Fozzy

I know @Piethagoram, to be honest I was going to put Phil Turner in there and then I was going to use Neil Bishop, but I plumped for Hunt because I quite liked him, but my eyes were still fairly young back then ????.

This is tough but I’ve basically ended up with players I’ve loved watching over the years (but basically span the 80’s and 90’s) plus two players I would have loved to see. Oh, and I even managed to stick Ruben on the bench, which means our midfield’s aren’t too dissimilar @Robbie. 4-3-3 is the formation and it would score a shed full!!! Raddy Pedro N Worthington D Needham (Craig) Short Masson Draper Hunt Sewell Lawton Johnson Sub: Ruben

One of the trialists was apparently a wingback released by Luton. I see from the team sheet that there were quite a number of players not present, so can only assume we will see them at the weekend as Alreton are one of the weakest sides we will be playing this pre season. No Stone or Randall named either, so looks like they will be frozen out in order to push them out of the door.

I didn’t rate him but he was young and raw when I watched him, he just does not seem to have the physical attributes needed for league 2, but it may help him being with a club two divisions higher. Best of luck to him, I hope he becomes an immense player as that will mean we get a nice windfall sometime in the future.

I heard that any move would potentially be around 8 years away, so it won’t matter as they will be back in League 1 by then anyway. ????

This could end up being a real money spinner by allowing Premiership away fans to use it. Brilliant idea whoever came up with it, and would be great to have it ready for the Euros.

Spot on @Wheelbarrow repair man. If we don’t sign at least 2 experienced, quality centre backs that have played at least league 1 level, we won’t improve. If they sign kids or NL defenders, I think there will be uproar from the fans. We also need more physicality and pace in midfield at times and another physical presence for up front if we need to go long. Oh, and a decent keeper. I wouldn’t be surprised if Didzy calls it a day at the end of the season, but I’m hoping he’s still suffering from his injury as he has been miles off it since coming back. I hope Paul Mace and Stal don’t go easy on Montague tomorrow.

If ever a game showed that we have to be ruthless in the summer, it was this one. Terrible mistakes at the back alongside a hopeless referee only meant one result tonight. I actually thought we started quite well, but it was heads gone as usual when the inevitable mistake results in their first goal. How many assists has Baldwin got for the opposition this season? It has to be close to double figures. Brindley also showed that he is nowhere near the standard we need. Release them both in the summer with TAR and also try to offload Rawlinson. Can now see us genuinely releasing all out of contract players with the exception of Scott, who should have been brought on to get some minutes into his legs as there is no point just leaving him on the bench. I thought Robertson was quality, but we need a couple more centre mids in the summer as we don’t know how Matty will return. Finally, Randall can go shopping every matchday for me. He’s of no use to us.

Very interesting the upturn in form recently, makes one think that the players were not happy about something and it has taken either something being said to them by the board, or the reaction they had from the fan base recently, resulting with the spats kicking off on social media. Looking at the game, it still shows we are very open by allowing 21 shots on goal, compared to our 6, and Cameron was definitely to blame for their goal. All he had to do was check his run and the Walsall player would have been a mile offside, but he played him on and never got anywhere near goal side. Will take the 3 points gladly and also gloat in the fact the FGR are all but down. Who would have guessed that the poaching of Burchnall would have been the catalyst to their demise!

This was a strange one. We were by far the better side, but Harrogate had two one on ones before we scored (although Nemane’s offside looked close). This alongside LAH’s penalty save means that the result could have been entirely different, especially seeing as Harrogate had a real spell of pressure on our goal where LAH made another couple of great saves and saved his best for that point blank tip over the bar! Thought Nemane had a good game today, Sam was his usual steady self and Bostock was better today. Chicksen had a bit of a mare when he dropped into the backline for the 2nd half, he lost the ability control the ball! could someone also tell Crowley to not set foot in our own third of the pitch, he causes me heart palpitations!

