DangerousSausage

Don't forget! This round is on TUESDAY the 12th with all the games kicking off at 7.45pm. Don't miss out! @ARLukomski, @gtownjohnno, @cheeky~k8, @super_ram, @Fan of Big Tone, @Chris, @upthepies, @Joshua, @allardyces tash, @TheSkipper, @KingMaynard, @CliftonMagpie, @Robbie, @thommo, @OoooooTommy, @NottsCountyKev, @JIMBO, @Harry Buckley, @jimbob, @Nocturnal-Magpie, @AmericanPie, @KB1862, @George L, @Canadian

I'm afraid Stuart Maynard is doomed. How do I know? Because @KingMaynard is here. You are a jinx ???? We shouldn't sack him, but the current run is alarming and after four points in eight games it's only natural to ask if we've appointed the right man. The squad is unbalanced and we've been very unlucky at times, but does he have the man management skills to lift the players? If there isn't a significant upturn in form until the end of the season, I wouldn't be surprised if the owners look elsewhere. Ian Burchnall had a similarly dismal start to life as Notts boss. I know he's not popular here, but he did manage to turn that around, get us into the play-offs twice and build the foundations for our promotion under LW. So you never know.

I can only echo the above. I hope you have a speedy recovery @Piethagoram, take care and don't rush yourself. Fingers crossed you'll be back at the Lane again and on PON very soon

Northampton Town 1-1 Blackpool (joker) Shrewsbury Town 1-0 Exeter City Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 Wigan Athletic AFC Wimbledon 2-1 Gillingham Newport County 1-2 Morecambe Walsall 2-3 Barrow Halifax Town 2-1 Oldham Athletic Maidenhead United 2-2 Hartlepool United

Your show of solidarity with the team is admirable!

The results: Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Plymouth Argyle Millwall 1-0 Birmingham City Port Vale 1-2 Shrewsbury Town Reading 1-2 Wycombe Wanderers Accrington Stanley 0-3 Bradford City Sutton United 1-1 Grimsby Town Aldershot 2-0 Oldham Athletic Kidderminster Harriers 0-0 York City --- In terms of points (remember what points are?), this round's winner is @liampie - congratulations! @liampie - 9 @Chris, @DangerousSausage - 8 @Megan_Elizax - 7 @cheeky~k8, @Dan, @Fan of Big Tone, @super_ram - 6 @DonnyNotts - 5 @ARLukomski, @Harry Buckley, @Joshua, @Robbie - 4 @TheSkipper - 3 @magpiejue - 2 @4everapie, @gtownjohnno, @nottsnutter - 1 @william1984 - nul points --- After just a week away, @ARLukomski returns to the top spot! ARLukomski - 180 gtownjohnno - 178 cheeky~k8 - 164 william1984 - 161 super_ram - 158 Fan of Big Tone - 157 magpiejue - 155 DangerousSausage - 154 4everapie - 152 Dan - 147 Megan_Elizax - 131 nottsnutter - 126 Chris - 123 DonnyNotts - 121 liampie - 113 upthepies - 90 Joshua - 86 allardyces tash - 70 TheSkipper - 67 KingWilliams - 66 CliftonMagpie - 55 Robbie - 55 thommo - 49 OoooooTommy - 45 NottsCountyKev - 41 JIMBO - 40 Harry Buckley - 39 jimbob - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 KB1862 - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- You don't need to wait long for the next round - it's on Tuesday night and the fixtures are online now! Thanks for playing and see you all over there!

The points from yesterday's round aren't even counted yet, and it's already time for the last proper midweek round of the season! These matches all kick off at 7.45pm on Tuesday - good luck and don't forget your joker! Northampton Town v Blackpool Shrewsbury Town v Exeter City Wycombe Wanderers v Wigan Athletic AFC Wimbledon v Gillingham Newport County v Morecambe Walsall v Barrow Halifax Town v Oldham Athletic Maidenhead United v Hartlepool United

I didn't realise until the news app of my preference sent me a push notification saying Facebook was down, as if it were major news or something. A reminder for us all to get away from social media!

Enjoy your fancy Sunday dinner! I bought a bicycle yesterday and took it on a maiden voyage home, then I had go go out and buy a suit (my other suit is six years old and has been worn precisely once, and appears to have shrunk in the wardrobe...).

