DangerousSausage

@Piethagoram does excellent work keeping us informed and supplying us with really interesting snippets from the world of football that would otherwise get missed. And I really enjoy reading @menzinho's thoughtful posts as well. A special mention goes out to @Chris, who puts such a lot of work into keeping the community ticking.

I think it's more modern football than a reflection on the club @liampie. The really good ones who would otherwise make the breakthrough are spirited away to big clubs before they kick a ball for us, and most of the remainder just don't quite have what it takes. Going back a few years, David Platt and Peter Beardsley each played more than 100 games for their first clubs (Crewe and Carlisle) before they hit the big time. Unimaginable now.

Thanks for the well wishes! We've proven we're good enough over the course of the season, but anything can happen in a one-off match. If it doesn't work out, we'll be a pub quiz question and we'll just have to keep banging on the door. We're a well-run club now, so I'm confident we'll make it sooner rather than later. Hopefully very soon! Wednesday are a proper club and I always enjoy your visits, so hopefully we'll see you again soon in League One. Although you might not agree with that last bit PS Langstaff is actually rubbish and you should under no circumstances try to sign him.

After 45 rounds and so many twists and turns it's a wonder it hasn't got its own Netflix series, this is it - the final round. We're all battling for positions, but we still have two players in contention for this season's star prize (once I've found it down my sofa) and an eternal place in the prediction league hall of fame. The League Two fixtures below kick off at the frankly crazy time of 11.30am on 8 May, with the Championship following at 2.00pm. So get your predictions in before then, and remember your jokers Full disclosure: the timing of this last round isn't great as I'm off to The Hague on holiday (no, I'm not being sent there for crimes to counting prediction league points). However, I will announce the winner on Monday at the very least, with the full results to follow ASAP. Good luck everyone! Huddersfield Town v Reading Millwall v Blackburn Rovers Middlesbrough v Coventry City Preston North End v Sunderland Bradford City v Leyton Orient Newport County v Crewe Alexandra Tranmere Rovers v Northampton Town Walsall v Doncaster Rovers

Welcome to the pleasuredome. I think we can guess who your favourite player is

It's hard not to vote for Langstaff given all the goals and records, and his goals may yet get us into the fourth division. But we've done some superb business in general this season.

That isn't very reassuring ???? It feels like sod's law to get the only team we didn't beat this season, but we'll just have to complete the set. So let's have none of this slackness in defence on Sunday - BW have the best defensive record in the league so we don't want to end up chasing the game.

The results: Reading 1-1 Wigan Athletic Stoke City 0-1 QPR Accrington Stanley 1-2 Cambridge United Derby County 1-1 Portsmouth Morecambe 3-2 Lincoln City Carlisle United 2-3 Salford City Gillingham 1-2 Newport County Northampton Town 1-2 Bradford City --- With only one home win, points were at a premium (at this juncture I would like to "thank" serial promotion escapologists Northampton Town for messing up my joker). Our top scorers this round were @liampie and - with two correct scores - @ARLukomski! @ARLukomski, @liampie - 7 @GrannyPie - 6 @DangerousSausage - 4 @4everapie, @Dan, @Megan_Elizax, @Chris - 3 @Dripsey3, @gtownjohnno, @super_ram, @jimbob, @DonnyNotts - 1 @magpiejue, @nottsnutter - nul points --- With that, @ARLukomski opens up his lead to 11 points - is it all over bar the shouting, or can @Dripsey3 pull a rabbit out of the hat in the final round? ARLukomski - 236 Dripsey3 - 225 magpiejue -204 DangerousSausage - 203 gtownjohnno - 200 4everapie - 198 super_ram - 191 Dan - 188 Megan_Elizax - 187 jimbob - 166 GrannyPie - 164 nottsnutter - 162 DonnyNotts - 161 barnet1uk - 156 Chris - 112 liampie - 57 KB1862 - 21 steve61 - 7 --- So now I have a week to polish the (imaginary) PON prediction league trophy before our final round. The Football League has helpfully split the final games over the bank holiday weekend, so the fixtures we'll be using will be on Monday 8 May. I'll post the final fixtures in midweek as usual. Thanks for playing and see you all then!