Convinced myself to go after saying I wouldn’t after the Salford game. Much better performance for 60 minutes and then we lost control of the midfield when Sam had to go off. JOB should have been brought on to maintain the midfield’s energy because Bostock has become terrible and we were left with a tiring Robertson trying valiantly to keep control. Positives were that Jatta & Macca both played well and Macca definitely didn’t go missing like he often does against big clubs. Losing the press through tired legs isn’t helping, but JB and Didzy aren’t capable of continuing it when they come on. Their keeper looked well suspect early on with the ball at his feet when our energy levels were high. Thought it was funny when SM said that he didn’t see the banners, I think he was the only person in the ground that didn’t and that could explain some of his past pressers as to how he sees a different game to the rest of us.

Maynard has destroyed our attackers and actually done the impossible, he has made the defence worse. If a question of sport was still on, Notts could fill a whole series with “what happens next”. The side has become a laughing stock of the league and they’re really not trying to do anything to address it. It would be nice for our Chief Exec to actually open his office door, and watch what is happening. We have heard nothing from him in months but I bet we will when it comes to the club wanting us to renew our season tickets!

Bang on @Morten Johansen, he really isn’t helping himself and he will become a laughing stock if he continues with this style of interview. Many managers have tried it before at all clubs and it doesn’t wash with fans, you can’t treat us like idiots, especially when things are going badly. I think the owners will be forced to act by the end of the season as a manager that doesn’t have fan backing will just alienate them and we’re not about that as a club, and it will destroy all of Jason Turner’s legacy to bring the club and fans together. He has 7 games left to save his Notts future, and probably needs to win at least four of them.

The main issue I have with Maynard is that he still can’t stop the goals from going in, but he has changed us from a side that attacks with insightful movement and passing with quick ball delivery into danger areas, to a side that plays plodding crab football that relies on either Jodi or Dan creating something. We’re better off going back to all out attack at home as this style of football in strangling the side and boring to watch. Massive and expensive decisions need to be made in the summer as 50% of this side aren’t good enough to play league football for Notts and Maynard isn’t good enough to lead them. I did think Robertson had a really good game today and was easily my MotM, without him we would have been overwhelmed in midfield and he seemed to be the only one willing to tussle with Smith.

Baldwin is still suspended @menzinhoas he has received 10 yellows, so an automatic 2 game ban. Smith is the obvious threat and I think he will bully both Warner and Cameron. We kept him fairly quiet in the first fixture so hoping we can do the same again.I think we will need the keeper to claim as many crosses as possible.

All the things you have stated though @Robbie are things that Notts cannot do. When was the last time we were able to batten down the hatches when going down to 10? You remove one attacker for 1 defender/midfielder when down to 10 and the obvious one is Nemane, not two of your best 3 players. And not at least trying Jatta until the 90th minute is ridiculous. He should have come on a lot earlier. Thankfully Sam had a great game, otherwise we would have got drubbed by 5 or 6.

Not if it is jeopardising the clubs revenue with gates falling though @Robbie. Many may not come back next season and that impacts the whole FFP thing. Langstaff and Jones’s stock will start falling which means they will leave for significantly lower transfer figures than they would go for if they were still firing. Still need 6 points, I have no idea where they are going to come from unless we make a change. Rumours circulating that there has been a bust up with players, and he’s lost the dressing room. Plus he looks to have lost the fanbase. Sometimes, you need to bite the bullet, admit you got it wrong and pay the price.

Time to go. Down to 10 men and he takes off our only attacking threat for a defender and midfielder. Has he not realised that Notts CANNOT shut up shop!?! Any sustained pressure and we crumble, score one and a second will come quickly and that left us with no chance of getting an equaliser. He’s been a bit unlucky at the start, but as a side, we are now far worse than we were when he was appointed, players look confused and despondent as to what formation they are supposed to be playing. One last thing, the season is far from over, both FGR and Grimsby won tonight, it is not inconceivable that we may still go down. Two more away games to go, don’t fancy our chances in either of them with Maynard in charge.

I’m starting to think that the Notts job is too big for Maynard. I thought he was the ideal candidate when Williams left but now I’m starting to doubt that he can turn it around. His decision making during games is poor and I think he’s starting to look a little defeated. We’ve gone from being a team that scores goals for fun but also lets goals in, to a side still conceding but now can’t score. The players have lost the zip to their passing and movement and have become way too easy to defend against. I would say that if we lose the next two games, his position will become untenable as we cannot carry on with this run. At this rate, we will lose all 11 games remaining and you cannot lift a side for the following season that has lost 15 in a row. If you’ve lost the players and the fans, the owners will have no choice but to pull the plug. Massive clear out of players, staff and recruitment team required this summer.