The best website on the internet (apart from PON of course) is https://engrish.com/ - which focuses on bad English translations, mainly from the Far East Another good one is the English Companions' website, a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in Anglo-Saxon history. Apart from that, I usually read the Guardian online and always read Martina Hyde's column and I sometimes lurk on an SV Waldhof forum.

Winning is everything in football - string three wins together and everyone is smiling again. It is that simple. People will always go over the top in their criticism, sometimes they're emotional and sometimes they get a kick out of it. But not all criticism is unjustified - we've gathered four points in eight games under SM, and our points average was very poor before that as well. We're relying on the points we gathered in September and October to keep us out of a relegation fight. To put that into perspective, since promotion was introduced from the Conference in 1987, no team has EVER gone straight back down. In fact, several have gone up again. Staying in League Two isn't an achievement, it's the barest of bare minimums. This isn't a blip, we've had relegation form for half a season now. Stuart Maynard's job is to find a way to get us picking up points regularly, which in turn would give us something to build on for next season. It doesn't matter what he or anyone else says in interviews, when you reach a certain point you've heard it all before. Only wins will save his job and turn things around again.

I missed yesterday's game so I can't go into specifics too much. However, I suspect it was much the same game that I've seen several times already this season. I think many people are doubting whether we've appointed the right man. I think in many ways Stuard Maynard has been an unlucky general. We've always been competitive, we haven't been humiliated and we may well have picked up more points if it weren't for individual mistakes (which he can't do anything about). In addition, he's correctly identified our weaknesses and has been more proactive in addressing them than LW was. I've never had the feeling he's watched a different game to me. However, at some point results don't lie. As the losses stack up the owners need to ask themselves whether SM can lift the team we've got and make the right calls during games to get results. I think we're all having doubts. I just want to see us win again.

Blackburn Rovers 2-0 Plymouth Argyle Millwall 2-0 Birmingham City Port Vale 1-2 Shrewsbury Town Reading 3-1 Wycombe Wanderers Accrington Stanley 1-2 Bradford City Sutton United 1-1 Grimsby Town Aldershot 0-2 Oldham Athletic Kidderminster Harriers 3-1 York City (joker)

These fixtures all kick off at 3pm on Saturday, and you get a joker each. Good luck! Blackburn Rovers v Plymouth Argyle Millwall v Birmingham City Port Vale v Shrewsbury Town Reading v Wycombe Wanderers Accrington Stanley v Bradford City Sutton United v Grimsby Town Aldershot v Oldham Athletic Kidderminster Harriers v York City

Sam left us 18 months later @liampie, so he had another full season after that one. We struggled after we went up. We suffered an injury to a key player (Sean Farrell) and couldn't score. But in the end we stayed up comfortably after bringing in a series of strikers (including Stallard) and did well the following season. To put it in the right context, we hadn't played in the fourth division for 30 years until that promotion season. Dropping that far seemed almost as unimaginable as falling into the National League a few years back, and it was really important to the club to bounce back quickly. So it was all the more depressing when things went downhill again after Sam left.

The results: Preston North End 0-0 Hull City Swansea City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers Cheltenham Town 0-0 Burton Albion Leyton Orient 0-1 Bristol Rovers Crawley Town P-P Barrow Grimsby Town 1-0 Forest Green Rovers AFC Fylde 4-1 Maidenhead United Woking P-P Kidderminster Harriers --- @william1984 is this round's top scorer - congrats! @william1984 - 6 @Dan, @Fan of Big Tone - 5 @Chris, @gtownjohnno, @magpiejue, @Robbie - 4 @cheeky~k8, @DangerousSausage, @Megan_Elizax, @super_ram - 3 @4everapie, @Harry Buckley - 1 @ARLukomski - nul points --- We have a new leader, as with ten rounds to go @gtownjohnno goes a point ahead of @ARLukomski! But the final word hasn't been spoken. Besides, I'm planning on winning the league after docking you all 100 points on the final day. gtownjohnno - 177 ARLukomski - 176 william1984 - 161 cheeky~k8 - 158 magpiejue - 153 super_ram - 152 4everapie - 151 Fan of Big Tone - 151 DangerousSausage - 146 Dan - 141 nottsnutter - 125 Megan_Elizax - 124 DonnyNotts - 116 Chris - 115 liampie - 104 upthepies - 90 Joshua - 82 allardyces tash - 70 KingWilliams - 66 TheSkipper - 64 CliftonMagpie - 55 Robbie - 51 thommo - 49 OoooooTommy - 45 NottsCountyKev - 41 JIMBO - 40 jimbob - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 Harry Buckley - 35 KB1862 - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- The fun continues on Wednesday, when I'll be posting Saturday's fixtures. I'll see you then - have a good week!

