DangerousSausage

The highest point in Nottinghamshire is 203 metres above sea level, so we might struggle with this. Practicalities aside, obviously Jim and Jack, Albert Iremonger, Tommy Lawton, Don Masson and Balint Bajner.

That's a shock, especially the day before the season starts. We have signed two players for Nemane's position though, so maybe it's been long in planning? On Nemane: it's certainly a loss as he's a stand-out player on his day and can get behind defences. However, I think he's found his level. He ran riot against some teams, but the better L2 defences were able to keep him quiet. Does anyone know much about Grant? The fact that he got regular games in the division above sounds good, but he only actually played 282 minutes and Barnsley couldn't buy a win during that time.

I was told the FA Cup and League Cup won't be available to stream, although I think there was radio coverage last season. That's only two games anyway as we generally choose not to participate in the second round of cup competitions. However, we do get full coverage of something called the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, in which we get to play against Everton under 12s and probably Shrewsbury again. I'm washing my hair that day.

Barrow 1-1 Crewe Alexandra Gillingham 2-0 Carlisle United Harrogate Town 0-1 Bromley Salford City 2-2 Port Vale Altrincham 2-1 Woking Boston United 1-3 Rochdale Halifax Town 0-2 Barnet (joker) Southend United 2-0 York City

When they halved the number of pages it was clear what was going to happen. I think programmes became too bulky (who needs a 60-page volume to read at half time?), so it was necessary to shorten it - but not at the same price as before! The world has largely moved on, but I still think there could have been another way. When I last watched Cologne play, they handed out free fold-out programmes including a couple of basic articles and a team sheet, funded by ads. Of course, the more people read it, the more valuable it is to advertisers, so maybe it paid for itself?

Looks plain to me. The orange shirt has a Swan Homes logo on the back, not sure if the purple one has. I like them both and much prefer them to the awful home kit. Not sure if it's an optical illusion, but the sponsor's logo appears smaller on the orange shirt.

iFollow is dead. Long live PiesPlayer! 140 pounds is good value if you're watching all (or even just most) of the games. And you can finally cast it to your TV too! Important note to all waverers: the price will rise to 180 pounds tomorrow, so be quick. There was a confusing passage in the FAQs, according to which matches could only be streamed in countries where there is no broadcast agreement with the Football League. According to the League's website, however, this is only the case for the Championship and every match in League One and Two will be streamed. I clarified it with the club, who told me that the text wasn't relevant to us and that the matches would be available in Germany. They will have my money today!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are back! A new prediction league season is upon us. It is a time of boundless optimism, we all start from 0 points and there are no points deductions (this isn't the Premier League after all). This is how it works: At least two days before every matchday I will post a thread with eight matches to predict from the Championship, League One, League Two and the Conference. You then reply with your predicted scores. The cut-off time for posting is kick-off (in this case 3pm). At the end of it all I'll then post a table with the current standings. Scoring system: 3 points for a correct score and 1 for a correct result. So if you predict Swindon to beat Walsall 2-1 and they do, you get 3 points; if Swindon win 1-0, you get 1 point. Each round you can also choose one match as your joker - any points you win for that match are then doubled. Why not have a go? EVERYONE is welcome to take part - the more the merrier! Just post your predictions underneath, and remember to assign a joker. And if you have any difficulty, just drop me a line. Good luck! Barrow v Crewe Alexandra Gillingham v Carlisle United Harrogate Town v Bromley Salford City v Port Vale Altrincham v Woking Boston United v Rochdale Halifax Town v Barnet Southend United v York City

Well done for counting them all! Mrs Sausage is very amused that the shirts of the British Virgin Islands athletes have "Islands" taped over...

I hope we'll do well, I fear we'll do badly ???? On the negative side, losing Macca is obviously a blow and means one of our other strikers needs to step up. I'm concerned that Platt is a "head it, kick it" centre half who might struggle with our style of play. To complement our wing backs who are great going forwards but poor defensively, we have signed more wing backs who are great going forwards but poor defensively. Palmer will take some time to get match fit. On the plus side, we now have a year of L2 under our belt and have made targeted improvements with players who are proven at this level. New attacking players could break our over reliance on Jones and make us less predictable going forwards, and we're almost certain to be more solid at the back. I'm quietly confident but not euphoric. We should have more than enough in our locker to compete for the top seven at least. If we don't, the atmosphere could turn quickly.

That's a fair number of us already. I'll post the first round tonight! @True Magpie, it's great to see a new name in the mix. And don't worry about being the best, I've decided I'm going to win it this year ???? @Robbie I think everyone has their own method, whether studying the form table, guesswork, octopuses that can see the future or, in my case, surrendering my soul to the devil in exchange for eighth place in the prediction league.

As I no longer live on our fair isle, I treated myself to an iFollow subscription for 150 quid last season and it was the best money I've spent since the hammock I treated myself to during covid. On top of that, it's money for the club. This season all I've heard is that Sky is taking over domestic streaming rights, but not the international rights, which are to remain with iFollow. However, there has been no word on whether the service will be continued (or what it will cost); the Football League links to the streaming services of each club, but the link to ours (and most others) only produces a "Page Not Found" message. Of the sites I checked, only Orient and Swindon were offering something (with a price hike of 25% over last season). Does anybody know anything? If nothing will be offered this season, I'll probably spend it on German third division coverage instead. But I'd rather be watching (and putting money into) Notts...

