DangerousSausage

Some fair points there @Scotty. We had a taste of how much attacking "threat" we pose without McGoldrick and AJ at Wimbledon in the playoffs. We wouldn't have scored if we'd still been playing now. On the other hand, MP has a fit Jones to call on, unlike most of last season. The question in many people's mind is whether MP is getting the best out of the players and whether he knows what to do. I'm pessimistic on that score. Look at our set pieces - we've got JJ, who can put a fantastic ball in, and now we've got Cotter with his long throw. So where are the set piece routines from the training ground? Everyone seems to be making it up as they go along. But it's very early and a win could help settle us down. The owners like to give people a chance, but they're also ambitious and have just sacked a head coach who took us to the playoffs. On the other hand, they stood by Ian Burchnall in spite of his really poor start and he eventually turned it around. I think if we're not in the top half at Christmas they'll pull the trigger, or possibly much sooner if we end up in the bottom four.

At first I thought you meant the PON thread and I was confused @TheSkipper. Then I went on Facebook and saw what you meant. Yikes. I've seen snarky responses to our posts in the past, but not this bad. Social media was bad enough when we were in the top five, let alone now. It's a toxic place for toxic people to take out their frustration and frankly I wish I could cut it out of my life.

Here's your remind - the next round is on TUESDAY NIGHT, kick-off 7.45pm. I know you're all sick of football after Saturday - why not soften the blow by getting some prediction league points? @magpiejue @JustLikeJuve @Blake @gtownjohnno @super_ram @Robbie @Ash @Chris @KingofCounty @Joshua @NottsTastic @TheSkipper @The Heff @upthepies @NiftyNick @allardyces tash @CliftonMagpie @Michael D Pie. @OoooooTommy @ARLukomski @Countyman @lambleypie @liampie @Megan_Elizax @Fan of Big Tone @NottsCountyKev @thommo @cheeky~k8 @NottsLoyal @JIMBO

Huddersfield Town 2-1 Doncaster Rovers Luton Town 2-0 Wigan Athletic (joker) Stockport County 1-1 Bradford City Colchester United 1-1 Cambridge United Gillingham 0-2 Chesterfield Harrogate Town 1-0 Barrow Altrincham 2-1 Hartlepool United Woking 1-1 Wealdstone

The results: Preston North End 2-1 Leicester City Swansea City 1-0 Sheffield United Leyton Orient 2-2 Stockport County Reading 1-2 AFC Wimbledon Barnet 1-2 Walsall Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Gillingham Aldershot 2-3 Boston United Hartlepool United 2-0 Braintree Town @Blake , @Countyman , @Dan , @OoooooTommy and @theAnticlough share the honours this week, congrats to all of you! Overall, @magpiejue reclaims top spot from @JustLikeJuve whie @Blake joins the top three... If you can't wait to get your crystal ball out again, you're in luck - there's another round on Tuesday night and the fixtures are online now. See you over there and good luck!

Time for our first midweek round on Tuesday, which incidentally would have been the 429th birthday of Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia. The games all kick off at 7.45pm and don't forget your joker! Huddersfield Town v Doncaster Rovers Luton Town v Wigan Athletic Stockport County v Bradford City Colchester United v Cambridge United Gillingham v Chesterfield Harrogate Town v Barrow Altrincham v Hartlepool United Woking v Wealdstone

We don't usually buy them any more - we just cut potatos into wedges or chips, sprinkle some oil on them and put them in the air fryer. Hardly takes any longer and you know exactly what's in them.

I agree with Palmer, he had his usual game and tried his best to keep us ticking. JJ did his best and McDonald is a reliable, no-nonsense L2 defender. After that it gets pretty thin. Dennis could potentially be a good signing; he took his goal well but wasn't in the game much, not surprising when we're not playing to his strengths.

Think yourself lucky, I could see all of it on PiesPlayer!

Thanks for playing everyone, I'll post the points tomorrow. A heads-up - there will be another round on Tuesday evening, so I'll post the next batch of fixtures tomorrow morning!

I'm really trying to be patient as we have only had three games. Sometimes you appear to be having a poor start but then unexpectedly win a couple and suddenly it all looks a lot better. But having seen our opening games I don't think that's likely. The brothers have already shown they can take tough decisions when they need to. If we're knocking around the bottom four after about ten games, I'd expect Martin Paterson's job to be on the line. Gagliardi will probably get another transfer window. So who's to blame if the season turns out as bad as we fear? Everyone. I think our success in recruitment in recent years has made the owners complacent when it comes to selling players. They seem to think anyone can be replaced. On top of that, taking so long to recruit a new head coach no doubt meant we lost out on transfer targets. It's definitely too early to say whether the technical board is having an effect on team matters, but it almost certainly scared off potential head coaches. The DoF is in charge of putting the squad together. It's too early to deliver a final judgement on our summer signings, but the signs so far are far from promising - we have a lop-sided squad heavy on wing backs but light in the areas that badly needed strengthening, with loanees filling the gaps. But then he's operating within the financial and time restraints the owners give him. And of course there's the head coach. He's got an unwieldy squad that has lost key players, but he's also got the bulk of the team that reached the playoffs last season. It's his job to get the best out of what he's got. They're not this bad. Today I saw confused, demoralised players; there was no sign of pre-prepared routines for set pieces (always just hit and hope) or a clear idea of how we should be playing. The least a coach can do is to get his players to move into space and show for the ball. I hope we'll look back on this thread in a few weeks and think it's alarmist, but I don't have a good feeling at all.

