DangerousSausage

We're always good for goals, we have been for a few seasons now. I've seen Notts teams where you wonder where a goal is coming from, so enjoy it while it lasts! I'm glad Langstaff has proven himself at this level too. To be honest I was expecting a little more from McGoldrick, especially given how well he did last season. He's been dropped into the Rodders role and it's an awkward fit for him. I'd like to see us get Scott under contract for next season, I think he has what it takes at this level and our faith will be repaid.

If I understood it correctly, all matches that fall outside the Saturday 3pm blackout (i.e. that would have been available in the UK on iFollow) will be broadcast live, so you should be able to watch the team as before. The question is whether there will be a match pass similar to iFollow, or whether Sky will gouge you for about 30 quid a month for it. Rupert Murdoch is not a philanthropist, all that money is coming from somewhere... As for us exiles, things should stay broadly the same. But I wonder if we'll have Sky's commentators inflicted on us?

Preston North End 1-2 Norwich City Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Stoke City Bolton Wanderers 0-2 Portsmouth Oxford United 2-1 Peterborough United (joker) Harrogate Town 2-1 Sutton United Newport County 0-0 Tranmere Rovers Bromley 1-0 Solihull Moors York City 2-0 Woking

That game was at Waldhof's ground, which holds 26,000, so a little bigger than Meadow Lane (albeit with only 15,000 seats). And there's no safe standing there! The home end is actually seated, but has been used as a standing area for years. The corners are terraced, but old-style with normal crush barriers. The away end is three quarters seated, part standing, but no one sits down for a derby It might need a bit of an upgrade if they ever make it back to Bundesliga 2. Kaiserslautern's ground was partially rebuilt for the 2006 World Cup and they've got safe standing. Your typical Bundesliga ground has a big standing area (possibly the whole stand) behind a goal, and an area in the corner for away fans too. There are exceptions though - Darmstadt's fans traditionally stand along the side of the pitch, and they integrated a terrace into their new stand which opened last year. They've got a terrace behind the goal too, but it's one of those tin pot temporary stands so doesn't hold that many.

You've hopefully worked out what to do by now - predict the following fixtures by 3pm on Saturday, and remember your joker. Good luck! Preston North End v Norwich City Sheffield Wednesday v Stoke City Bolton Wanderers v Portsmouth Oxford United v Peterborough United Harrogate Town v Sutton United Newport County v Tranmere Rovers Bromley v Solihull Moors York City v Woking

Forgot to reply to your comment @Robbie. I've been to Kaiserslautern a couple of times. The town itself is a little smaller than Mansfield and is uninteresting. The only interesting thing about that place is its football club. They play in a HUGE ground (nearly 50,000 capacity) on top of a massive hill behind the railway station, and they make a decent fist of filling it too. The town itself is far too small to sustain a club like that - they draw fans from all over a large region stretching from Saarbrücken in the west to Ludwigshafen in the east. They were part of the furniture in the Bundesliga until recently, but have fallen victim to mismanagement and only returned to Bundesliga 2 last season. My own team in Germany, Waldhof Mannheim, have a major rivalry with them. There's a lot of bad blood between the clubs due to the teams' time in the Bundesliga in the 80s (to cut a long story short) and they drew 1-1 in the last game I attended before the season was stopped due to covid. Some impressions are in the link, if you're interested! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7R2bqkjmlU

Love the picture, but you can't make them crouch like that at their age Craig Short looking like he just walked straight in from the on-pitch "discussion" at Peterborough in 2010.

The Gulp would have been fun, but it sounds like one of those dingy little pubs with sticky carpets. Not sure that's the image the club is going for? Personally I think we should have gone for Bajner's Bar, with a 20-foot statue of our favourite twig-like Hungarian ex-Ipswich striker at the entrance. I do like The Nest though, it's understated but still magpie-themed. On a side note, The Nest was also the name of Norwich's old ground up to the mid-1930s. I'm fascinated by it. It was a proper dump.

That didn't take long. Can't really comment on Noble (although the Stones fans on Facebook evidently weren't keen), but this could be a bit of a panic reaction as Wealdstone are plummeting towards the relegation zone at just the wrong time. I'm glad we're not in their position.

I can see why they're using that information - a game can turn because of a poor refereeing decision or individual mistakes by players. How many managers have been sacked prematurely by panicked boards because of things they have absolutely no control over? All the same, it's often forgotten that data and AI are tools and need people to manage and interpret them. I'm positive that our owners do this as well. If they only looked at statistics, Luke Williams - who at that time had a win percentage of 26% - would never have been appointed. Spotting players with unrealised potential is also a less exact science, for that you need know-how and contacts in addition to stats.

@Wheelbarrow repair man Magpie Circle is on YouTube. You don't need an account, just go to YouTube and search for it. And if you're too busy repairing wheelbarrows, you don't have to watch it live either (if it's like the other Magpie Circle episodes). I'm expecting some politician's answers as club employees are limited in what they can say and they can hardly rip into our current players. That limitation aside, I think it'll be illuminating and it's good that they're speaking on a fans' platform that isn't controlled by the club.

