DangerousSausage

I didn't see this coming at all, but I'm relieved the owners have acted as I don't think it was working. I'm sure we can all see that the squad is weaker. Bass, McGoldrick and Crowley have left and none has been adequately replaced. The new goalkeeper looks like a classic panic signing. We've clearly missed out on a number of signings and to fill the gap have brought in loanees of varying ability. We've also now got a bonkers collection of wing backs, some of whom no longer even make the squad. Us PONners don't always agree on things, but there's near consensus that the squad isn't a strong as it was last season. Yet if you think back to the owners' statement last week, they mentioned that the budget this season is their highest yet. So it's not much of a reach to assume they were unhappy too and decided to pull the plug before things really went downhill. The timing is perfect for the club as it gives us plenty of time to find a replacement in time for the January window.

I'd prefer to see us hire an experienced DoF / recruitment head who knows how to put a squad together than give the job to our relatively inexperienced head coach. In principle there's no reason why a manager couldn't do both roles, but there are a couple of disadvantages. Firstly, he would have less time to dedicate to the squad as he'd be out and about watching players. Secondly, every change in manager would be a complete reset. We've seen it in the past - new managers coming in every season with their own philosophy, constantly having to wait several months until they've got "their own players" and then sacking them anyway, the bloated squad with ill-fitting players. It doesn't mean inevitable disaster, but you need someone who will stick around for a bit, and a manager who spends more than two years at one club is the exception rather than the rule. By contrast, Richard Montague saw out four head coaches, giving us continuity all that time. So I think it's clear why they prefer that approach, the key is to get competent people in both positions.

I want to be in the top ten at least @Chris, pretty much anyone can manage a title push with a couple of good rounds. You're right that relegation to the Vanarama Prediction League Conference must be avoided at all costs!

I've discovered a Facebook group called The English Football Record. It's a utopia for anoraks and our record has spurred some people to do some research. So I'll shamelessly report their findings - after all, it must be true if it's on the internet! I thought it seemed improbable that no team had ever beaten all 91 other league members before Vale did it relatively recently, especially when you consider that there was relatively little change in the 92 teams between 1921 and the 80s. And I was right. It seems the first team to do this was Bury when they beat Hartlepool on 11 September 1973 (obviously they don't hold it any more). Bradford City have also completed the set, first doing it in 2014 and again last season when they beat Bromley. So to date three clubs hold this record. Grimsby are one short. 89 of the 91 have also beaten us (which two teams are we unbeaten against?) while 90 have beaten Bradford. And Port Vale are the team we have beaten most by far - 42 times! So where's our trophy?

This is brilliant! Last season I sort of realised Fleetwood were the missing one, but then I forgot it again 😁 Port Vale completed the set (again) in April when they beat Bromley. I can imagine we had the whole set at some point in the past before we had two-up-two-down with the National League. Maybe we did it in 97-98 when we found ourselves in L2 for the first time in decades and met teams like Scarborough for the first time. I can't remember it ever being mentioned before though.

The results: Bolton Wanderers 3-0 AFC Wimbledon Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Bradford City Cambridge United 0-1 Oldham Athletic Salford City 3-1 Tranmere Rovers Walsall 1-0 Chesterfield Forest Green Rovers 1-0 Hartlepool United Tamworth 1-0 Eastleigh Yeovil Town 1-3 York City This week @CliftonMagpie scoops the most points, closely followed by @nottsnutter. Well done! Didn't I tell you it was getting tight? The table has turned into a huge rumpus, with just six points between our new leader @Robbie and 17th place! The next matches are on Saturday, so expect the prediction league fixtures to appear on Wednesday. Thanks for playing!