The season is nearly upon us - in just over a week, our Quest To Return To League One So We Can At Least Play Leyton Orient Again enters its ninth season. More importantly, the PON prediction league starts again! Next week, I'll post the first fixtures and hopefully a good few of you will be gazing into your crystal ball. So, to gauge interest (and remind you that I'm still here): who fancies a go at it this coming season? Everyone is welcome - it's always fun to see some new names giving us experienced campaigners a run for our money. The more the merrier!

They'll be back in the Highland League then. Every time someone swans in who knows nothing about football and promises to revolutionise football we know exactly what's going to happen. It's like a bad soap opera.

I can't imagine it made any difference at all. The very top clubs may sell a small number of tickets based on which superstars are turning out for them, but with Notts (and most other clubs) people know that it's a matter of time until any really outstanding players move on.

You can't have 24 senior players @Wheelbarrow repair man, 22 is the maximum. We'll no doubt leave a couple of slots empty so we can bring in targeted reinforcements in winter, as many other teams do as well. It should also be plenty enough providing we don't have a long injury list. Time will tell on that one.

There's no need to worry about the results of friendlies, I've seen us go through pre-season unbeaten only to get relegated the following season. There was some very casual defending for the goals, which you wouldn't expect once things get started in earnest. It's about building fitness and giving the new players an understanding of playing together, so I'm concerned that we don't seem to have a settled midfield yet. It's looking increasingly likely that Palmer won't be in the starting 11 when the season starts, which is also a bit disappointing. Against Peterborough I'd like him to feature and Scott to score a goal. How did Edwards play yesterday?

I don't think we had any say in the transfer fee. Last summer Macca signed a three-year extension to his contract with us. He would never have signed that without a release clause, otherwise he'd have been sacrificing any prospect of moving to a bigger club. It also wouldn't have been in his interest to sign a contract with a huge minimum fee release clause. So to me it seems likely that he signed a contract including a minimum fee release clause of around 750k. If he hadn't been happy with what we offered last summer, he could have just waited out his original contract and left last winter at the latest, probably for a fraction of what the club has just made. So the deal benefitted both player and club, but it did give him the freedom to move. The 750k may also just have been the initial fee. We just don't know. As for The Nest, I think the club are going to make a packet out of it. With the wage cap, the best way to increase the playing budget is to grow your turnover, and The Nest will contribute to that.

That's a cracking signing for them. Last season might have been meh, but he's far better than the National League. Good luck to them.

Duisburg were playing a short bus ride away in front of their own fans in a stand with a roof, while our fans were literally in a different country and made up 5% of the crowd. What on earth did they expect? Snide comments like that about English football are a tiresome feature of living in Germany. From what I've read, there's been nothing but respect for the way that our club and fanbase presented itself from the Duisburg fans. As for the match, it bears repeating that the opposition are a couple of weeks further along in their preparation, so there will have been a noticeable difference in sharpness. Had that been a league game, we would have approached it differently and had a stronger team out there. It's all about practicing different scenarios and learning about how the team will fit together, and a defeat against decent opposition can also be valuable for that.

"Lacking in the English manner" is an idiom meaning he was a bit rude. As you all know, we are never rude ???? I've found some highlights posted by a YouTuber. There's a lot of talking and buildup, so the actual match footage starts after about 7 minutes. It's quite good footage though, as he's sat quite far up.

I don't see why it should @Robbie, it's just like doing updates on here but on a different platform. I've just been looking at their forum. Dan Crowley seems to have won a couple of admirers, one saying he was the best player on the pitch until he went off, another asking if he's available ????

The result doesn't really matter at this stage. I'm interested in seeing the verdict of those who were there, but with three of our four central midfielders not in the squad, this may have left us a bit light in the middle and allowed the hosts to control the game. It meant we were under a lot of pressure, but that's also a worthwhile thing to practice in a friendly. We only fell behind after we somewhat weakened the team. It's worth mentioning that this was Duisburg's dress rehearsal, their season begins on Friday so they're further in their preparation than us. It is also a blazing hot day, much warmer than in Nottingham. We are not going to play many matches in this heat. I wouldn't worry about the players who were missing, players picking up niggles at training camps is par for the course. @Robbie, live tickers are very popular here, but some have evolved into fan radio services offering live commentary of matches (BBC local radio isn't a thing here). It's a bit of a throwback but I like it.

It takes all sorts @Robbie. Just to sum up some of the comments in the ticker, they seem to have been expecting more attacking scenes from us and don't know whether it's a deliberate tactic or we're struggling with the weather (it's VERY hot today). Slocombe does seem to have been the busier keeper. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising given that our players are in a training camp. At their end, there's some frustration that they've conceded from a set piece, which was a habit of theirs last season too.

I think it was one of their coaching staff @Robbie. He wasn't in the team anyway. Probably should have kept his mouth shut.