StarkMallard

Luton have handed out a few real spankings so I'm wary here. I'll go for a 2-2 draw and I'll be very happy with that.

Shame he was a bit before my time. According to various anecdotes in Steak Diana Ross and elsewhere, Richards was also something of a character. He would often spend the summer in Spain, go missing and arrive back at training a week late, citing the death of a (possibly made-up) relative. Didn't do his career with Notts any harm though!

What a pity for us. We got the points and are sitting in an automatic promotion spot, but what really counts is that Colchester apparently outbattled us. Luckily for us, if we finish in our current position we'll win promotion to League One, where we need not worry about being outbattled and outplayed by giants of the modern game like Colchester United ever again. Oh. If we'd won 100 points last season we wouldn't have been playing them in the first place. If Brian Clough had never joined F*rest / we'd signed Glenn Roeder permanently / we'd never sold Paul Rideout / the Munto money had been real we'd be established in the Premier League now. As Jimmy Sirrel once said, the better team always wins, the rest is just gossip.

I'm fundamentally happy with a point away but it should have been three. If you make a challenge like Duffy's you need to make sure you take the ball with you. Duffy's general play is fine but he still needs to cut out the clangers. With Hollis clearly out of favour and Bird probably still a bit raw for League football we could do with another good CB to provide competition for places, because at the moment we don't really have an alternative to Brisley and Duffy. The first half was an even affair. I thought Yeovil looked better than their league position suggests, I've certainly seen worse teams than them. Up to their goal we were on top in the second half, but even then we tested their keeper little. I feel we missed the cool head of Stead/Ameobi. We seemingly decided to go long again for this match and it was frustrating to see us simply return possession to Yeovil time and again. Never mind, we got a point. As long as we keep winning at home we can live with that.

It's the next step along the way to morphing into Sam Allardyce. He'll be drinking pints of wine next.

Separated at birth?

I'm amazed yet un-amazed that Sky seemingly chose some random people to pose as Notts fans. What's your source? Having a bunch of fans "support" a TV programme from a makeshift stand might have been a novel idea 20 years ago but they should really have thought of something new by now. I wouldn't say Soccer AM was ever un-PC, but its time has passed and I'm surprised it's still going. I found it all quite harmless fun back in the day and some of it was even mildly amusing, but part of me felt patronised by it even then. Helen always came across as genuine, but Tim Lovejoy was just a complete smarm pie. On the plus side though, his book did spawn one of the best book reviews ever written...

I'd still be happy with a play-off place at the end of the season. Some might be a bit disappointed as we've spent nearly half the season in the top three, but it would still be huge progress. Besides, we've never really pulled clear of fourth place anyway. At the start of the season I was hoping for top ten but fearful we'd end up knocking about in 17th again. I don't think we have enough to win the league but I reckon we'll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, because even when we're not on our game we're still difficult to beat.

I disagree with Carl Dickinson, on that performance Bristol Rovers won't be comfortable in League One at all. We dominated the game and really should have finished them off long before the 90th minute. Perhaps this is my exile rubbing off on me, but why were the Rovers fans leaving at the end with their team 3-2 down and (sort of) chasing an equaliser? Imagine driving all the way from Bristol and then missing the crucial goal because you were on your way back to the car... But we were excellent in all departments. The way we seized control of the match after going 2-0 down was brilliant and showed how much character the team has. And we played great football too. The occasional long ball is par for the course in this league but our players have much more in their locker than that. I'm not a fan of cashless turnstiles. People missed the kick-off because of the queue at the ticket office when there were fewer than 4000 home fans in attendance. Bad!

You can tell that Sam Allrdyce had a big influence on him. The comments on English managers in the top flight could easily have come from Sam himself. It would be nice if he could follow in Sam's footsteps by winning League Two with 99 points. The full write-up doesn't really tell us anything we already know, but for those who want to see they can find it here.

This. Forte seems to be one of those players who always looks more impressive coming off the bench.

Fair enough but these are early days for him. Not so long ago it looked a matter of time until Shaun Derry went on to bigger and better things and look how that turned out. He needs to stay here, learn from his mistakes and take us forward over the next year or two.

While I feel this team has too much to offer to repeat the slide from the promotion places to the relegation zone we saw under Sheridan, Derry and Gudjon, deep down I think we're overachieving - there's no way we'll finish on 90 points this season. So people have been actively expecting the rot to set in. When you're in the top three and trying to hold onto your place you're in a very different place psychologically than when you're pushing to break into the top three. All of us would do well to remember the table is only a snapshot at this point. No-one ever won anything on 30 points.

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.