A lot of the claims about Robin Hood being a nobleman from Loxley or wherever were first mentioned several hundred years after he was supposed to have lived. There's a very committed "Robin Hood was a Yorkshireman" brigade that sometimes gets a hearing on BBC Look North. It's all a bit desparate to me. If he was a real person, Robin Hood lived before surnames were common for ordinary people - they were more often nicknames. So our man could have been anyone called Robin or Robert who wore a hood. On top of that, medieval scribes had a habit of weaving together fact and fiction (one of our best sources on medieval England, Geoffrey of Monmouth, had a habit of including dragons in his chronicles). So I don't think it's anything we'll ever know for sure. Like @Chris, I'd bet that he was a real man whose tale became embellished with other legends over the centuries. We do know, however, that he didn't have his Weetabix...

It's always good to have the winning habit. If you're in the habit of picking up points in games you didn't have the better of or were on a knife-edge, you can't sustain a promotion push. That said, our recent good run isn't a result of us suddenly deciding to turn into Wimbledon. We're not booting the ball up the field or into touch because it's part of some grand plan, but because our passing and possession of the ball isn't on point. We're all happy enough because we've got 10 points out of the last 12, but the mood can turn quickly if the results stop coming. In the last few games we've developed a habit of giving the ball away or, when we're under pressure, just aimlessly launching it up the field (and thus losing possession) rather than trying to keep the ball. We won't always get away with that. However, it's early days and maybe we should have a bit of faith that this team will bed in some more.

It looks like he wasn't in the squad after all @Chris. Should have realised it was a publicity stunt after the walking football comment 😄

Bolton Wanderers 2-1 AFC Wimbledon Doncaster Rovers 1-2 Bradford City Cambridge United 2-0 Oldham Athletic Salford City 1-0 Tranmere Rovers Walsall 2-0 Chesterfield Forest Green Rovers 2-0 Hartlepool United (joker) Tamworth 1-1 Eastleigh Yeovil Town 1-1 York City

Me too @menzinho! Surely they have a youth team player, or failing that a free agent? Maybe this is a publicity stunt, but I'm really not sure. Either way this is tinpottery of the highest order!

Jatta could still leave in January @Robbie, but this means we're under less pressure to sell if the price isn't right. If he were out of contract in the summer, there would have been clubs trying to exploit that and sign him for a reduced fee in January. Now we can name our price (or just keep him). I'm disappointed another striker hasn't come in for competition though, especially if we're playing two up top. I'm very happy with Dennis but we'll be very thin as soon as injuries and suspensions come into play.

Dorking Wanderers, who beat Notts in an actual game of football just three years ago, have signed a 54-year-old fan to play in goal after their only goalkeeper got injured. The former North Holmwood keeper hung up his gloves in 1997. But he still plays walking football, so that's OK. Deal Dunn – Terry Joins The WanderersLong-time Wanderers fan Terry Dunn has joined the side on a short-term contract.I knew I shouldn't have given up hope. Where are my gloves?

There were a couple of snippets there alongside all the corporate speak. Firstly, Jatta's contract extension. This is welcome news for obvious reasons, but also because it puts us in a stronger position if another club does come in for him. If his contract were running out in the summer, we'd have been under more pressure to take an offer as it'd have been our last chance to earn a transfer fee. Now we can wait till the summer or beyond. Then there's the playing budget. It's good that the board is trying to keep us competitive with what must be the biggest budget since 2018-19, but that doesn't necessarily mean we've exhausted it or that we've spent it well. In McGoldrick and Bass we've lost two players who were probably top earners, but my feeling is we've lost two excellent players and signed three average ones to take their place. To address a couple of the points made above, I think it's essential that the club generates more income off the pitch as this will allow it to support itself financially AND invest more on the pitch. It's the only way to go. Past owners have often talked about doing this too. but the brothers are the ones who have actually done it. I think they've made some mistakes this summer but overall we're in better hands with our current owners than we would be with overseas investors whose goal would be to extract money from the club.

We are the champignons!