Very true @menzinho, but the other side of that coin is that no one will really be expecting them to beat us either, so it'll be like a free hit for them with the pressure all on us. Or maybe not. One of the many things I hate about the play-offs is the temptation to overthink everything I also noticed that Chesterfield are in the other home semi-final. I fully expect them to polish off Woking or Bromley. Which leads me onto my next thought... They're the opponents I'd be most nervous about, but, in the depressing scenario that we falter, it would be good to at least have them out of the way for next season.

A nothing game, but 11,000 was a fantastic crowd so it's a pity they didn't see a win. As much as it was annoying to drop two points at the death like that, maybe it'll help guard against complacency in the far more important game next week.

It's a bit outdated unfortunately - in the last 20 years or so they've been few and far between. This is because the big clubs now have huge academies that hoover up all the talent, that then gets loaned out to lower-division clubs. In the past, many of these players would have come through the ranks at smaller clubs and been sold on. It was an important source of income and it promoted the idea that, as Football League members, even the minnows were part of the same entity as the big clubs - everyone knew that David Platt played for Crewe, Ian Rush came from Chester and all the rest of them. So the most notable current player who Notts have helped to nurture is Jack Grealish - and he was never our player! That's not to say that youth development is not important though - it builds links with the local community and there's always the chance of uncovering a gem. But to do that, you also need to give them a chance in the first team.

Reading 1-2 Wigan Athletic Stoke City 1-1 QPR Accrington Stanley 2-0 Cambridge United Derby County 1-1 Portsmouth Morecambe 2-1 Lincoln City Carlisle United 1-1 Salford City Gillingham 2-0 Newport County Northampton Town 3-1 Bradford City (joker)

I like his comic strips, but I actually missed this one! "Financially pumped-up behemoths" sounds a bit much in relation to Notts, but Wealdstone or Alty fans might feel differently. Our owners are putting nearly 2 million pounds into the club every season, and that puts us in a different league financially. That's less than what's been put into Wrexham, which in turn is chickenfeed compared to the top levels of the game. So it's all relative. It does take credit away from the excellent work the club has been doing to rebuild over the last few years (Chesterfield probably at least match our spending, and we left them standing). But the last time we were featured is when our former chairman got his "little Alan" out on Twitter, so this is an improvement ????

We're in the playoffs and York are staying up (no way will there be a 16 goal swing in favour of Torquay), so that takes the edge off this a bit. Games like this can throw up unpredictable results, but I think there'll be a win for us to keep the good vibes going, and hopefully no injuries.

It's the penultimate round and, like in the Football League and Vauxhall Conference, the moment of truth is coming. Who will be the champion? And who will grab the unparalleled glory of third place? Predict these fixtures by 3pm, and remember your jokers everyone! Reading v Wigan Athletic Stoke City v QPR Accrington Stanley v Cambridge United Derby County v Portsmouth Morecambe v Lincoln City Carlisle United v Salford City Gillingham v Newport County Northampton Town v Bradford City

It's great news, and hopefully many of the out-of-contract players will follow! I can see us adjusting our style of play to fit League Two if we do go up, but he's already proven how adaptable he is. Important player and personality.

Do many Notts fans actively support an ice hockey team? They have so many games, it must be a huge time commitment... As I live in Germany, I follow a football team here too - Waldhof Mannheim (I've posted updates about them in the past). They play in the third division now. I used to have a season ticket there, but I haven't really got back into it since covid. Supporting a sports team is a big emotional investment, and if I lived in the UK Notts would be quite enough for me. It's a bit of a rollercoaster and you also need the time and energy to devote to other things.

