StarkMallard

This is good news I wasn't expecting - I thought he'd be out for the season. But I still won't get too excited about seeing much of him in action with a little more than a month to go.

It's time for the mystic magpies to look into their crystal balls again. Send 'em in by 3pm on Saturday and don't forget your joker! Charlton Athletic v Norwich City QPR v Portsmouth Stevenage v Reading Wigan Athletic v Exeter City Accrington Stanley v Chesterfield Shrewsbury Town v Crewe Alexandra Altrincham v Southend United Yeovil Town v Morecambe

Watford 1-2 Wrexham Luton Town 1-0 Exeter City Plymouth Argyle 0-2 Stevenage Bristol Rovers 1-1 Shrewsbury Town Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Harrogate Town Walsall 2-1 Cambridge United Southend United 0-2 Rochdale (joker) Woking 2-0 Yeovil Town

A full round of midweek matches awaits us! Please send in your predictions by 7.45pm on Tuesday and don't forget your joker! Watford v Wrexham Luton Town v Exeter City Plymouth Argyle v Stevenage Bristol Rovers v Shrewsbury Town Tranmere Rovers v Harrogate Town Walsall v Cambridge United Southend United v Rochdale Woking v Yeovil Town

Nice article to mark International Women's Day. Of course appointing a woman is a first and raises eyebrows for that reason alone, but she'd risen through the ranks like any other coach and is respected by the players. Ingolstadt are an unglamorous and poorly supported club, but punch above their weight thanks to the sponsorship of Audi. I think the poor fanbase has helped Wittmann as she has been under less scrutiny and pressure than she would have been at Dresden or 1860. But she's well regarded in Liga 3 and appears to be doing a good job.

"Fallen giants" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there for a club whose most successful era ended in 1930. By the same token, you could call Notts a fallen giant as we were part of the furniture at the top level until the mid-1920s. And playing at the "top level" pre-Bundesliga isn't much a boast as the top level was divided into eight regional divisions then. There are village clubs who can legitimately call themselves former top-flight clubs... Since then, Holstein Kiel have spent much of their existance knocking about in semi-professional football until their rise in the last 10-15 years. They were in the Bundesliga for the first time ever last season but are fighting relegation to the third division this season. All the same, and despite their relatively modest crowds, these plans are unambitious - the revamp will see a capacity of 22,000 (7,000 more than now), including 12,000 seats. Kiel is a big city and the club pretty much has Schleswig-Holstein to itself, so I think it could do better.

I didn't see it (Champions League football on TV is way too expensive), but it's never a good sign when people send your goalkeeper "messages of support"...

Genuinely disappointed by this. It's a sad day for nominative determinism. It'll be interesting to see whether they now kick on (as their board are clearly hoping) or it spells the end of their season.

I agree with @menzinho - if Hinchy could hardly get a game during an injury crisis, when exactly is he going to play? Especially with the arrival of Tangen, who has spent much of his career playing in his position. Hinchy needs to play regularly to improve, but just isn't good enough to hold down a place ahead of Plamer, Robertson and Norburn. Catch 22. Hope he does well at Wealdstone but I think this is the end of him at Notts.

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!