Elite_pie

I agree with all of that, but I can see two barriers in the way of solving the problem. The first is Neal, the second is Ardley.

Score prediction is Notts 1-1 Halifax. Enzio gives us the lead, but we are made to pay for protecting it rather than going for a second.

"Our magnificent, wonderful, incredible, fantastic NHS" were the words used by every single government minister for a year now. The were falling over themselves to praise the job done by NHS and care workers. No praise for what they did was too high. The praise was fully justified, because NHS staff in general, many of them on low wages, actually put their lives on the line (and sadly some of them paid the ultimate sacrifice) in fighting this pandemic. So what did this gushing praise and public handclapping mean in the end? It meant their reward for what they put themselves through is an offer of a 1% payrise. I have predicted this would happen many times, but now it has happened it still sickens me to the pit of my stomach. Clap them with cameras rolling outside 10 Downing Street for saving your life one minute, stick two fingers up and slap them in the face the next. Well done Boris, now you can concentrate on raising funds for your girlfriend's redecoration plans. Priorities or what?

No way, Kelly-Evans may be only 5 feet tall, but he's 10 feet tall when he jumps! When Rodrigues took the green shirt first, I thought it was the best option because he seemed to have the height and agility. What do I know? If he had gone between the sticks we wouldn't have seen that stunning second goal.

Out of interest, when Sam Slocombe was sent off if we were asked who we would put in goal, am I the only one who would have put Michael Doyle at the very bottom of the list?

That was beyond surreal! Fantastic, Amazing, Brilliant, Superb, Incredible and any other superlatives you can think of with a capital letter. I'm buzzing more than the world's biggest beehive at the moment. I thought the second half would be hard to watch, but it turned out to be a walk in the park. The player ratings thread is redundant tonight, because everyone deserves 10/10*. If I had to pick someone above the others, it would be Neal Ardley with 10.001/10. When we went down to 10 men, our tactics and formation were spot on, and if anything, we looked like the team with an extra man. We need to use this game as a springboard to promotion, because the ability is definitely there. The only downside is that we couldn't be there to see it - 5,000 inside Meadow Lane would have sounded like 20,000 under those circumstances, and very few would have gone home until the last man had been applauded off. * Sorry Sam Slocombe, I can forgive your poor first touch, but the studs up tackle when their striker was going away from goal was a moment of madness. I think the ref got the red card right.

So on the same day that the Education Secretary claims "we got a coronavirus vaccine first because we are a 'much better country' than France, Belgium and the US", the UK death toll passes 60,000. Try telling the relatives and friends of those 60,000 victims how good we are. Political point scoring at it's very lowest.

Covid-19 is a very complex and unprecedented problem, and even Einstein would struggle to get all the answers right. That still doesn't excuse a government who have got nearly all the answers wrong. This crisis has shown Boris Johnson up for what he is - an incompetent bull sh!tter. He won an election by clenching his fist and repeating "We will get Brexit Done" many times. It convinced many voters. We probably will get Brexit done, but at what cost to the average working family? Now with regard to coronavirus he clenches his fist and repeatedly says "Together, we will beat this". Again, we probably will one day, but at a massive cost to those who have lost their lives prematurely due to government incompetence. When Boris Johnson and his cronies are finally consigned to history, their epitaph should read "Too little, too late". I just hope the USA gives us a glimmer of hope for our kid's future by binning Trump tomorrow.

We were reasonable with 11 men, and superb with 10 men. When Doyle saw red I expected the rest of the game would see us penned in our own half desperately booting it anywhere and trying to cling on for the point. It was just the opposite, we restricted Halifax to one half chance and created far better ones ourselves. We were so comfortable we could easily have won by two or three. Full marks to Ardley today, the formation we played with 10 men was spot on. For the first time this season we had a genuine shape and a pattern of play. Wootton did a great job up front on his own, and O'Brien controlled the midfield. For me, those two should share the MOM award. Halifax didn't know how to cope with it, because playing it around didn't work for them and playing long didn't work either. I was surprised how easily we kept them at bay, I don't think Slocombe had anything to do in the second half. We now have to make sure this isn't yet another false dawn because if they were second in the league on merit, we don't have a lot to fear.

For anyone looking at the scoreline and thinking that we outclassed Chorley, think again. For 30 minutes we were absolutely clueless, we were being completely played off the park by a team of part-timers and should have been at least two goals down. Then, with our first meaningful attack O'Brien had the awareness to set up Tyson (who's only contribution until then had been to tackle himself in their box) finished well. The rest of the half was uneventful, but we were very lucky to go in at half time on level terms. Even in the second half we didn't create a lot, but three of the goals were real quality strikes from outside the box, the sort we are lucky to see 3 times in 3 months, let alone 3 times in 20 odd minutes. The plus point is that this result should have given confidence a big boost, especially with all the strikers getting on the scoresheet. We now have to make sure this is a turning point, because the table is such that two wins may well see us in the playoff places, while two defeats will see us close to the drop zone. One final thing, it was good to see the Chorley players get generous applause from the main stand on leaving the pitch, because they were far better than the scoreline suggests.

