Fozzy

Our defence is garbage, but has been for a couple of seasons. Fans knew it needed strengthening in the summer, but all we got were two kids. I also think that we can still play high possession football away from home but definitely need a shift in personnel by adding a proper CDM with pace, heading and tackling ability, a better back 3 who can actually mark and close down the opposition, and a competent goalkeeper who can marshal his back line and claim crosses. We also need either another striker or attacking midfielder as Morias is a sicknote and Randall is more like Lord Lucan than a footballer! Finally, I’d like to see a proper RWB in place of Nemane, someone who can actually defend as well as attack. This won’t all come in January so needs to be sorted for next season. We are not good enough away from home because we are too lightweight and can’t cope when pressed. We are also not good enough because we only have around 6 or 7 players in the first XI capable of winning us promotion. I hope the owners, directors and management have now realised that you need a larger squad in the EFL to be competitive as ours is now threadbare because of its size and injury list.

Agree with @Robbie__64, keep the same side if fit as they have nearly 2 weeks to recover for the next game. This will be a test as Tranmere’s form has picked up, but we will be better than them IF we continue like we have for the last 3 games. Just keep mistakes down to a minimum and we will be fine.

Some Wrexham fans genuinely think they might get beat, because their record against us is terrible and they aren’t playing very well at all. Tozer is well out of form, O’Connell went off injured yesterday and Mullin is still finding his full fitness. They are winning games through talent and grit, not tactics at the moment and Elliott Lee is the key man for them. Keep him quiet and that’s half the battle, but I do worry about their long ball over the top game and the pressure we will be under from crosses.

Terrible first goal to concede, rubbish pass from Nemane, Rawlo just gave up and I have no idea what Brindley was doing, he ran back and could have cut Rose off, but he just stopped for some reason and said “there you go, have all the time in the world to line up your shot at the near post”! Second goal was another shocker, competed for a ball we didn’t need to and Rawlo was sat around 10 yards behind the rest of the defence playing 3 attackers onside! Attacking wise, I thought we looked really good, Nemane and Crowley linked up really well in the first half and gave Grimsby’s left hand side nightmares. JJ was quality second half. Johnny B played really well until being forced off and Macca ran his socks off (still don’t know how he put that chance over the bar). Going forward, we were great, but thought we were terrible at the back again, and totally baffled by Stone constantly booting it long to their centre halves in the first half. I get really frustrated at times as we just don’t get tight enough when the opposition have the ball, just close them down! Just need a couple of quality & vocal centre halves now to play alongside Cameron and I think we will definitely make the playoffs, no centre halves will mean a bottom half finish.

Out of interest, has there been a press conference this week? Nothing has been posted up anywhere from what I have found.

Seriously hope that we have learnt from the first two games and stop making the stupid mistakes we have been doing. Would like the side to be: Stone Tipton Rawlinson Cameron TAR Chickson Palmer Bostock Jones McGoldrick Langstaff Rawlinson only because I cannot bear to watch Brindley get battered again and lack of other options at the moment. I would prefer Jones to be playing his more natural role than a wing back and it’s a toss up between Nemane and TAR. I personally prefer TAR, but it’s a close call.

Shocking result and just goes to show, you can sign all the attacking players you want but to not think the defence also needed strengthening was a bad call by Notts over the summer, especially when teams found us out towards the back end of last season. You can’t rely on a single defensive signing and an untried loanee at that (I hope he is blinking good though). Sides we play against this season are going to be bigger, faster and stronger than the ones we played against last season and we will have to do what Stockport had to do before we make that much progress. People putting us up there as potential champions were listening to too much hype and believing it (including the players). A mid table finish for first season back would be very acceptable and I hope a lot of fans are now thinking the same. I also think the players also listened to the hype and weren’t in the right mental state for the game. One thing is for sure, I seriously doubt we will see much more of Rawlo and Brindley after August has finished, they are further off the pace than even I thought.

Strong lineup picked for today, although I will be glad when the back line is fully fit and Baldwin and Tipton are in it. Still think we could do with another CB. Bench today is really strong, must be one of the best in the division.

I can see Rawlo mainly being used against more physical sides this season, he just isn’t mobile enough for a high line game and I’d fully expect Brindley to be playing on the right of a three until Tipton is up to speed. A back three of Cameron, Baldwin, Tipton would give me more confidence (although Cameron isn’t the quickest either) of not being caught out with the ball over the top. Shrews fans were on the whole very complimentary about our side and play, they thought both offside goals were a little dubious, especially the second and were lucky to come out of the game with a draw. Looking forward to seeing the first starting XI of the season on Saturday as I am struggling to name one.

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.

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

????????‍♂️ There's always one who has to think the worst!!!

I think we'll win this comfortably, but I'm really annoyed that the fixture time has been moved, because it means that I won't be able to make it. For some reason games against Bromley at home conspire against me as I have never yet managed to see us play them!!

Might as well start Brindley and Cameron as they both need minutes in their legs, ready for the playoffs. IB should go with his strongest team, but don't think her will.

I can only see Vincent playing in a 352 @gtownjohnno. At the moment, IB seems to be leaning towards a 4231, which means he will pick Francis over him. Vincent would only play in that formation if Ruben gets injured, or in place of JOB. The issue with 4231 is that although it makes us a better attacking side, our defence is even more suspect against a physical side without 3 CBs playing. Arter was disappointing after his first game for us, and I would not be surprised to find out that he was carrying an injury, if that was the case. I would be sending Brunt back as well to be honest as he has also been disappointing. I'm assuming that we have kept him to cover several positions.

We did the classic switch off after going two up. As they say, a 2 goal lead is always the worst one to have. We were very poor for 65 minutes of the match to be honest and would probably have lost against a top half side. One thing is for sure, Dover are just going to go all out attack against us as that seems to be what they are doing now in their games, with the goals they've suddenly found. We get rattled very easily and need to learn to play the ball over the top to get away from the high press as we struggle to play through it. Other than that, a win is a win, and another three points tomorrow will see us go 5th. We need to finish no lower than 4th in order to avoid Wrexham for as long as possible, but it could be a very open playoff system this year as all teams look very capable of beating each other in a one off game.

Thought Arter was poor on Saurday, looked to be carrying an injury and his corners were a real struggle. As for the game, it was a fair result, but thought we could have won it. Wootton's miss was an even bigger one that Asante's for me and he should have buried it. Miller hit the post but I thought Slocombe had it covered as it was right in front of me. Other than that it was a game of few chances and the keepers were only really troubled by a couple of deflected shots and Rubens mishit drag back shot. Next two games are biggies and as @menzinho says, I would definitely take 4 points from them.

Next challenge will be the high press that they are bound to adopt again, but if we beat them we can then see Halifax in our sights. Stockport & Wrexham will finish first and second by the look of things, the challenge is to grab that 3rd place spot., which would be unbelievable bearing in mind we looked to be struggling to make the playoffs at all a couple of weeks ago.

Should have won by a greater margin really, but a win is a win and (shock, horror ????) a clean sheet as well! I would still like to see the squad strengthened further for the run in, but Arter (as expected) is taking the Mick in this division. Far too good and should be unbelievable once fully fit. We have played our best football all season with 3 at the back and probably need to continue that way. If that means shoehorning Cal Roberts into the side or benching him, so be it. P.S. Really pleased for Sam Slocombe last night, thought he had a good game.