DangerousSausage

Opinions are part of the game! It might be annoying to KN as he feels his authority is being questioned, but everyone who watches their team play thinks about how it could be set up better or which players should be picked. As for the Noble photos, he was taking part in a training session in a public place with members of the public in attendance. If it was supposed to be a secret it was mishandled, if it wasn't then he's got nothing to complain about. At the end of the day fans will exchange their views, some of them knowledgeable, some not. That used to happen in person or in the Football Post or Match Talk. Now it's increasingly happening online but it really isn't anything new.

The odd big boot up to a player capable of holding it up and distributing it has worked for us so far and has its place in football, the problem comes when it's your only tactic. And when you've got Forte and Alessandra up front it makes sense to play the ball to their feet. Dickinson and Tootle in particular are very quick to resort to a long ball. Not only does this often lead to us losing the ball, it also leaves the wing men in front of them isolated and lacking support. Jones offers us something different here as he looks to link up with Grant or Hawkridge in front of him, giving the opposition something to think about. I accept we're not going to start playing total football, but we also have some skilful players on board and we need to play to their strengths.

I missed it last night but it did seem a strange decision to play Forte and Alessandro - who both need the ball played to feet - and leave our best ball-playing midfielder on the bench for an hour. If we're going to play the big boot then we might as well play the big men who can win the arial challenges. I'm a bit concerned that KN has started to believe the hype. We've got some decent players on board but we're not so good that we can afford to drop a player of Grant's quality, especially when his replacement is playing out of position and hasn't really arrived in professional football yet. Although I think it's an attempt at man management, dropping players like that could be interpreted as arrogance by the opposition.

I agree with @Jonny (welcome to the community by the way!). FGR have been around for more than a century and their horrible green kit has been forced on them recently by their owner. A bit like Cardiff's ill-fated flirtation with red and black. Maybe it was unfair of me to call them plastic, but they do seem to be one man's ego vehicle. A club owner should nurture a club's identity, not replace it. As for the match, FGR played some nice football and looked a good footballing side, but that doesn't get you far if your defence switches off at crucial moments. A glance at the table suggests this wasn't the first time either. It's a shame we didn't ask more questions of their defence before the 96th minute.

Do they really call themselves the Green Devils? Plastic club. All bets are off for me. Looking at the table it should be a win, but it remains to be seen how we'll react after the derby loss and the visitors are under no pressure. I think and hope we'll bounce back.

Seriously, you can forget the form book for this one. We'll be full of confidence and up for the fight, but how many times have I thought we'd be in a better position to beat them than in the previous season, only for us to fail abysmally once again? Obviously I'd be delighted to beat them, but I'd be more than happy with a draw right now. At least it keeps the unbeaten run going.

We do play a lot of the big boot to be fair, more than we did under Allardyce. There's a lot of belting the ball up to Stead, who distributes it to Alessandro or Grant. During the season we'll need a plan B for when that doesn't come off, but our squad gives us plenty of options on that score.

Oh god, Mansfield again. Let's just lose 42-0 and get all our goals conceded for the season over and done with.

Who would have thought this? I was concerned after the opening day defeat, but taking 25 points out of the following 27 is amazing. Obviously we can't sustain it. Sooner or later our bubble will burst, we'll lose again and possibly go on a bad run. It's how we respond to that that'll determine where the journey takes us. Nolan's work at the club so far reminds me of Warnock. Neil Warnock was never particularly big on the tactical side of things, he emphasised a positive mood among the players and a real team spirit. Our players are in a very good place mentally. We have a good mix of no-nonsense players who can do a job in this league (and who were never as bad as they looked under Sheridan) and real flair. Let's hope Kevin Nolan turns out to be a Warnock and not a Derry. Before the season I felt we'd fall short, but who knows? The 25 points we've picked up so far won't hurt us. Another 15 wins would get us into the play-offs. The players need to keep their feet on the ground but there's no reason for us fans to.

The manager really shouldn't spread these rumours.

Excellent, this needs to happen. It's a significant place in football history. Professionalism in football didn't happen until many years later

To play the devil's advocate, it's perfectly understandable that loanees want assurances that they will be in the first team picture. The whole point of a loan move is to get matches under their belts. If they're just going to be unused subs they might as well have stayed put. That said, it's good that we've got players who believe in their own ability to claim a first team place rather than wanting their agents to arrange one for them.