The five man midfield just didn't work. Allessandra, Noble, Husin, Virtue and Grant are all technically gifted players with good passing skills but none of them are ball winning battlers in the mould of Yates and Hewitt, who we missed badly in the centre of the park. We made it easy for a decent Exeter side by giving them far too much time and space on the ball. You need someone to do the dirty work to succeed in this division, yesterday we had no-one.

I think the key to this game is the way Brentford approach it, and that's hard to predict. They still have a sniff of the play-offs, which would be their main priority, but they are a small enough club to be attracted to the finances of the 'big club' draw in Round 4 that we are chasing. On the assumption that their main focus will be on a chance to join the Greed League and play a weakened team, I think we can grab a replay.

Brilliant result, I was a bit concerned about our lack of striking power when the team was announced, but four goals away from home doesn't happen too often. It was good to see some of the fringe players like Jones, Hunt and Walker get a positive 90 minutes under their belt, we will need a strong and competitive squad going into the second half of the season to meet our target. Well done to all, especially Kevin Nolan, the changes he made once again came up trumps.

Not looking forward to this game at all, mainly because I'm away at the weekend so have to watch it on BT Sport. In my opinion resting players will send out completely the wrong message, we must show them full respect so I hope Nolan selects his best eleven. A scrappy 1-0 will do for me.

I first saw Pedro in the reserve team in the old North Midlands League and it was obvious he was a real talent. It was great to see that raw kid develop into a genuine Notts legend. A pity his son couldn't follow in his footsteps, but it still brought back some great memories seeing Jordan in a Notts shirt.

On the plus side, after today even if Luton batter us we will still be in second place!

A difficult game to sum up, I can understand why the Colchester fans would go home disappointed, but after a poor first half I think we just about did enough in the second to earn the 3 points. This is just the sort of game we would have gained a point at best over the last few seasons, but Nolan seems to have instilled the 'never say die' attitude he always showed as a player into a fairly limited squad. It counts for a lot in this division, I've lost count of the number of points we've dropped at Meadow Lane simply because the away side were organised, worked hard, and wanted it more. To be sitting where we are on 41 points after just 20 games is way beyond my expectations, long may it continue.

"In and out all season"?????? Hewitt has rarely had a poor game this season, his consistent good performances in centre midfield (and as a stand-in centre-back) are one of the reasons we are where we are in the table.

Shola back in if he's fit, the disappointment is that Elliot Hewitt will be absent for collecting a fifth yellow. Hewitt and Yates have formed a good partnership in centre midfield. Rob Milsom would seem the closest like-for-like replacement.

I hope we rest the entire first team, and suffer a narrow loss with no injuries or cards. This competition has become a sick joke, we should treat it as such and the sooner we exit the better in my opinion.

Agreed, brilliant game and a brilliant performance, also a great atmosphere created by the smallish crowd. We were all over the place defensively in the first 10 minutes but kept battling, and created enough chances to have gone in ahead at half time. Every player gave their all, there wasn't a single poor performer in black and white. Great stuff Notts, best tenner I've spent in ages.

I just hope we take the competition seriously and field our strongest eleven. There is no doubt the FA Cup has lost some of it's appeal due to stupid changes made by the FA (I'm thinking such as ties spread over Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday to suit TV, semi-finals played at Wembley, 5pm kick-off for the final), but the prospect of Notts County making the third round draw is something I still find exciting.

To be honest picking out strikers is a difficult choice. I rate Ameobi as a first choice because the opposition know they've been in a game when he plays. I don't like playing one up front at home, so the question is who partners him? Stead has been largely disappointing, Forte mostly flatters to deceive, maybe it's time to try either Grant or Allessandra as a striker. Both have a tendency to drift out of the game in a wide role, but both have an eye for goal plus a bit of pace and could profit from Shola's flick-ons.

Because he has too many anonymous games where he contributes little. A decent sub option at this level, but he wouldn't make my starting XI.

I disagree, the introduction of Premiership 'B' teams into the competition was a sinister move and I have no doubt it is the thin end of a wedge that will see them pushing for Football League status before too long. Even though lower league fans were massively against the change, the cash they bunged was enough to see most (such as Alan Hardy) surrender. Even though it has always been an uninspiring competition, I used to attend the home games but even if we got to Wembley I wouldn't attend a game while 'B' teams are involved. Act now unless you are happy to see Notts County v Manchester United 'B' as a league fixture. What the Premiership wants the Premiership usually gets, and this is definitely something they want.