DangerousSausage

Oh. Maybe he just didn't want to move. He was probably rubbish anyway. We'll have more irons in the fire I'm sure.

I've had a busy few days - out for a meal with other humans on Wednesday, Christmas market with other humans (who are also work colleagues) on Thursday. So I might just shut myself in and play computer games to recover from all the socialising. I may emerge from my cave to visit my local Christmas market though

Hull City 2-1 Cardiff City Swansea City 2-0 Middlesbrough Barnsley 1-1 Charlton Athletic Port Vale 0-2 Wigan Athletic Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Morecambe Newport County 0-2 Grimsby Town Dagenham & Redbridge 2-2 Wealdstone Dorking Wanderers 2-0 Woking (joker)

This is a good signing, wasn't sure that Stoke were looking to get rid but it's our gain. One issue with having young players in on loan is that we're developing another team's players. They learn with us - inevitably making some mistakes as they go along - and their parent club then gets the benefit of that. I can see Macari improving a lot over the next couple of years, and it'll be our gain.

Got your crystal balls ready? Then let's go. These matches all kick off at 3pm on Saturday - remember your jokers and good luck! Hull City v Cardiff City Swansea City v Middlesbrough Barnsley v Charlton Athletic Port Vale v Wigan Athletic Doncaster Rovers v Morecambe Newport County v Grimsby Town Dagenham & Redbridge v Wealdstone Dorking Wanderers v Woking

Jodi Jones? I know Malta play him up front sometimes.

It was a club where the members played among themselves @CliftonMagpie, inter-club games were still years away. They'd arrange games between themselves such as married v single men. And it was all strictly amateur, Notts included. Only in the early 1880s did clubs such as Bolton and Blackburn start paying some players, sparking an outcry that money was ruining the game. Some of this was elitism - in the middle of the 19th century, ordinary working folk didn't have the time or energy to dedicate to a football club, so members tended to be very well-to-do. When the first players started getting paid, this opened the game up to working class people as they no longer had to earn a living outside of football. It was no longer a posh man's game. The FA finally allowed clubs to turn professional in 1885. It's fascinating to look back but it's really a world away from the game we know today, with clubs springing up all over the place and many disappearing again. The English Game on Netflix covers this era, it's really interesting stuff!

Privatisation was a disaster and should be reversed ASAP. More regulation is all well and good, but households will end up footing the cost. It's time this artifical market ended. This is good stuff from Mr Sharkey. I'm not surprised he's angry - apparently he gets water leaks right through the night.

There's decent evidence that the club was founded in 1862, while the company was founded in 1864. You could go further back though. There are letterheads from the nineteenth century giving 1860 as the foundation date. The club's roots go back to the late 1850s when a group of army volunteers incorporated football into their training - these were the same people who founded a football club a few years later. And now here we are!

The results: Norwich City 0-0 Preston North End Rotherham United 1-2 Swansea City Exeter City 0-1 Port Vale Wigan Athletic 0-0 Lincoln City Wycombe Wanderers 0-1 Shrewsbury Town AFC Wimbledon 4-0 Swindon Town Sutton United P-P Harrogate Town Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Newport County --- Tricky round this one - the away teams did better than many of us thought. But this week's winners are @Chris and @gtownjohnno! @Chris, @gtownjohnno - 8 @liampie, @thommo - 6 @Dan, @super_ram, @upthepies - 4 @ARLukomski, @CliftonMagpie, @DonnyNotts, @magpiejue, @Megan_Elizax - 3 @allardyces tash, @Joshua, @william1984 - 2 @DangerousSausage, @Fan of Big Tone, @nottsnutter - 1 @4everapie - nul points --- Here's the table then - not a lot of movement this time: ARLukomski - 126 gtownjohnno - 113 cheeky~k8 - 103 4everapie - 102 nottsnutter - 101 DangerousSausage - 99 Fan of Big Tone - 97 super_ram - 93 william1984 - 93 magpiejue - 89 liampie - 87 Chris - 85 Megan_Elizax - 84 upthepies - 84 Dan - 79 Joshua - 75 DonnyNotts - 69 TheSkipper - 58 allardyces tash - 57 KingWilliams - 48 CliftonMagpie - 47 OoooooTommy - 45 thommo - 45 NottsCountyKev - 41 JIMBO - 40 jimbob - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 KB1862 - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- The next round is on Saturday, so the fixtures will be online on Wednesday or thereabouts. Have a good week everyone!

don't think there are enough games postponed to be worth anyone's while - we've barely had a handful so far. But if a whole round of matches is wiped out like earlier this season, I'll do my best to get an extra round in!