It's prediction league time again, and another opportunity for you to be a bigger Notts legend than Balint Bajner. Kick-off is 3pm on Saturday, and remember your joker! Bolton Wanderers v AFC Wimbledon Doncaster Rovers v Bradford City Cambridge United v Oldham Athletic Salford City v Tranmere Rovers Walsall v Chesterfield Forest Green Rovers v Hartlepool United Tamworth v Eastleigh Yeovil Town v York City

The results: Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Norwich City Watford 2-2 Southampton Barnsley 3-1 Huddersfield Town Wigan Athletic 1-1 Stockport County Barnet 1-1 Colchester United Bromley 2-0 Harrogate Town Hartlepool United 0-0 Boreham Wood Morecambe 0-2 Woking Congrats to @4everapie and @JustLikeJuve , who top the leaderboard this round! Things are looking a lot tighter this round - @magpiejue is still top, but @Robbie and @super_ram are catching up. But there are still loads of players in touching distance of top spot, so it's all up for grabs still. Despite it being the international break, there's still a round on Saturday so I'll post the fixtures tomorrow. Thanks for playing!

I'm relieved we kept Jatta, but am not impressed with our transfer business. We've got too many wing-backs and midfielders (although one has just left), too few strikers (especially if we're playing two up front) and there's no obvious candidate for the no. 10 slot. In addition, we've worsened in the goalkeeping department. Not what we needed at all and you can only conclude that we missed our main targets.

That's easy for you to say @Fan of Big Tone, what about the crowd of people who converged on Meadow Lane after seeing your comment? 😉 Another one: our former managers Colin Murphy and Steve Thompson, both of them more popular at Sincil Bank.

Shame, hope he goes to a good club (York?) where he can get plenty of games. Last season we saw that there was a proper footballer in there, but he struggled badly after his injury. I thought he had some promise playing the Palmer role, but we've got Palmer for that. Ultimately we've got too many players in that area who are too similar, so something had to give. Good luck to him!

Slightly OT, but I hate the Google AI assistant. It's like having a half-wit providing an unsolicited opinion on all my Google searches. I'm sure our scouts will have watched him (surely we're not signing players on agents' recommendations?), but the new keeper doesn't inspire confidence at all. Maybe @McPie is also thinking about his failed punch late on against Tranmere. There's nothing wrong with punching the ball, Kasper Schmeichel was partial to it too, but when you do it you have to get some proper distance on it. Roos' "clearance" didn't even leave the penalty area and could quite easily have led to a goal.

What a great comeback, I didn't see it coming at all after a first half in which both sides were equally dire. The subs had a positive impact (both Jatta and Gordon were involved in the winner) and McDonald's block when we were under the kosh was as good as a goal. Leaving both Dennis and Jatta on when we were under pressure took real courage when many managers would have replaced Dennis with a defensive player. Am I the only one who thinks the home goalkeeper was an absolute clown? He stayed down after the collision before our winner in the hope of winning a free kick...

He was definitely a big personality and highly driven. When he arrived in 2006 (to the dismay of many having been part of Colin Murphy's regime a few years before) he brought with him a list of mainly Lincolnshire-based players he wanted to sign. He might even have presented it at his interview. Bearing in mind this was only a couple of weeks before pre-season training was set to begin and we barely had any players. A flurry of transfer activity followed. That team probably cost buttons, but what it lacked in quality it made up for in spirit and he achieved our highest finish between relegation to L2 and the Munto takeover.

Agents can't break the rules, but they're employed by players, not clubs. An agent isn't breaking the rules by trying to get a move for his client, and the player will hardly complain either if he gets a glamour move and a big pay rise out of it. It's part of the game unfortunately and there's only so much the club can do. I don't think he'll go in this window now though. Either no bid has come in, or the club would only give a move the green light if a player came in to replace him (and that deal's fallen through).

That's really shoddy @Dan, I've also heard some stories about that now. As the stadium is obviously only accessible from one side, you'd have thought they would have some proper infrastructure in place rather than just muddling through somehow. In general I'm a fan of old grounds because they generally have that sense of history, even if the original stands are long gone. But the point of it all is ultimately to watch the game, and preferably without a restricted view. If we are going to have new grounds, I'd like there to be something unique about them.