Sheffield Pie

5-0 to Notts. No mercy from MP. Just enjoy it.

Fantastic news. What a signing this turned out to be. Nailed on for making the L2 team of the season.

It's partly about availability. At the start of the season Jatta was suspended, Robertson, Tsaroulla and Ness recovering from injury (I think), and Macari and Hall not considered match ready. So basically MP has been doing a brilliant job since he's had key players available.

I think Craig Short deserves the credit for bringing him in, initially on loan, thanks to his Blackburn contacts. Most of his signings were rubbish but credit where it's due.

Typical Notts, just when you think it's coming together. We're consistent in the cups to the point where you almost suspect it's a betting conspiracy. The debate about recruitment will start again after the way Roos and Norburn played. In 2025 have we made one permanent signing that's strengthened our starting line-up? Just hope we can keep picking up some points between now and January and then bring in two or three who are made of the right stuff, that's a big ask though.

I'm a bit more confident than that. They are good teams but beatable. I think Notts can beat anyone in this division in pure footballing terms if that makes sense. It's the likes of Salford and Bromley that I still worry about. Notts will be well backed. I'd like to think we'll get 10k home fans for the MK Dons and Walsall games. We'll sell out the away end at Grimsby and Chesterfield. If we're going well, we could have a really big following at MK Dons.

Amazing to think that if we'd beaten Newport (which just came too soon) we'd be top. Maybe we under-estimated the all-round strength of this squad. The bold use of subs, and the way players step up when needed, it's working really well.

New sponsor of the Family Stand, which is now named after this company rather than Haydn Green. Obviously a lot of people are upset about the renaming and asking questions such as: have Haydn Green's family been consulted? Will Haydn Green's contribution to the club's survival be commemorated in some other way? I'd also like to know a bit more about Green Shift Energy and how much they are actually paying, though the club would be very unlikely to reveal that. I could just about get that Notts would do this if it were a really big corporate partnership, with a prestigious brand, maybe one with Nottingham connections. Not sure that's the case here - it looks like they were set up last year using a company registration service, are owned by three young-ish guys, have a pretty basic website, and a small office in Newcastle. Does that suggest a big enough commercial opportunity to override Haydn Green's memory? Odd.

One big takeaway is that everyone loves Paterson now! He was an unpopular pick, some fans said he was out of his depth, gone by Xmas, etc. He's got us fitter, is getting the best out of Rodders, Matty Palmer and Grant, has integrated Robbo into the team well, got Jatta smiling and scoring again, and been a good judge of the loan signings. Notts' good form stretches quite a long way now. We've taken 20 points from the last 10 games, which is automatic promotion form. By taking 1 point from the first 3 games, we gave everyone else a head start, which we've partially clawed back. Hoping that attendances start to pick up again as the coach and team deserve it.

HERE WE GO. NOT EVEN SURPRISED.

Grant hat-trick tonight. I'm not even joking. It's been coming.

Quite revealing: Games 1-6 saved 8 out of 17 = 47% Games 7-11 saved 14 out of 17 = 82% The 6 out of 6 shots saved vs Fleetwood helped - maybe a turning point? Interesting to read the MoM thread from that game!

I don't get to watch every minute of every game so if he's improving that's good and yes let's get behind him. His stats do need to improve as currently it's looking like a massive downgrade. He's saved 65% of shots on target (13th best in L2). Last year Bass saved 74% (2nd best). Over a season that projects to 13 more goals let in, a big handicap.

I was there in the Bridgford end but can't remember much about it. Was that the one where one of our players, maybe David Hunt, got sent off late on for cleaning out a Forest player who was shielding the ball in the corner? This was around the time Forest played Celtic home and away in the UEFA cup, incredible numbers of Celtic fans that night, came close to being a tragedy apparently.

The starting line-up hasn't featured many of our 11 new signings lately. With Macari clear to play and Luker out that's going to be even more the case. What do we think is the balance of hits and misses? For me: 3 Hits: Dennis, Iorpenda, Hall. Not bad but really need more permanent signings to be hits as we get to keep or sell them. 4 Misses: Roos, Norburn, Kouhyar, Bennetts. Probably not a disaster in terms of the wage bill (Norburn maybe costing us) but Roos is a key position and if we factor in Jarvis and Traore not working out, not great. 4 Neither: don't know about Griffiths, Aljofree and Cotter haven't done great but are loans so not so serious, putting Luker in here as well even though he looked good.