StarkMallard

Interesting point. My first thought was that the bigger crowds correlate with more difficult opposition, but that isn't quite the case - we beat Cambridge, yet dropped points against Harrogate and Accrington. I don't know if it's the added pressure or a coincidence, but well-attended matches have a tendency to be damp squibs for us. It really needs to be different on Saturday as we could lose touch with the top three very quickly if we don't keep winning. It's a real mark of progress that we're still talking about our eighth crowd above 10,000 now that the euphoria of promotion from the NL has ebbed. We used to get those once a season if at all. Like @Chris I think that 24 pounds on the day is too much, but the club would point at its attendance figures.

Norwich City 2-0 Preston North End (joker) Stoke City 1-1 Watford Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Blackpool Northampton Town 0-2 Burton Albion Crewe Alexandra 2-1 Walsall Shrewsbury Town 2-1 Cheltenham Town Boston United 2-0 Yeovil Town Southend United 2-1 Forest Green Rovers

Eight more fixtures to test your mystical powers on. As usual, get your predictions in by 3pm on Saturday and remember your joker! Norwich City v Preston North End Stoke City v Watford Doncaster Rovers v Blackpool Northampton Town v Burton Albion Crewe Alexandra v Walsall Shrewsbury Town v Cheltenham Town Boston United v Yeovil Town Southend United v Forest Green Rovers

The result: Charlton Athletic 1-0 Birmingham City Swansea City 2-0 Stoke City Blackpool 1-1 Wigan Athletic Luton Town 2-3 Reading Gillingham 1-1 Fleetwood Town Tranmere 1-3 Oldham Athletic Hartlepool 0-1 Halifax Town Woking 3-1 Tamworth Our joint champions this week are @magpiejue and @nottsnutter! In our big leaderboard, @william1984 still leads but @magpiejue has made some inroads into that lead this week. And that's yer lot - Saturday's fixtures will be posted on Wednesday as usual. Thanks for playing!

I'll abstain from the vote as I missed the first half, but would lean towards Norburn, the rock in midfield who allowed others to shine. I thought he was a dud earlier in the season, but he's stepped up when we needed him and he's a big reason why we're still in the running for the top three. Bravo. Kouhyar and Bennetts were both livewires after coming on. For the "penalty", Bennetts went down after feeling contact; those kinds of decisions tend to be given in Germany, but not in England! He's the perfect sub to bring on to shake things up, but no doubt he wishes he was starting more often.

It's more than possible, but always difficult. You generally need 80+ points to go up automatically from this division, which would equate to six wins out of our last 11. That's more than achievable. But with Bromlex having a bit of a head start and the franchise hitting form at the crucial time, it could end up being a three-way race between us, Swindon and Cambridge for the last spot. I've been half-expecting Bromley to drop off for a while now as they're very one-dimensional, but to date their "tactics" have proven very effective. We do have options, it's just up to MP to juggle them correctly. As @theAnticlough says, we have a lot of players with the same weakness, which means we often have trouble unlocking the door. Having Jatta and Ndlovu back will help enormously.

Charlton Athletic 1-1 Birmingham City Swansea City 2-1 Stoke City Blackpool 1-0 Wigan Athletic Luton Town 0-2 Reading Gillingham 0-1 Fleetwood Town Tranmere Rovers 0-2 Oldham Athletic (joker) Hartlepool United 2-0 Halifax Town Woking 0-2 Tamworth

It's March already and things are getting serious in the fight for pride, honour and our special star prize (once I've found it down the back of the sofa). As ever, get your predictions in by 3pm on Saturday and remember your joker! Charlton Athletic v Birmingham City Swansea City v Stoke City Blackpool v Wigan Athletic Luton Town v Reading Gillingham v Fleetwood Town Tranmere Rovers v Oldham Athletic Hartlepool United v Halifax Town Woking v Tamworth

The results: Oxford United 2-1 West Bromwich Albion QPR 0-2 Sheffield United Mansfield Town 2-2 AFC Wimbledon Stevenage 2-1 Stockport County Barnet 1-0 Chesterfield Colchester United 0-1 Salford City Brackley Town 0-2 Altrincham Truro City 2-3 Braintree Town Congrats to this round's winner @Dan! But the strongest player this week is clearly me, as I'm propping the rest of you up: Overall, @magpiejue moves into second, 17 points behind leader @william1984... Keep your eyes peeled for Saturday's fixtures, which will be posted tomorrow. Thanks for playing everyone!