I thought there was going to be a fight when I read the headline! It's too soon to compare. When people wax lyrical about our promotion team of 2010, they should remember that it was Ray Trew who paid for it. If he hadn't, and he hadn't made the right call by appointing Steve Cotterill, we would probably never have won promotion that season. After investing a lot in the ground and the club, his reign slowly degenerated into a circus, there's no argument there. Now Alan Hardy is in charge. He didn't have Ray Trew's advantage of a fully assembled team capable of winning the league, but, like RT, he had a galvanising effect and we finished the season on a high. Like the Trews he also made the right call on the manager. Whether the uptick in our fortunes continues into this season remains to be seen. He also has a bit of a weakness for social media and telling everyone about the wonderful players we're going to sign, and I got a bit of deja vu when I read the story about the revamped Family Stand. Ultimately the most important thing a chairman can do is hire and fire managers, and Alan Hardy is still relatively untested here. Like Ray Trew, he made the right initial call. But what call will he make if we're in the bottom six come November? Will he back the manager or cut his losses? And, when Nolan eventually goes or chooses to leave (hopefully not for a while), where will he look for a successor? Mr Hardy has a lot to prove in many ways. Good luck to him and us!

It was a frustrating evening. I felt we played some better football than against Wycombe and created a lot of chances. Even if we couldn't get a third goal, two should be enough. Even at 2-1 we should be able to close out the game, but for that we need to be able to keep a cool head and retain possession. Collin made a spectacular save at the death but from that position their player should really be scoring. A decent finish from there and there's nothing the keeper can do about it. We also struck it lucky with their penalty call in the second half. That said the game should have been over by then. I'm frustrated but looking at the bigger picture 7 points from 4 games isn't a bad start, especially when you consider the opening day at Coventry. Hawkridge, Jones and Grant give us plenty of creativity, Hewitt has potential in midfield and I'm expecting to see more from Alessandro and Forte too. If our defence can just sort itself out somehow there could be more than just mid-table mediocrity in it this season.

Good interview. It's amazing to think that Accrington have been back for 12 years now. They might not have been one of the division's leading lights, but neither do I recall them being in serious danger of relegation in that time - and that on a shoestring budget. Of course, when you punch above your weight, eventually other clubs will come in for your players, and that makes the manager's job much harder. I've got nothing but respect for them. Hope we stuff them though!!

You notice it on the pitch as well. For all their weaknesses the players work really hard for one another, without exception. Long may it continue.

There you go @Chris, your pressure paid off! And good on him for doing something positive for charity too. Sounds like it'll be a great event.

Looks decent @samwatto2008, but would a central midfield pairing of Grant and Yates leave the defence exposed (I haven't seen Yates play yet)? I think that's why Nolan has preferred to go with a more defensively oriented player like Hewitt or Milsom in there. It's not about picking your best players, but your best team.

I'd be quite happy for Notts to stick two fingers up to the Football League and their stupid competition. Please don't attend this match - spend the money on a League match or in the club shop instead. We must not allow B teams in to our league system through the back door - that's far more important than the result of this match.

But enough about the home dressing room. Here's an EXCLUSIVE glimpse at the new away dressing room!

The red card was incredibly harsh IMO. Those are usually given when a player is clearly through on goal and the last man fouls him and denies him the chance to get a shot away, but in this case the ball was dropping from above safely into the keeper's hands and Hawkridge had no chance of getting there. All the same, we'll be robbed during the course of the season too so we should say thank you very much and take full advantage. Which we did! Strange that Grant was on the bench again, I can only assume that Nolan is trying to assert his authority in some way.

Sounds like a much improved performance, hopefully we can take some of it into the league now and get our first 3 points. On the negative side that's 6 goals conceded in 2 games now, although two of them did come in extra time.

I like the way you obviously have a Nolan sad face / Nolan happy face on file and use them accordingly. I'd like to see more of the happy face please!

Thanks for this. I wasn't aware that you could pay on a match-by-match basis at all, it only seems to have been communicated on Friday, weeks after the annual subscriptions went on sale (hmmm). I was also under the impression you could only watch matches on the app, which was the main sticking point with me (and wasn't cleared up when I contacted them directly either). Hopefully there will be something decent to watch on it soon.

This doesn't make for good reading. I didn't watch the stream as I was out and about with visitors. I won't be making my (live) ifollow debut until the Wycombe match. How did you watch it @Super_Danny_Allsopp? The decision to leave Grant on the bench surprised me, I haven't seen Walker play yet but I assumed Grant would have been one of the first names on the teamsheet. There have been a lot of harsh words aimed at Jones for his performance. While he clearly had a stinker, comments suggesting we should release him straight away are going too far. You can't judge a player on one performance. How many Notts fans were there in the end? 1500+ is a fantastic following. What did you think of the place? I've never been a fan of the Ricoh myself, much too far out and an absolute pain to get to.