DangerousSausage

Saturday 3pm is kick-off time - get your predictions in! @Joshua, @cheeky~k8, @NottsCountyKev, @JIMBO, @upthepies, @CliftonMagpie, @thommo, @KingWilliams, @AmericanPie, @jimbob, @OoooooTommy, @Nocturnal-Magpie, @Dripsey3, @barnet11uk

Hull City 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday Ipswich Town 2-1 Stoke City Leyton Orient 0-0 Portsmouth Peterborough United 1-2 Charlton Athletic Harrogate Town 1-1 Forest Green Rovers Swindon Town 2-0 Crewe Alexandra (joker) Dagenham & Redbridge 2-2 Southend United York City 2-1 Kidderminster Harriers

What awful luck for the bloke. In a squad full of attack-minded players, he filled an important gap and would have been needed. Hope he has a good recovery and fingers crossed he'll surprise us all and make his Football League debt before the season is out.

I remember him, he was a right back. Really solid player too. Apart from that, I remember him being Welsh and I'm sure he joined us on loan. I thought he'd managed Leeds at some point, but maybe I'm getting mixed up there.

Did you also get off to a "Nottsy" start? Now's your chance to make amends! Our second round of fixtures kicks off at 3pm on Saturday - even if you missed the first round, you're welcome to take part. Post your predictions below and don't forget your joker! Hull City v Sheffield Wednesday Ipswich Town v Stoke City Leyton Orient v Portsmouth Peterborough United v Charlton Athletic Harrogate Town v Forest Green Rovers Swindon Town v Crewe Alexandra Dagenham & Redbridge v Southend United York City v Kidderminster Harriers

It's football, brown stuff happens. Just don't make a habit of it. Some kind of ban on having hair might be in order though.

A few years ago I got sick of my double chins and decided to lose some weight. Over several months I dropped from 105 to about 87kg. It was a few years back so some of it has gone back on, but I'm not nearly as heavy as I used to be. I didn't do a lot of exercise - I just joined a free website (FDDB) and monitored what I ate. The key is to eat about 80 to 90% of the calories your body needs (while keepig an eye on fat), then the weight drops off and stays off. But eat too little and your metabolism changes and you start gaining weight from very little. Being conscious of the useless calories you eat goes a long way - I used to drink colossal amounts of apple juice, which is OK in small amounts but very fattening when you drink it like water. After a bit you learn which meals are relatively low in calories but still fill you up, and that's important - if you feel like you're starving all the time, you won't stick to it. If you make your own curries, they're one of the better things you could be eating! Takeaway curries are full of oil and ghee, which isn't quite so great

According to the radio we changed to four at the back @Dripsey3? Last season we got away with sloppy defending at times by outscoring the opposition. That's not going to go in our favour as much this time. It was clear over the summer we needed to improve in this department and it remains to be seen whether Tipton on his own will be enough. We also have an issue in that we got a hammering on the first day, which affects confidence, makes the players more nervous, causing them to make poor decisions and so the cycle goes on. It's partly a mental problem and we need to get over it quickly. That said, we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The last two games aren't going to be representative of our season as a whole - against Sutton absolutely everything that could go wrong did go wrong, we had an early sending off and defensively we seemed to forget the basics. Last night we were playing a L1 team with a nervous defence, a different formation and minus many attacking players who might have taken the pressure off a bit. Against Grimsby we have to dominate and play on our terms and not let fear get the better of us. Even just scoring the first goal could help settle them down.

I can see that one (but not the whole thread) @Piethagoram. Thanks! The stats for this game massively flatter us and don't really reflect the match at all.

How do you read the thread? I'm not on Twitter. In the past I could read it anyway, but it doesn't seem to work now.

@Fozzy touches on a good point, the players weren't where they needed to be mentally. There's been a lot of hype around the team and noise about our EFL return, and maybe they got carried away with it. Sutton appeared much more focused on the here and now. Maybe this is an experience the team needed. Now it's time to let go of last season, ignore what the bookies are saying and concentrate on doing the simple things.

I thought kicking the ball away was already an automatic yellow? I'm not sure about all the time added on, I understand why they've done it but it seems a bit much. The Sutton game felt like it went on for five hours. I think one suggestion was cutting games to 80 minutes, and maybe it's worth looking at again. With the extra injury time we're probably looking at another 15 minutes on top of that anyway. A new one for is five substitutes per game, and I'm interested to see how it's used in practice. In theory it should favour the teams with a deeper squad and stronger bench, but using that many subs can make a team look disjointed.

@cheeky~k8 if you get the scoreline right that's 3 points, and the joker doubles it again. You got your joker, the Gateshead game, right, so that's 6 points on its own. Boreham Wood did you a big service by scoring in the 93rd minute! I've spoken to the football gods and they've agreed to let me win this season @Fan of Big Tone. Just try not to finish bottom, otherwise I'll have to relegate you ????

Wow! Wasn't expecting that at all. That's quite a statement.