I like Grant and Kouhyar, I think they offer a lot and improve us. Unfortunately, neither has been much of a threat in the final third, but both serve the team well in other ways (IMO we look better as a team when Grant plays). You can have one player like that, but having two just behind your main striker (who isn't exactly a golden boot candidate himself) isn't a recipe for goals galore. We really stepped it up in the second half - we started taking risks and creating chances - and I thought we were much the likelier team to win it until the sending off, which was followed by a frankly stupid triple substitution and an unnecessary goal. And even after that we had a couple of good chances to equalise. We're a good side, accidents happen. Let it be a lesson. Among other things, certain players need to learn to stay cool under pressure and to play to the whistle (Mr Jones I'm looking at you). We need to dust ourselves down and be back on our A game on Saturday.

I don't see a problem with it (although I bet a certain Mr Scott isn't too keen). It's a key moment in their recent history. That game was on a knife-edge, and if we'd won to seal the double over Wrexham I firmly believe we'd have gone on to win the league. But aunts, uncles and all that...

Oxford United 1-1 West Bromwich Albion QPR 2-1 Sheffield United Mansfield Town 0-1 AFC Wimbledon Stevenage 0-2 Stockport County Barnet 1-1 Chesterfield Colchester United 2-0 Salford City (joker) Brackley Town 2-1 Altrincham Truro City 2-0 Braintree Town

Good evening ladies, gentlemen and the occasional ferret - all of these fixtures kick off at 3pm on Saturday, you have a joker each, and I think you know what to do. Good luck! Oxford United v West Bromwich Albion QPR v Sheffield United Mansfield Town v AFC Wimbledon Stevenage v Stockport County Barnet v Chesterfield Colchester United v Salford City Brackley Town v Altrincham Truro City v Braintree Town

The results: Norwich City 1-2 Birmingham City Wrexham 5-3 Ipswich Town Northampton Town 1-2 Leyton Orient Peterborough United 3-3 Exeter City Colchester United 4-1 Barnet Gillingham 0-3 Oldham Athletic Boreham Wood 1-1 Forest Green Rovers Solihull Moors 3-4 Hartlepool United Some crazily high-scoring games this week and pretty tricky to predict, so we have no scoring records this time. But congrats to our winner this week @cheeky~k8! @william1984 still leads, while @magpiejue sneaks back into the top three... Stay tuned on Wednesday for Saturday's fixtures and maybe more points than today? Until then, have a good start to the week!

League One seems likeliest for me so that's what I went for. Promotion will be a close thing this season, but if we keep banging on the door we'll get in eventually over the next five years. And I hope and believe that once we're there, we'll consolidate. As for getting higher up, that's tricky. Even L1 has changed a lot since we were there, at the very top you have clubs that were recently in the Premier League, parachute payments and all, or clubs with big money behind them - Birmingham were there last season, Leicester could be there the next. We'd be competing with clubs with setups and financial backing a world away from ours. So winning promotion to the Championship would require everything to go perfectly, and staying there even more so. I think the Championship is the reasonable limit of our ambitions at this point in time, but it's an outside shot IMO. We've spent much more of our League existence in the second or third tier than in the fourth, our recent run in L2 from the 2000s onwards is a historical anomaly. Meadow Lane was built the way it was because we had a realistic ambition of reaching and staying in the Premier League at the time. But the Championship has transformed completely since we left it in 1995 and we really shouldn't feel entitled to play there.

The results for Tuesday: Barnsley 2-1 Peterborough United Bradford City 1-0 Stockport County Exeter City 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers Barnet 1-2 Swindon Town Oldham Athletic 2-0 Bristol Rovers Tranmere Rovers 0-1 Accrington Stanley Wealdstone P-P Hartlepool United Yeovil Town 1-2 Aldershot Congratulations to this round's winner, who is once again @william1984 with a superb 15 points! Is your nickname Biff by any chance? He's followed by @Robbie and @Michael D Pie. (who may want to consider sending the ferret to the glue factory - he's dragging you down). Having gone top for the first time last week, @william1984 now has a very healthy lead. Just about clinging on to his coat tails are @super_ram and @Robbie. So they were Tuesday's points. Stay tuned for Saturday's points (they'll be coming tomorrow or Tuesday night). We've got our usual Saturday fixtures coming up, which I'll post on Wednesday. Thanks for playing and see you then!