Woah people, we're running the risk of tempting fate with this one! Reminds me a bit too much of when the Florist fans were talking about where they were all sitting at Wembley, only for Yeovil to put five past them in their second play-off semi-final I'm not superstitious enough to close the thread or anything, but could you all make some sort of sacrifice to the football gods before contributing, just to make sure? A beer and burger before jumping on the tube sounds just the job though. If there happened to be a game on or something.

Southend are on 66 points, a full 40 points behind us. Some seasons that's the gap between the champions and the first team to be relegated! Madness. But like everyone is saying, it doesn't count for a lot apart from the convenience of a home semi-final. The semi-final is just one leg. That's definitely an advantage for us this season. Bromley in particular is a horrible place to visit.

It'll be interesting to see where their journey goes in the years to come. They're not the first club to have benefitted from a bit of showbiz stardust - Watford were in the fourth division when Elton John took over and appointed Graham Taylor as manager. He took them almost to the very top, finishing as runners-up to Liverpool. He's long gone now, but he changed that club's fortunes for good - they've remained in the top two divisions virtually ever since. I wonder if Wrexham have something similar to look forward to. Either way, they're not our problem any more. For this season at least

I'm most bothered about Chesterfield to be honest. I know we got four points off them, but we never really had either game under control and they could have easily gone the other way. We'll be playing the winners of the eliminator between Barnet and either Bromley or Boreham Wood. I reckon it'll be Barnet as they'll have home advantage.

Thanks for sharing - it is all a bit bizarre isn't it? It can end two ways now. After another 270 minutes of football we can make it a glorious, unique or unforgettable promotion season, or - and this is the one I'm dreading - become the best runners-up of all time with nothing to show for it.

The results: Hull City 1-0 Watford Norwich City 0-3 Swansea City Peterborough United 0-3 Ipswich Town Port Vale 2-0 Bristol Rovers Hartlepool United 0-2 Crawley Town Mansfield Town 1-0 Stevenage Eastleigh 0-0 Solihull Moors York City 2-2 Aldershot --- Congrats to @Megan_Elizax, who is top of the tree this week! @Megan_Elizax - 7 @liampie - 5 @nottsnutter - 4 @Dripsey3, @DangerousSausage, @4everapie, @super_ram, @Dan, @jimbob - 3 @ARLukomski, @gtownjohnno - 2 @magpiejue, @Chris - 1 @GrannyPie - 0 --- This is how things are looking with just two rounds to go... ARLukomski - 229 Dripsey3 - 224 magpiejue -204 DangerousSausage - 199 gtownjohnno - 199 4everapie - 195 super_ram - 190 Dan - 185 Megan_Elizax - 184 jimbob - 165 nottsnutter - 162 DonnyNotts - 160 GrannyPie - 158 barnet1uk - 156 Chris - 109 liampie - 50 KB1862 - 21 steve61 - 7 --- The next and penultimate round is this coming Saturday, so the fixtures will appear during the week as usual. Positions are still up for grabs! Have a great week and take care

It's happened then, we're in the play-offs yet again. It still blows my mind that we haven't gone up automatically with these numbers, but it is what it is. This season's team is definitely made of tougher stuff than the ones that came before it, but the semi-final and (hopefully) the final will be one-off games and anything could happen. While it's encouraging that we haven't lost a single one of our 14 games against the other teams in the lay-off picture, it won't count for a lot at kick-off time. So these are the other teams in the picture. Boreham Wood need to draw one of their last two games to confirm their spot, and then the only question will be whether Chesterfield or Woking take third place and a spot in the other semi-final. What do you think - who would you fancy our chances against, and who should we avoid? And do you think we'll see it through to the end?

We did what we needed to do to keep it alive as long as possible. From the radio it sounded almost too comfortable up to our second-half wobble, but I never really doubted we'd put it to bed. Interesting to see the Notts fans in the little tin terrace behind the goal, I thought that was for the home fans. I'm a sucker for a good terrace.