Fozzy

Same here @Fan of Big Tone. The represented their country at two sports has thrown me as I’m thinking football and cricket logically, but can only think of William Gunn, but he didn’t play for a Manchester team. The other logical guess is Kevin Nolan, but he didn’t play for his country. I’m stumped.

Has me stumped does this. The only name I came up with was Ian Hendon, but he didn’t play as a centre half.

Hmm, I’ve had to make my decision based on the current squad, so plumped for top half. Currently, our high line will kill us without a personnel overhaul, plus I’ve gone with the fact we may not have Ruben or Macca (hoping I’m wrong). It all depends on our recruitment, if we address our week areas and add more pace, then I could see us going straight up again. I’m looking forward to the summer merry go round.

Good guess @upthepieswhich has made me think of another current player, John Bostock. Born in Camberwell, played across Europe and also Toronto. Plus he never stays at a club for that long (well, not since his Spurs days).

Well played @Fan of Big Tone, he was on my initial list of 3 players I thought it could be. Unfortunately, I tried to eliminate the wrong one first!

I’m going to have to nick a stock question on here, did he ever play for Derby? (Sorry @super_ram????)

@CliftonMagpiebeen offline for most of the week, so only just got time to look at the question properly! ???? Fair play to @KB1862thats a great guess and one I definitely would not have gotten from the first clue.

I did mate, I think it’s Paul Reece.

OK, I’ll hopefully put everyone out of their misery. ???? Was he considered short for his position? Was it Steve Cherry’s understudy who ended up playing a string of games because of Chez’s form? I’m pretty sure it’s Paul Reece, formerly of Stoke, Grimsby and later Oxford Utd. It’s the post 2004-09 sides I struggle with as it’s a time I’ve tried to eradicate from my mind! ????

You've just dropped an enormous clue and it has practically confirmed who I think he is. I'll give the game away a little and hope for half a point ???? Was he born in Nottingham, and did he used to play for a team that has beaten us in the National league playoffs and another that comes from a University city (And if it's not him, I'm going to look a prat! )?

I shall step back a little to see if anyone else can guess him, but I’ve got a strong feeling I may know who he is if I have got his position correct.

Was he only with Notts for one season?

I can only think of one player who it may be, but won’t guess his name yet. Did he only play a couple of handfuls of games for Notts?

Ex Magpie from possibly Long Eaton? And helped Aston Villa win the League Cup in 1996? Eventually came out of retirement to play for a Nottinghamshire non league side that bears the same name as a WWII beach evacuation site? Could it be Drapes? I was initially thinking between him and Peter Reid, but there was nothing that impressive about Reidy's displays, although he did help us beat Forest in 94.

Don Masson, end of discussion.... ????

Then it can only be Albert Ironmonger as he had two footballing brothers and made around 600 appearances for us.

Don't Maidstone play on a plastic pitch? Not our strongest surface but we should still be too good for them no matter what team we put out. I wouldn't risk Langstaff or Ruben as they are going to be too vital for the playoffs, we have plenty of other options that can play in those positions and need to get minutes into their legs.

Important three points, but there is a definite theme developing against us by the playoff contenders. They are all starting to adopt the high press and it is unsettling us for the first half of games. The issue for them is that they cannot sustain it for more than 60 minutes, and we are then able to dominate for the latter part of games. I am worried about our backline though as they are making quite a lot of mistakes recently and a team with a potent strike force could punish us more severely than Eastleigh did. Now Baldwin is injured again, we have to look to bring in cover as I wouldn't want to go into the last half a dozen games with us looking so thin at the back.

Eastleigh don't score very many and their away form isn't that great compared to at home. I think we'll win this 2-0 if we get the bit of luck that we deserve.

Worst game Baldwin has had in a Notts shirt by a considerable distance I thought. He really did not like being given the hurry up by Barnet's press. That being said, I thought our whole back three and two central midfielders were struggling with it as well. Bostock hated it and was really found out with it, he was denied the time to get the ball onto his left foot and find a pass. I thought Palmer's ball to Baldwin for their goal was a poor one, it had too much pace on it. TAR really struggled, but it was his first game back in a long time. Our front line was much better as there was a lot of space for them to move around in, but the final ball was poor at times. Wingbacks needed to drive the ball into the box hard and low as their giant back line gobbled up most aerial balls. Second half we were much better and the Barnet press was spent after around 55 minutes. They were basically out on their feet for the last 20 minutes and this gave all our players the space and time to play. A lot of credit should go to the referee for not falling for the play acting and he did produce the highlight of the match for me with that daft spray line, I thought he was going to paint a dirty picture the way he started!!! Definite Langstaff goal BTW and I can only assume the Lino did not think he got a touch as he looked well offside to me. Our energy levels must be immense as we are looking far fitter than most teams in the closing stages of games. LW should take a lot of credit for rotating and keeping the guys this fresh. MOM: Jodi Jones P.S. Wrexham fans moaning that their side is looking leggy and tired. Is their cup run catching up with them? They have a lot of Tuesday/Saturday games lined up. P.P.S. I still love Vinny...

Although we are missing Ruben, this might have worked in our favour. We've had a few extra days rest, Chesterfield were stuffed last night by Woking and are now in a horrible run of form. Chesterfield could not cope with the Woking high press. We also like to press the opposition, so I'm hoping that they will struggle with ours as well. Play JOB instead of Bostock and bring Jones in for Ruben, press them high and then look to bring Scott and Bostock on for the last 20-25 minutes to consolidate (hopefully when we're 2 up!).

Good post @Super_Danny_Allsopp. Completely agree that either Palmer and Ruben should have picked up Lapslie, but both move up to beyond the 18 yard line. Just before the ball is played in, Baldwin glances across but he is stuck between the two attackers as he cannot commit to either. That being said, it was a quality cross that 9 times out of 10 would not have found the intended target.

It was one of those games that is hard to put into words. Notts dominated with Halifax not even wanting to make a game of it and it was the most comfortable 1-0 win ever. It was as though they were quite content to just not come away with a hammering. That being said, Notts could have hammered them. Offside goal (was it, wasn't it?), Ruben failing to square to Scott when he was in acres of space, great save from the keeper to deny JOB and Nemane having a blatant penalty refused when clean through! Ref was awful, along with most refs in this league, no surprise there then. Now onto Solihull, who are starting to get a few players back, but they should try and attack us more which will hopefully open them up to out quick passing counter attacks.

Stats look very impressive, key could be trying to fit him in alongside Palmer. From the Notts Stats boys. https://www.nottscountystats.com/post/taking-bostock

If we're playing Saturday it doesn't matter who we put out as we will be the only team there! ????