Stylish! Hope it's luckier than the last one ????

I can only agree with @Super_Danny_Allsopp, the January window will make our break our season. It's very plain that our back line has been found wanting in this division, and Gosling seems to be turning into Harry Arter no. 2. I'd have a go at swapping Austin and Crowley around, but only as a temporary solution. As we don't seem quite ready for a serious promotion push, yet there's also virtually zero risk of going down, it might be the perfect time to give Brooks a run in the team. We might benefit for years to come, and having a player come through the ranks and into the first team would do the academy a world of good.

Also, the tifos you see elsewhere are quite rough and ready when you see them up close, they're not like banners designed to be used for years. Quite a lot of bin bags get used

I'm going to be pedantic and point out that we weren't the first professional football club - the game was strictly amateur at the time and the Lancashire clubs probably started (illegally) paying their players first. We're the oldest football club that is currently professional. Now I've got that out of the way, I've had a look at the Notts history book by Darrin Foss. We played our first match against outside opposition against Trent Valley on 8 December 1864 after the meeting at the George Hotel - it was 20 a side and finished goalless, but the opposition may have been made up of Notts members too. In which case our first match against an outside club would have been on 2 January 1865 against Sheffield FC at the Meadows Cricket Ground. It was played under Nottingham rules with 18 a side, and of course we lost. The Sheffield club minutes for that game are the earliest record of us being referred to as Notts County. I can highly recommend his book (Notts County FC and the Birth of Modern Football) if you like this kind of stuff!

Norwich City 2-1 Preston North End Rotherham United 1-1 Swansea City Exeter City 1-1 Port Vale Wigan Athletic 3-1 Lincoln City Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Shrewsbury Town AFC Wimbledon 2-0 Swindon Town Sutton United 1-1 Harrogate Town (joker) Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Newport County

Why not? There are plenty of clubs in Germany with fanbases similar to or smaller than Notts who manage this. It's usually a relatively small, dedicated group of fans who get the ball rolling (my only concern here is that many English clubs' fan bases are comparatively old). When clubs do it through their marketing departments it's rather plastic. But it's amazing what you can achieve if you take the initiative. The slogans on the one below read "declared dead a thousand times - but today you'll be proven wrong!", so quite fitting for us too this was at a promotion play-off game (that went badly wrong), but they do five or six during normal games too. The best bit is at the minute mark:

So we're back to business as usual - if you fancy a go, send in your predictions by 3pm on Saturday, and don't forget your joker! And it might be a good idea to keep an eye on possible postponements before posting... Norwich City v Preston North End Rotherham United v Swansea City Exeter City v Port Vale Wigan Athletic v Lincoln City Wycombe Wanderers v Shrewsbury Town AFC Wimbledon v Swindon Town Sutton United v Harrogate Town Tranmere Rovers v Newport County

This is the point the pen pushers don't understand. There is wall-to-wall coverage of football, but there's not an awful lot on official channels that promotes the matchday experience. Whether they're your cup of tea or not, vloggers do that. They are promoting the Football League's product. How is it different in principle from Sky's Saturday show, when you also watch people watching the match?

No. The current arrangement - with the land being owned by the council, the Haydn Green estate owning the lease and renting it to the club for 99 years - gives the club a lot of protection. I trust the Reedtz brothers, but they won't own the club forever; if the club owns the ground, that could make us a target for property developers one day after they leave. I doubt it would happen anyway as it isn't worth anyone's while. As the club pays such a low rent, it wouldn't make sense to buy the land outright as the investment possibly wouldn't pay off in our lifetime. Secondly, the land has a covenant stating it can only be used for sports, so there would be no other feasible buyer. If you consider the club pays rent of (I recall) 10,000 pounds per season in L2, the purchase price would be in the low six figures. Is it worth the council's while to sell, and would it be worth the owners' while to buy? Probably not, and we don't even know whether the leasehold would allow it.