It was indeed @Fan of Big Tone, I stand corrected.

Absolutely, but in the areas we need please and not yet more wing backs! The recruitment is looking like a mess so far. Quantity over quality. It also doesn't say much for our recruitment when we have just one striker available after four games. Another little positive for @Fan of Big Tone : the lovely cross from Jones for our goal. Dennis nearly had a one-on-one with the keeper in the first half thanks to a nice ball from him too.

That was desperate. We were better for a period in the second half, but even then players weren't showing for the ball or running into space. The ball was wellied over the opposite touchline with alarming regularity. I still have no idea what MP wants to do, we certainly can't see what they're working on in training, and that's a very bad sign. Eight of the first 11 who got us into the playoffs last season are still with us, yet we look like a bottom four team. Barrow and Newport will be glad just to stay up, yet we took just a point from those two games. I'll write more once I've calmed down. The 500 plus who travelled to Barrow deserved a lot better than that.

Nice scenery behind the side with the three stands, you can see the mountains in the distance. Didn't realise it was so close to the Lake District. The rubbish footballers in the foreground distracted me, but only once or twice.

Preston North End 0-2 Leicester City (joker) Swansea City 2-1 Sheffield United Leyton Orient 0-1 Stockport County Reading 1-1 AFC Wimbledon Barnet 1-0 Walsall Tranmere Rovers 0-2 Gillingham Aldershot 1-1 Boston United Hartlepool United 2-0 Braintree Town

After just eight months at Carlisle, our Wembley hero is on the move again - this time very close to home at South Shields of the National League North. There was an undisclosed fee. Hope he can finally get playing and scoring regularly now!

They were a very imposing sight, visible for miles around. You could also see West Burton (which is still standing) in the distance. I remember watching coal being sent there by train back in the day. It's sad to see industrial heritage being lost, but there's not a lot of point maintaining disused cooling towers in a field somewhere. In the end, the power station was used for 20 years longer than intended and has been earmarked as a site for a nuclear fusion test plant. Shout-out to the folk who turned up to watch the towers at Ratcliffe not being demolished yesterday!

The key to longevity is not dying. If you don't do that, you'll literally live forever. I think this is a case of correlation not necessarily being causation. Maybe towns with larger libraries also tend to have better infrastructure and a higher standard of living?

The best ones are fresh from the butcher's, but even their supermarket sausages have much more meat than our version. Sorry, but sausages are one area where they're far superior to us. But on the other hand, we've got sausage rolls and pork pies. They've no idea what they're missing out on.

I'll help you keep tabs @Chris! It would be good to have a rematch on home turf, but there are many countries that are logistically easier than the UK for German clubs. All the same, some do come over. And us being the world's oldest professional football club gives us a bit of curiosity value for German fans.

This is my topic! The Nuremberg sausages are lovely but they're too small to put on a roll. Thuringian ones are long and thin, sometimes the seller snaps them in half so they'll fit on your bread, then the mustard goes in the gap. I don't care who invented them, I'm just glad they exist. Can you tell I'm hungry?

It's pretty harsh to blame Maynard for not taking Jatta off, as far as I remember he wasn't even on a yellow. And can you imagine the outrage if he'd subbed him? As for the other point, too much is made of our data-driven approach sometimes. If we only looked at data, we'd never have appointed Paterson or Williams. I would hope someone is scouting our new players too!

I couldn't watch our annual League Cup run yesterday, so thanks everyone for commenting! During pre-season I had the impression that MP had opened a big jigsaw puzzle, the pieces had fallen all over the floor and he was trying to find the best way to fit them together. The jigsaw puzzle won't be finished for quite a few weeks yet. When Ian Burchnall switched to using wing backs, it was because we didn't really have enough wide players who were up to scratch. Now we have too many for the system we're playing, and the risk there is that members of the squad will end up too far away from the first 11 and will end up unhappy. Even if the Jones no. 10 experiment fails, if Jones is fit he should be playing. That leaves one other slot, and Bennetts also plays in his position. Would Bennetts really be happy with the supersub role he had at his previous clubs?

All good things come in three, so here's our third round (there are 43 rounds after this though, which spoils things a bit). Kick-off is 3pm and don't forget your joker! Preston North End v Leicester City Swansea City v Sheffield United Leyton Orient v Stockport County Reading v AFC Wimbledon Barnet v Walsall Tranmere Rovers v Gillingham Aldershot v Boston United Hartlepool United v Braintree Town