Great stuff! Ndlovu had a great impact with his work ethic, determination and directness, and of course the two goals. Lady Luck and Rick O'Shay gave us a little help to break the deadlock after leaving us in the lurch in midweek, and after that there was only going to be one winner. A good win against a poor side that puts us in a strong position, but we have tougher tests ahead.

Norwich City 2-1 Birmingham City Wrexham 0-2 Ipswich Town Northampton Town 1-0 Leyton Orient Peterborough United 2-0 Exeter City (joker) Colchester United 1-1 Barnet Gillingham 0-2 Oldham Athletic Boreham Wood 1-0 Forest Green Rovers Solihull Moors 1-1 Hartlepool

I've had a busy week so I haven't managed to get out my abacus and count your points yet. I'll catch up at the weekend and lock this thread in the meantime.

I've looked into my crystal ball (although it is slightly defective from overuse). It says we'll have a stronger run-in than last season, but an over-reliance on our front men to score goals will prove our undoing and we'll finish fourth. With Grimsby, Walsall, Chesterfield, Cambridge and Salford still to come, there will be plenty of twists and turns to come. Tom Iorpenda has been a great signing, but an attacking player he is not. Hall looked like a real prospect at the start of the season but hasn't impressed me for some time now, and Grant is a good player who offers too little in terms of goals and assists. That means we're putting a lot of faith in Enoru and Tangen, a big ask of two players new to this level (and in Tangen's case lacking match practice).

Disappointing night yesterday. Shrewsbury looked far better than they did early in the season - they barely strung two passes all night, but they had a clear game plan and executed it well. They sat deep, but the moment we lost possession they were onto us fast and attacked quickly with numbers. They still produced few real chances, but it looked difficult to play against. We struggled to get behind them and seldom looked really dangerous. Platt came closest to scoring, but early in the second half I thought the game looked like a 0-0. We need someone who can take the initiative and isn't afraid to have a shot. Tangen could yer be that player, but he looked lost yesterday. Prior to joinign us he hasn't played since about October, and in hindsight it was too soon to give him his first start. I'm not surprised to hear that it was the referee's first league match, all the contentious decisions went Shrewsbury's way. One of them was the foul on Jones, which led to a dangerous break (and, a couple of minutes later, the goal), and I think we should have had a penalty at the end. Disappointing but we move on. Everything isn't all bad overnight, let's not forget that we've picked up 18 points in our last eight games. Let's take it out on Tranmere on Saturday.

Albert Einstein once said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and the PON prediction league; and I'm not sure about the universe." On that note, here's round 34. Get your predictions in by 3pm on Saturday and remember your joker! Norwich City v Birmingham City Wrexham v Ipswich Town Northampton Town v Leyton Orient Peterborough United v Exeter City Colchester United v Barnet Gillingham v Oldham Athletic Boreham Wood v Forest Green Rovers Solihull Moors v Hartlepool United

As it's a midweek round, I'll be nice and remind everyone. Get your predictions in by 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday if you want to play! @super_ram @magpiejue @Robbie @4everapie @theAnticlough @gtownjohnno @Megan_Elizax @Fan of Big Tone @cheeky~k8 @allardyces tash @TheSkipper @CliftonMagpie @menzinho @Chris @Blake @KingofCounty @upthepies @liampie @Joshua @JustLikeJuve @Ash @OoooooTommy @JIMBO @NottsCountyKev @The Heff @Countyman @NiftyNick @NottsTastic @thommo @NottsLoyal @lambleypie @Sir Magpie @Hi Humans ツ

My condolences @Fan of Big Tone. It sounds like he's going to get a good send-off - my dad had one of these "celebration of life" events and it was pitch perfect, he'd have enjoyed it. And congratulations @Michael D Pie.! Now you'll have more time to find the ferret (that's not a euphemism). As for me, I'm holiday planning - I'm hoping to have my next UK visit sorted in the next few days, followed by a trip to Denmark or Sweden in June. And of course there's football. At the weekend, both Notts and my German team drew 1-1 away to the team at the top of the table having had a man sent off in the latter stages. That's just plain weird.

Barnsley 0-1 Peterborough United Bradford City 1-2 Stockport County Exeter City 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers Barnet 2-0 Swindon Town (joker) Oldham Athletic 2-2 Bristol Rovers Tranmere Rovers 0-2 Accrington Stanley Wealdstone 1-1 Hartlepool United Yeovil Town 2-1 Aldershot