Elite_pie

Again, great backing from the owners in difficult times. Don't let them down Mr Ardley.

I wonder if Ardley regrets not offering another year to Pierce Bird and Sam Osborne? Neither would be on big wages, and we could certainly use both at the moment.

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?

I know this may come across as arrogant because we have no divine right to win just because we are a bigger club, but surely it's not asking a lot to beat King's Lynn at home. They are a club in deep crisis who couldn't even muster five substitutes, and one of the four they did name was a 50 year old retired goalkeeper. Ardley is moaning because we can't have seven! If we had dominated the game and the result was down to sheer bad luck I could take it, but if this had been a boxing match that went to a points decision there was only one winner, and it definitely wasn't us.

Fair point, saying that he underachieved last season is too harsh. On the subject of last season, until we had new owners my hopes were no higher than simply surviving as a club. Once the Reedtz brothers came in though, the backing they gave Ardley was excellent. We got ourselves into a great position, but the way we completely bottled it in the playoff final at Wembley still hurts. I would still class it as 'did as well as could be expected' rather than overachieving.

Slocombe 6 - A couple of decent saves, no chance with the goals Kelly-Evans 5.5 - Got forward a few times but not his best defensively Barnett 4.5 - Never looked at ease, disappointing Lacey 4.5 - Pulled all over the place, a game to forget Rawlinson 5 - Some way below his recent high standard Rodrigues 4 - Struggled to get involved, largely anonymous Doyle 5 - Passing was poor, nothing creative again Reeves 4 - Wasted a lot of possession, did nothing of note Boldewijn 5 - A couple of decent runs but no real threat Wootton 8.5* - Two good finishes, head and shoulders above the rest Knowles 5.5 - Tried hard but never got into scoring positions Subs - the less said the better Kyle Wootton is the only player who emerges from that mess with any credit. We were playing poorly and scraping wins, now we're playing poorly and dropping points. That was an awful, lifeless performance. We should be so much better than this. I know many are loathe to get rid of Ardley because we need stability, but one definition of stability is that nothing changes. Ardleys given us that - he underachieved from the start and he's still underachieving now.

Mention of Mick Waitt brings back a few memories, because he was once a team mate of mine. I think it was 1977/8 season in Division One of the Notts Sunday Morning league when I played for a team called Red Star. He was a gangly teenager back then, but he was already a class above that level. He only stayed one season, but I think he scored around 30 goals in 20 odd games. I know he went to Keyworth United, but when he signed for us I wasn't sure if it was the same bloke until I saw him in a Notts shirt.

I thought he looked promising until he went off, the own goal was just one of those cruel deflections. It seems the news regarding his injury might not be good news, but I would like to see a bit more of him.

I'm still in two minds over Elisha Sam. He's always looked capable of moments of magic, but he was truly awful in the first half against Oxford City.

The only other business I can remember with Salford is when Julian Jenner had a cup of tea there:

I know the FA Trophy isn't that popular on here, but there should now be 10,000 fans allowed in Wembley. They've still got last season's final to fit in, but forgetting that if they do the usual thing of combining the FA Trophy and FA Vase finals on the same day it could mean 3,000 each for Trophy finalists and 2,000 each for the Vase finalists. That is based on the rather hopeful assumption that tickets go to actual fans, so we should easily sellout whatever we're given.

Can't help with numbers, but here's a few comments from Chesterfield fans on the quality of the Notts live stream: "I personally thought the Notts stream was very good. Good commentary supplied by Radio Nottingham, very balanced and impartial, good replays of key moments". "That is definitely the best coverage and commentary team so far, although the Daggers commentary team ran them close. I loved the Iffy Effiong passage of play when Mark Stallard said ‘that wasn’t his proudest 10 seconds’". "If there was one criticism and its a minor one , its that they cut to another camera at times to early, but by far the best away stream this season".

It seems that from 17th May fans will be allowed back in football grounds. It will be limited to 10,000 or 25% of stadium capacity, whichever is smaller. That means we could get almost 5,000 for our final home game against Weymouth on May 22nd. Hopefully this is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I wonder if the Golden signing will have a silver lining?

Hard to be objective after such a dismal display, but here's my ratings: Pilling 4 - Looked dodgy throughout, their goal looked well within his reach, one great save at the death. DKE 5 - Usual effort, but passing and crossing was poor. Miller 5 - Got forward well, looks a bit suspect defensively. Lacey 5 - Never got to grips with their forwards. Rawlinson 5.5 - A difficult time at the back, at least he used the ball better than most. Doyle 4 - Sloppy passing, did nothing creative. Reeves 4 - See Doyle. Enzio 6.5* - The only attacking spark we had. Tried to give the forwards something to work with. Rodrigues 4 - Very poor. Too many wrong options and wasted every free kick we had in dangerous areas. Wootton 4.5 - Didn't get much in the way of service, but was poor with the crumbs he had. Sam 4 - A couple of decent runs but no end product. Knowles 4.5 - Tried, but nothing came off for him. Effiong 3 - Oh dear!

There is no doubting that we have an excellent defensive record, but at what cost? It's great not to concede because you can't lose, but the flip side is that if you don't score you can't win. Somewhere there is a balance between all out attack and dogged defence, and I think Ardley errs too much on the side of caution. I believe we have genuine attacking options if we give them the ball earlier in a bit more space. When the build up play is so slow, ponderous and predictable it means defenders have plenty of time to get back and mark. I think it has a very negative impact on the number of goals we score.

That was an awful performance. We were slightly better in the second half but created nothing, and their keeper didn't have a single save to make. I suppose the one consolation is that we only lost by a single goal, because a fair scoreline would have been 0-3.

It's really complicated at the moment with all the various permutations, but after their postponed game at Sutton I couldn't resist a sneaky peek at the 'if Dover's results are expunged' PPG table. If my maths are correct the top 7 would read: 1. Notts County 2.000 2. Torquay United 1.952 3. Sutton United 1.947 4. Hartlepool 1.714 5. Eastleigh 1.700 6. Stockport 1.65 7. Maidenhead 1.632

I didn't watch the live stream but from the reports I've read we didn't play well. However, it's just the result we wanted but strangely it could either be meaningless or absolutely vital. If the National League decide the season is voided it counts for nothing, but if Dover's results are expunged and the season is decided on PPG before the weekend we go up as champions. That's how weird things are!

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?

Apart from Mr Slocombe, that's how I see it. Every single player performed above and beyond the call of duty, so it seems harsh to single anyone out. This is what we're capable of as a team, so let's do it more often.

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.

Difficult one, but my list takes into account their overall Notts career and the level they played at: 1. Stead 2. Hemmings 3. Wootton 4. Murray 5. Showumni 6. Burgess