The results: Blackburn Rovers 2-1 West Bromwich Albion Plymouth Argyle 3-1 Huddersfield Town Carlisle United 1-1 Fleetwood Town Shrewsbury Town 1-0 Cheltenham Town Morecambe 2-1 Walsall Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Barrow Aldershot 5-2 Oxford City Gateshead 2-2 Boreham Wood --- Thanks to all 28 of you for taking part! We start off with a good spread of scores - only one of you got into double figures, but everyone got off the mark. Congratulations to our first leader @Joshua, who got three scores right, including his joker! @Joshua - 13 @DonnyNotts, @cheeky~k8 - 8 @magpiejue, @NottsCountyKev, @JIMBO - 7 @nottsnutter, @super_ram, @ARLukomski, @upthepies - 6 @CliftonMagpie - 5 @liampie, @DangerousSausage, @thommo, @KingWilliams, @AmericanPie - 4 @Dan, @KB1862, @allardyces tash, @TheSkipper - 3 @4everapie, @Fan of Big Tone, @Megan_Elizax, @George L, @jimbob, @OoooooTommy - 2 @Chris, @Nocturnal-Magpie - 1 --- The next round of fixtures is next Saturday, 12th August, so the fixtures should be posted on Wednesday (like Notts, I don't do cups). Hopefully see you then! Feel free to insert complaints, banter and gloating messages below

I got in slightly later yesterday so I only tuned it at the end of the first half. It does what it says on the tin, there didn't seem to be any technical problems, there were replays, there was commentary and the updates when goals had been scored elsewhere were a nice touch. Oh, and there were six goals, woo hoo. I've got a gripe though - why does iFollow STILL not work with Chromecast? National League TV (which I hope I'll never have to use again) offered this from day one, and it worked perfectly. Why is this not possible in iFollow's seventh season of streaming? I'm happy to be able to watch the matches and it's good value for that alone, but squinting at your laptop screen is very 2017.

He's spot on. You'd assume that in most cases, but not yesterday. The players allowed themselves to be bullied yesterday, and I found it alarming. That shouldn't be happening even if you're a man down - if anything you've got to step up. It wasn't the team selection I'd have chosen, but if they don't compete the manager has every right to feel let down.

Short version: that was pants. Longer version: I feel disappointed and let down, and I didn't spend the afternoon in the London rain. I missed most of the first half, but I knew we were losing and a man down. In situations like that, the team that's trailing at least plugs the defensive gaps, the game develops an equilibrium and peters out. Yesterday Sutton murdered us right up to the final whistle and we can count ourselves lucky to have only conceded five. I wouldn't have picked Brindley at the back, he's not really a centre half and got found out in the NL too at times. But he wasn't the only one who failed to compete or pass the ball - and if you're not getting close enough to the opposition or challenging for the ball, it doesn't matter what formation you use. Likewise, you can't put the opposition under relentless pressure with a possession-based approach if you keep losing the ball in your own half. Sutton were much sharper than us and were very effective, they played it long and high, got in our faces and didn't allow us to play our football. But that's no different to what we saw in the NL many times, except yesterday we didn't cope. That's got to change, and quickly. Special mentions go to Cameron for his ridiculous back pass, yet Stone also had plenty of time to decide what to do. I'm not sure whether he was sent off for the deliberate handball outside the box or the foul, either way he made a hash of it and will have a few weeks on the bench to reflect on it even once his suspension is up.

Thanks to everyone who's predicted so far, we've got a decent mob together. To the rest of you - you've got until 3pm tomorrow (Saturday) to take part in the first round! Who fancies a go? Everyone is welcome! @Dripsey3, @gtownjohnno, @barnet11uk, @steve61, @Ohh Tommy Johnson, @menzinho, @yelobeli, @TheSkipper, @JIMBO

This subject has cropped up many times during our history. I'm glad nothing came of it as it would have been utterly counterproductive for us. Imagine playing in the National League in a stadium that holds 40,000... I think the current arrangement is ideal actually. The club pays very little in rent, it gives us security and it stops an unscrupulous future owner attempting to get their hands on the land.

Agree with all the above, he's passionate, knowledgeable and always a pleasure to listen to! He's also got an absolute peach of a job getting paid to watch Notts, and he knows it

Blackburn Rovers 2-1 West Bromwich Albion Plymouth Argyle 1-1 Huddersfield Town Carlisle United 2-0 Fleetwood Town Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Cheltenham Town Morecambe 0-2 Walsall Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Barrow Aldershot 2-0 Oxford City Gateshead 0-1 Boreham Wood (joker)

The days are getting shorter, tacky new shirts have been unveiled and fans up and down the country are putting their faith in a new 38-year-old workhorse who once had a good season for Burnley. It can only mean the main event is around the corner - the PON prediction league! At least two days before every matchday I will post a thread with eight matches to predict (or six if we're REALLY busy), two each 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. EVERYONE is welcome to take part! Just post your predictions underneath, and remember to assign a joker. And if you have any difficulty, just drop me a line. Good luck! Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion Plymouth Argyle v Huddersfield Town Carlisle United v Fleetwood Town Shrewsbury Town v Cheltenham Town Morecambe v Walsall Tranmere Rovers v Barrow Aldershot v Oxford City Gateshead v Boreham Wood

@TheSkipper, the audio subscription was available on it last season, as there wasn't any iFollow video option. It was probably a bit pointless for fans living in the UK. I agree! Along with exiles like me, there are a number of Juve fans who are interested in our fortunes. I can imagine a few of them would be up for it too, or at least individual games.

I'm just watching the England match now, they scored an absolutely belting goal that would have graced any game. World class finish. Then the ref disallowed it. Our number 2 Bronze was clearly offside when the cross was made. An England player then headed it back, at which point Bronze was clearly onside again. Bronze then intervened in play, winning the loose ball and passing to the "goalscorer". The ref disallowed it. I don't doubt that this was the right decision by the letter of the law, the situation was clear and obviously the ref knows the rules better than I do. But I find this part of the offside rule perplexing - when she first touched the ball, Bronze was behind several other England players and had in no way gained an advantage from having been in an offside position several seconds before. But whatever, we're winning.