What a complete farce that was, I feel sorry for everyone who had a wasted trip. Some decided to see Bradford Park Avenue instead. Pretty telling that their pitch was OK yet City's wasn't. The moment I saw the Valley Parade pitch I knew it wasn't playable, and it probably hadn't been for quite some time. So what were the officials doing? I'm not sure I'd blame the ground staff though. A few weeks ago a German cup tie at Saarbrücken was postponed at the last minute (with the teams in the tunnel and all the stands full!) and their pitch looked identical to Bradford's. Saarbrücken recently had their ground rebuilt, and because the costs had spiralled, the council decided to save money on drainage. Maybe Bradford have drainage issues too. If the water's standing on the pitch every time there's a bit of rainfall, there's only so much the ground staff can do... But whatever the reasons, that doesn't change the fact that postponing a game so late is an absolute outrage.

I think leap year day should be a bank holiday. I did an extra day's work on Thursday without any extra pay, and we even had to do actual work and not just muck around all day. It's just not on. Also, I went to school with someone born on leap year day, so by my count she'll be about ten now.

Also very true. We're currently 14, so we have to outperform at least seven of the teams above us to make it. I can't see it, but it's certainly not impossible.

Preston North End 2-1 Hull City Swansea City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers Cheltenham Town 3-1 Burton Albion Leyton Orient 2-0 Bristol Rovers (joker) Crawley Town 2-0 Barrow Grimsby Town 1-2 Forest Green Rovers AFC Fylde 1-1 Maidenhead United Woking 1-1 Kidderminster Harriers

I disagree with the OP in one thing - it really is as simple as winning games. The trouble is, we can't because we're always giving the opposition a head start! Stuart Maynard has already pointed out that you defend as a team. However, we've spent years recruiting players who are good on the ball but not so strong off it. This gave us a soft underbelly under Burchnall, and now those problems have come back to bite - except this time the opposition is better able to exploit it. As @Chris, Jones and Nemane barely exist in a defensive sense. Part of our troubles is that we've been playing them as wing backs, giving defensive responsibility to players who aren't up to that task, leaving the back three exposed frequently. A head coach has to work with the players he's given with all their strengths and weaknesses, so surely the logical thing to do would be to play a back four so they each have a full back behind them, allowing them to concentrate on their attacking play. SM has recognised this too, but we haven't seen the full benefit yet as he's switched formations during games a bit too often. The defence has been poor and definitely needs strengthening, but they've suffered from being exposed as I just described, as well as from having three different goalkeepers behind them (none of whom have covered themselves in glory). In light of all that, I'm not convinced that just changing the personnel of our back line would have made much difference.

It's not going to happen. We might only be four points adrift, but the number of teams in with a chance of a play-off spot is huge and it'll be those with the best form between now and the end of the season that will make it. What does our form look like? I know things can change quickly in football, but I think we've got too many problems to solve. We've got no business in League One until we fix them.

It's prediction league time again. These matches all kick off at 3pm on Saturday, and don't forget your jokers! Preston North End v Hull City Swansea City v Blackburn Rovers Cheltenham Town v Burton Albion Leyton Orient v Bristol Rovers Crawley Town v Barrow Grimsby Town v Forest Green Rovers AFC Fylde v Maidenhead United Woking v Kidderminster Harriers

I remember it well, and I remember the game against Colchester too! That day was a bit of a damp squib, a 0-0 draw and I can't remember whether we'd have gone up with a win. Luckily we were at home the following week too, and we just needed a win to claim the title. Fun fact: that season Lincoln won automatic promotion on just 75 points, some 24 behind us.

Have a great birthday @super_ram!