to shove.

... for the remainder of the season! Now this is great news. This young man is going places and the best we could have hoped for is for him to see out the season with us. https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2025/january/21/update--george-abbott/

The scores: Coventry City 1-0 Bristol City Luton Town 0-0 Preston North End Crawley Town 1-1 Burton Albion Mansfield Town 1-2 Wycombe Wanderers Reading 1-3 Stockport County Grimsby Town 1-1 Chesterfield Swindon Town 2-0 Barrow Eastleigh 1-2 Altrincham Forest Green Rovers 1-0 Rochdale Halifax Town P-P Dagenham & Redbridge --- The great and powerful DangerousSausage wins this round, with @ARLukomski and @cheeky~k8 trailing in his wake. --- That puts me in the top three, leapfrogging @Robbie and just 11 points behind @super_ram - who can stop the Sausage juggernaut? Elsewhere, @Megan_Elizax jumps three places into the top five. --- Our next round is on Saturday, so I'll post the fixtures on Wednesday as usual. I now invite you to marvel at my tremendousness and cower in awe at my inevitable victory (and possibly wonder whether this is going to my head a bit). Thanks for playing and see you next time!

It was very much a different world, with "lad culture" very much prevelant and drinking till your head spins an accepted form of team bonding. That culture did a lot of harm to many people in football, and Howard Kendall was tragically one of them. The Championship was also a very different beast - a crowd of 6,000 in the second tier was still pretty normal. It was a long way away from the miniature Premier League we know now.

While we're being nit-picky, I've never understood the point of inverted wingers and, like @Chris, I'd have liked to see more of Scott up front rather than in midfield or on the wing. However, in cases like his and Gordon's I tend to cut the manager a bit of slack as he sees an awful lot in training that we don't.

I liked him in Game of Thrones.

All I really know about them is that they're very highly regarded and that our coaching team really does work as a team. It would certainly be a blow. However, the Wealdstone talk doesn't make sense. Wealdstone already have a manager, and even if they were to take over there, they're a part-time team and pretty likely to be in the National League North/South next season, so hardly a great career move. Their opponents, Hartlepool, appointed Lennie Lawrence (remember him?) a couple of months ago and he's already brought a couple of coaches in. So it was probably mistaken identity, or they were scouting a hot target. Wealdstone's equaliser was scored by a bloke called Boldewijn, worth a look?

@Super_Danny_Allsopp some interesting points there and the honest answer is that I don't know. China is obviously not trustworthy. The reflexive answer by many centrists is the EU, but looking at political developments there they're going to Trumpland very quickly. We're potentially heading into a world where the US and Europe are going down the road trodden by Russia and new allies will be needed. As for disentangling @Robbie, Trump could very easily pass an executive order that causes serious harm to the UK simply because he's having a bad day or read something he didn't like on X. Nobody is able or willing to stop him. I'm not saying cease all trade and cooperation, but the less exposed we are to that man's whims the better. When Russia marched into Ukraine, Germany had a big job on replacing the gas supplies they'd previously received from Russia - the lights could very easily have gone off. As for trade, the idea that the US favour us because of the "special relationship" is a fantasy. Trump sees the world in a transactional way and is fixated on reducing the US trade deficit. Previous administrations have tolerated it because they saw trade as a way to spread soft power, but not this one. Any trade deal struck with the US would be disadvantageous to us, otherwise they wouldn't bother with it. Do you like having food safety standards? And more military cooperation? Do you want to see British troops in Panama getting Trump his canal back? "More trade" sounds fine until you consider the details. Australia would want to export more meat to the UK, hurting British farmers that cannot operate on a level playing field - Australia has vast, fully automated farms the size of whole countries. There's a reason why tariffs exist.

Yes, he was a good appointment. He inherited a side that, with hindsight, were in a false position - we didn't have the strong defensive base you need to succeed in L2. We got taught a bit of a lesson last season, and it was a big learning curve for SM as well. I wasn't the only one who doubted him. Some of our fans still buy into the myth of the perfect football manager as a kind of messiah who sweeps in, waves a magic wand and makes everything brilliant overnight. Some of our owners have as well. This is the kind of thinking that took us from League One to the National League getting through about seven managers in the process. The truth is, like the players, the head coach needs to be given the right conditions to succeed and is not infallible. SM is much more proactive in making changes than Williams was, and he makes the right call more often than not. He's also clearly popular with the players. The league position hasn't changed much since one year ago, but in that time he's turned us from pretenders into genuine promotion challengers. He deserves our patience and a bit of faith.