I think it's changed them. It is so quick and easy to post on Facebook, so a lot of ranty and moany comments posted a couple of minutes after the final whistle tend to get posted there rather than here. This is more of a place to write your thoughts once the dust has settled a bit.

Could you speak up? I can't hear you two bickering all that way behind me ????

The results: Plymouth Argyle 2-1 Stoke City Swansea City 1-1 Huddersfield Town Cambridge United 4-0 Fleetwood Town Crewe Alexandra p-p Bristol Rovers Gillingham 2-0 Charlton Athletic Newport County 1-1 Barnet Halifax Town p-p Solihull Moors Oxford City 1-4 Maidenhead United --- I thought I'd win this round, just to show you all what a football genius I am @ARLukomski got his joker right thanks to a stoppage time goal and came a distant second. @DangerousSausage - 8 @ARLukomski - 6 @cheeky~k8, @DonnyNotts, @gtownjohnno - 4 @4everapie, @allardyces tash, @Chris - 3 @Fan of Big Tone, @magpiejue, @TheSkipper, @william1984 - 2 @CliftonMagpie, @Dan, @Joshua, @KingWilliams, @liampie, @Megan_Elizax, @super_ram - 1 @nottsnutter - nul points --- This is our table. @ARLukomski extends his lead, @cheeky~k8 moves back into the top three, @4everapie is 4th and I surge past @Fan of Big Tone: ARLukomski - 123 gtownjohnno - 105 cheeky~k8 - 103 4everapie - 102 nottsnutter - 100 DangerousSausage - 98 Fan of Big Tone - 96 william1984 - 91 super_ram - 89 magpiejue - 86 liampie - 81 Megan_Elizax - 81 upthepies - 80 Chris - 77 Dan - 75 Joshua - 73 DonnyNotts - 66 TheSkipper - 58 allardyces tash - 55 KingWilliams - 48 OoooooTommy - 45 CliftonMagpie - 44 NottsCountyKev - 41 JIMBO - 40 thommo - 39 jimbob - 38 Nocturnal-Magpie - 38 AmericanPie - 36 KB1862 - 22 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- And that's the end of it for another week. The next round is on Saturday, so the fixtures will be posted during the week. Thanks for playing!

Some fair points there @Chris, there are some crazy overreactions on social media. However, I can understand some of the frustration. It's cost us a third round FA Cup tie and might yet cost us a shot at promotion. Playing at the back for Notts is a tough gig and you're going to look bad at times simply due to how we play. As long as our system gets us results, we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater, but we should remember that some of our players have been with us since the Ardley days and are an awkward fit for this system. Rawlinson was very sound in a back four and if he'd been picked for the play-off final against Harrogate we might even have returned to the league at the first attempt. Now he's being asked to play total football when he's not really suited to it. Brindley joined us as a right back and has had to adapt. Baldwin's head seems to have gone this season and he could do with a spell on the sidelines, but our squad depth hasn't permitted it. It's clear that our defence as a unit isn't working and isn't likely to work. I don't think they're bad players individually, but in terms of decision making they've often been found wanting. If we can bring in a genuine leader at the back to instill confidence and settle the others down a bit, we might yet see the best out of Baldwin and co.

It's not just about PON, it's about Notts and football in general. Football is a routine, and for many people Covid interrupted that routine and they haven't been able to get back into it since. Or it gave them the chance to discover new hobbies or change their priorities in life. They might even just have drifted away when we got relegated to the tinpot league. And if you spend less time thinking about Notts, you're less likely to be involved in a fans' community like PON. It's nothing to be taken personally, it's just the nature of it. If we keep the community lively and provide lots of things to talk about, it'll invite more people to dip into it again if they fancy