The results: Sunderland 0-0 Bristol City Watford 0-0 Preston North End Burton Albion 0-4 Oxford United Charlton Athletic 2-1 Barnsley Bradford City 1-0 Gillingham Tranmere Rovers 1-3 Walsall Boreham Wood 4-0 Wealdstone York City 0-1 Eastleigh --- @ARLukomski will be feeling like a number one this week! @ARLukomski - 8 @Dan, @liampie - 7 @gtownjohnno - 6 @Robbie, @william1984 - 5 @DangerousSausage, @Joshua - 4 @4everapie, @Harry Buckley, @super_ram - 3 @cheeky~k8, @Fan of Big Tone, @magpiejue, @nottsnutter - 2 @Megan_Elizax - 1 --- @ARLukomski adds to his lead, but @gtownjohnno still has a dream. As for my own title ambitions, I just have to face it this time I'm through. ARLukomski - 206 gtownjohnno - 200 william1984 - 191 super_ram - 183 cheeky~k8 - 181 Fan of Big Tone - 181 4everapie - 177 magpiejue - 177 DangerousSausage - 174 Dan - 169 Megan_Elizax - 157 DonnyNotts - 136 liampie - 133 nottsnutter - 133 Chris - 123 Joshua - 90 upthepies - 90 Robbie - 78 allardyces tash - 70 TheSkipper - 67 KingWilliams - 66 Harry Buckley - 63 CliftonMagpie - 55 thommo - 49 OoooooTommy - 45 NottsCountyKev - 41 JIMBO - 40 jimbob - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 KB1862 - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- So I say thank you for the predictions, the scores you're giving. The next round will be on Saturday, so keep your eyes peeled for the fixtures on Wednesday!

A great result and deserved too. With the penalty and Harogate's period of pressure at the start of the second half, the game could easily have slipped away from us again, so it was great for us to get that second goal and decide it in our favour. I only saw some of the game on video (I heard the rest on the radio), but I thought Crowley made a decent fist of the Palmer-esque tidying-up role a little deeper in midfield. Let's have more days like this please!

Whatever we think on the matter, the update from the board has at least given us clarity and confirmed that SM will still be here until the summer at least, and almost certainly at the start of next season too. That has the positive effect that it draws a line under the circus surrounding SM for the time being at least and will help focus everyone's attention towards what's happening on the pitch.

I think they'll still be here at the start of next season. Our board has shown no inclination to sell players before their contracts have expired in the past - think Ruben Rodrigues and Kyle Wootton, who both ended up leaving on free transfers at the end of their contracts. On the other hand, Macca and Jodi would command much higher fees. There's more of a question mark over Langstaff in my opinion, as his scoring record has been stunning and he's bound to have a release clause. However, his age might limit his price - his next contract will take him beyond his 30th birthday, so any buyer would not be bringing in a player they could develop hugely or sell on for big money. In addition, the market is awash with out-of-contract strikers in the summer. I wouldn't blame him for taking a once-in-a-career offer, but so far there's been a lot of paper talk and no actual offers, and there's no reason to assume that the summer transfer window will be any different.

This sounds a bit harsh. Is it compulsory to hate the Scottish now? I can't always understand what they're saying, but there's no ill will. One of them once asked me for a fight in an airport terminal, but he asked politely and I declined, so it was all amicable. I'm looking forward to a few days in Scotland this month, hopefully with no fighting. Being serious, I haven't read the law (and I suspect the other people commenting here haven't either), so it's a little bit over my head. I'm not going to take anti-trans hate groups' word for it thank you. On the other hand, language is a highly subjective thing, and that means laws like this are difficult to put into practice and could potentially be turned against the people they were originally designed to protect. Some of the most effective and prolific hatemongers use insinuations rather than outright abusive language.

Sunderland 2-1 Bristol City Watford 1-1 Preston North End Burton Albion 0-3 Oxford United (joker) Charlton Athletic 1-1 Barnsley Bradford City 1-1 Gillingham Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Walsall Boreham Wood 1-1 Wealdstone York City 2-0 Eastleigh

Ok, this goes a lot further than the standard vote of confidence from the board! It sounds almost evangelical, bordering on hubristic. I don't see anything wrong with sticking with possession football (that's what this squad was built for after all), but we do need more players capable of carrying it out. I hope the owners have considered why we haven't got the points they feel we deserve and take appropriate action in the summer. On the topic of luck, SM has certainly been unlucky at times, but in football you make your own luck. Thinking back to the Swindon game, we aren't going to get that lucky ricochet in the box of we don't put crosses in. We were braver earlier in the season and got the odd lucky break as a result. The thought of starting next season with the current management makes me nervous as I don't believe they're getting the best out of the players they have. But of course I want them to succeed and would like nothing more than to enjoy some tasty humble pie next season.