It is embarrassing, no other word for it, Sutton have scored 40 goals all season, but 9 of them have been against us, and I hate to keep banging on about it but we had warnings in pre season that the defence wouldn’t be good enough. Then August came and it showed from the off that they weren’t good enough, what does the club do? It signs a couple of kids to bolster it. January comes and it is now evident and has an imperative need for upgrade, what does the club do? Signs another kid! This falls on Montague and his team, they have let the club and supporters down appallingly since the start of the season, only signing Macari and Robertson that look anything like half decent is shocking (juries out on Colkett and Jatta as not seen enough). You can’t keep signing kids and injury prone players as you are hoping rather than anticipating that they will make a difference, you have to sign solid, experienced pros as well. Maynard is fighting a losing battle here as the players just won’t perform for him, but chopping and changing formations mid game is just asking for trouble. You can’t experiment during a game just find a system and stick to it, it’s not as if we’ve got a barn door striker on the bench that we can chuck on to cause havoc for the final 15 if chasing a game. A lot of players need to leave in the summer, but the ones more likely to go are the ones who are actually still trying to perform.

We could only go direct down the channels though as we are too small through the middle, we would need a proper target man for that and we just don’t have one. You’re absolutely right @Robbie, we have never been able to deal with the high press, even when Birchnall was in charge. Today, Crewe nailed us with it and doubled up on both our wingers as soon as they got the ball. Contrast that to Crewe’s first goal, two Crewe players over for a short corner and Notts only send one player over to stop it. They had all the time in the world to get that ball into the box and just cannot defend crosses. I don’t blame Maynard, he’s trying to find solutions to problems that have been here for a long time. Richard Montegue’s team are the real culprits, for their failure to find defenders good enough for league two. He’s been more obsessed by their passing stats rather than their defensive ones.

Issue is, this Notts side cannot play ugly, it is too lightweight to try and play physical. I watched Jatta and my in depth analysis after 45 minutes would be that he looks quite quick and ran around a bit! He didn’t really do anything else. Looked a bit weak against their centre halves, and not that great in the air. He needs the ball over the top to run onto, but if the defence sits deep he won’t have that option. The main trouble now is that we had a really small squad at the start of the season and lost three of those players to long term injuries by October. That has meant that the rest of the 1st XI are burnt out and can’t give any more. The urgency has gone, and there just isn’t the same effort being put into closing down the opposition. Today was pretty awful, we didn’t even start to play until around the 35 minute mark and by then the game was gone. At one stage in the second half you could even see the frustration on Balwin’s face when he had to play the ball back to the keeper as he had no other options available. Subbing off Robertson was an error and Crowley was playing way too deep and was completely ineffective for most of the game. I will add though that the Crewe players were embarrassing with their feigning injuries, but luckily the ref wasn’t having any of it. 3 more points needed to stay up and that’s all we can expect to do this season now. Big summer rebuild required, but unfortunately we have gifted too many 2 year contracts to players proving that that they can’t step up to the levels required, and that could be a massive sticking point.

Would say that from reading the above he is spot on. I won’t listen to his interview though as I think he is the most disingenuous manager I have ever come across, the blokes a low life and not worth the air time. He never gives the opposition any credit when they beat him and is even worse when his side wins.

Totally unexpected result but I felt more confident when I saw the team sheet. Playing 4 centre halves (trying to think if Macari was a RB at Stoke) across the back just gives that extra cover and still leaves us with 4 quality attackers in the side, along with Robertson who is getting better and better the more he plays. Fully deserved win, we looked fairly solid and hopefully the more we play this system the more we will get used to it. Credit to Maynard for playing it, as it is something Luke refused to do because he didn’t want to lose an attacker.

Exactly @Piethagoram, our defence has no awareness of threat, are physically bullied and have no urgency to close down and get tight to attackers. The least said about our keeper the better, but he has leaden feet, and refuses to get physical and leave his line for corners. He reminds of the goalkeepers on the old ‘Super Striker’ table top football game, as they never left their line and by the time you got them to dive the ball is nestling in the back of the net.