Saturday is the fiftieth(!) anniversary of Abba winning Eurovision with Waterloo. And with the PON prediction league, too, the winner takes it all*. So get your predictions in by 3pm on Saturday, and remember your joker! * not actually true. Sunderland v Bristol City Watford v Preston North End Burton Albion v Oxford United Charlton Athletic v Barnsley Bradford City v Gillingham Tranmere Rovers v Walsall Boreham Wood v Wealdstone York City v Eastleigh

Kaiserslautern are far from a great side @Robbie, they're third bottom of Bundesliga 2 and only one point clear of automatic relegation. They're the lowest-placed team Saarbrücken have played in the competition, and it could easily be a league fixture again next season. For Kaiserslautern, reaching the final is a worthy story too. However, it poses a problem. If they finish third from bottom, they'll play a two-legged promotion/relegation play-off against whoever comes third in the third division. The German Cup final takes place between these two legs. So they could quite possibly win the cup and then get relegated four days later!

The cup dream is over, they lost 2-0 tonight. Kaiserslautern parked the bus in the first half and scored their first attempt on goal, a header that went straight through the keeper's legs after about an hour of play. Saarbrücken's forward play seemed to consist of crosses and high diagonal balls straight onto the heads of the grateful guests. It's been an amazing story for Saarbrücken, but unfortunately they're not the ones going to Berlin. Instead it'll be a Kaiserslautern team who are in acute danger of relegation from Bundesliga 2.

Yes and no @Robbie. The licensing system is designed to stop clubs going bust mid-season and threatening the integrity of the competition. Yet in recent years we've still had a couple of clubs go into administration (which means automatic relegation) despite all the safeguards. In the lower divisions, clubs are just as unsustainable as they are in England. Very few clubs can break even on gate receipts and TV money of €800k in the third division, so they're dependent on a benefactor or a major sponsor to write off the losses. One example among many is Saarbrücken's main sponsor, the locally based Victor's hotel chain, which pumps more than €2 million into the club every season. In theory, club members have a controlling interest and could kick them out if they wanted. In practice, they know that would be the end of professional football in Saarbrücken if they did. On top of that, the German FA imposes silly and expensive ground requirements on third division clubs such as under-soil heating. Clubs are answerable to their members and hold annual general meetings and the like, so there is more transparency and fans' voices can be heard. But ultimately, he who pays the piper calls the tune. I think a licensing system was being considered in England, and the more club owners are held to account the better. But in both countries, if you want to compete at a professional level, you'd better have someone in the background who's paying for it.

All the teams you mention are still around @Robbie Dynamo Dresden never made much of an impact at the very top level, in the last few years they've been jumping between the second and third divisions and have just slipped out of the promotion places in the third division. They're a big club, averaging north of 25,000 at their matches, and take big followings away too. Think Sheffield Wednesday. Dresden is a big city that could easily support a top-flight club if they get their house in order. Dynamo Berlin (known here as BFC Dynamo) are also still around, but never had much in the way of support as they were the Stasi's favoured club in East Germany. This brought them league titles and European Cup runs back in the day, but now they're stuck in the regional fourth division and play to paltry crowds. Hertha are a different club based in the former West Germany; they played in the Champions League in the recent past but got relegated last season and aren't pulling up any trees this time. They play at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin - they rarely fill it, but are still the capital's best-supported club. I've been to Cologne's ground before, brilliant experience. Lukas Podolski played for them. They're in the Bundesliga but are struggling right now. This season they sacked their "animated" manager Steffen Baumgart, who then joined Hamburg, a former Bundesliga stalwart that got relegated a few seasons back and keep finding new and amusing ways to not get promoted. Here he is when forced to watch them at home when he was in quarantine. The finances of football are a bit different due to the rule that club members must have a majority of voting rights in their clubs (with a couple of exceptions), so instead of owners you've got investors and very big sponsors. In the lower leagues, clubs need to apply to the German FA for a licence every season - the FA look at the projected crowds and sponsorship income as well as the planned budget, and can accept it or demand improvements. If no licence is granted, the club is ejected from the league. In the third division, this has led to a situation where none of the teams that finished in the relegation zone were actually relegated - they all got a reprieve as other clubs were expelled instead!

Can't believe I forgot this in my other post. I'm watching this on TV tonight! Saarbrücken's story is amazing. The German cup is seeded, with the lower division team being guaranteed a home draw against a team from the Bundesliga or the second tier. This guarantees income, but makes it very hard to progress far. Saarbrücken have beaten Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Mönchengladbach to reach this stage. I only hope it goes ahead, as their pitch is a shambles. I've seen them in Mannheim several times as the two sides spent several years trying to get out of the fourth division. Always a good occasion and self-deprecating fans. Hope they smash the potato farmers from Kaiserslautern tonight.

I thought it was a storm in a teacup till I saw it. Yikes!