Sheffield Pie

Aside from the data it's noticeable that fans of other clubs, managers and commentators, new signings etc. quite often describe Notts as a "massive club". Granted they may sometimes mean "by lower league standards" but this would NEVER have been said of Notts 10, 20 or 30 years ago. So the perception has definitely changed, which is actually quite important.

Great stuff. I did wonder if there was anyone else in the EFL2 team of the season we might fancy, as well as Gibbons. Glover would have been nice but money talks. So interested to see Read from Colchester is in there.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else leaves. I think we have 16 contracted players now, excluding keepers and u21s (have I counted correctly?). So room for six more although we've offered two contracts, which would only leave four slots. Rodders - has moved around a lot in his career. The owners are strict on only paying what they think someone is worth. So would not be that big a shock if he left. Macari - injured and with a betting issue on his record, so likely to be grateful of the chance to stay. Roos - mutually terminated surely? Traore - expect they will try to loan him out; costly mistake if we're stuck with him. Shame it's not worked out for the guy. Dennis - we will get offers, just depends on the owners' valuation whether he goes. Any other possibles? Maybe only if we get a big offer for Jatta or maybe Robertson.

I'm expecting our three signings to start. I've seen some people describing Roberts as a squad player but I hope not, he's got the potential to be really exciting for us, a fan faourite, and someone who can take free kicks and corners better than anyone we have currently.

Last season Notts had the tenth highest number of empty seats on average out of the 92. Our gates have improved massively as we all know, but from an occupancy rate of around 25% to 50%, so lots of room for improvement before we need to worry about needing a bigger ground. Next season hopefully over 60% occupancy. I've always thought around 75% is ideal - enough to feel pretty full and create a good atmosphere most games, but with room for new/floating fans when they want to come. I think we could get there if we keep making progress.

Just based on who's been signed it's looking like we might be going for a loan signing in the AM role again. Maybe there's data that shows good quality AMs are really difficult to sign permanently without paying top fees/wages. And a young Prem loanee is likely to have the skill set and self-belief to come in and do a job. Hoping for a 'big reveal' teaser type announcement in the next few weeks, like Abbot or Iorpenda coming back.

Tempted by this but Denmark is expensive! Went there for an England friendly in summer 2005, got a cheap flight to Hamburg then train and camped to keep costs down. Matches concide with World Cup QFs and Semi-finals so anyone going make sure you've got access to a screen in case England do well!

All three signings are players that their club and fans would have been delighted to hang on to. That's got to be a good sign.

Good point, last pre-season was a bit of a shambles. Bonding on a foreign trip is all very well but when you've made 11 signings and have a new coaching team, maybe not so clever. Will be interesting to see what sort of pre-season they go for this year. Feeling even more optimistic anyway, don;t normally bother with pre-season but can't wait now.

What a great start with these two - signing player of the season, team of the season types. Notts have the pulling power, good to see the club using it.

Retained list is out. Kyouhar retained. Norburn leaving. No other surprises. Squad not reduced by much. Need to ship out Roos, Traore and Dennis somehow. Shame about norburn. Palmer + robbo not so effective is it? Midfield signings looks like a priority.

It's a fair question. Patto will be pitting his wits against an even stronger set of coaches. He's doing a great job but is the 8th youngest manager in the 92. There are some teams with huge budgets. On Monday the owners said promotion doesn't change their plans much. Just adding a bit more quality or words to that effect. Bromley finished last season weakly. Doncaster and Wimbledon have run out of momentum and were pretty limited to begin with. Hopefully another team has a car crash season and/or points deduction (harsh I know). Of course we all hope for better than 20th. Mid table would be fantastic especially if plenty of home wins are served up. And a cup run please!!!

It's going to be tough surely. Four relegation places! We don't have lots of players out of contract so need to offload to make room. Having said that there are more that could maybe do a job for us than I would have thought until recently (e.g. Ness). Better pitches and (slightly) better referees should help us. We're now even more attractive to players we're interested in signing or taking on loan. Hopefully at least one out the owners, Montague or Joe Palmer will do an end of season interview which will give us some clues about what to expect.

What a finish to the season. We just looked so strong and full of belief, full of 'failure not an option' mentality. The club needed this, momentum restored after a few frustrating seasons. Absolutely loved it at Wembley, I've said it before but our fan base is transformed.

I see the club/Wembley/EFL (whoever was responsible) have recognised what's gone wrong and are releasing some cheaper seats and keeping them on sale longer. Spread the word!

I had high hopes after the first rush but sales seem to have slowed to a trickle now. Why do people think that is? I try to avoid Radio Nottingham and Post but I assume they are giving us zero publicity. Also the cost - if you want to sit in a group the only option now is the second tier at £46 or more each plus booking fee. Add petrol, parking, and food and that's a lot. I get that opening the top tier costs money but I'd hate to think we're missing out on support by not putting cheaper blocks on sale.

I've read that the safety certificate doesn't insist on only 17k, it's just that to have more than 17k they need to do some extra safety planning and given the time and costs the club choose not to. On the other board some people are saying the ground needs updating and the away section moving. I think we're getting ahead of ourselves there. Our attendances are much better but we still have thousands of empty seats most home games. Only a dozen or so clubs in the 92 have a more under-used stadium than us (MK Dons, Sheff Wed, Wigan for example). Also making the Family stand the away end would give the opposition a boost, having an end to kick towards. Don't think it will happen anyway for practical reasons. One issue the club might want to look at though is the number of 'orphaned' single seats they end up having to try to sell. Some clubs' booking systems try to minimise this, so that people looking for 2 or more seats together aren't discouraged.

Best vocal support over 90 minutes I've ever experienced at Meadow Lane. And I know they shouldn't have gone on the pitch but seeing literally thousands of YOUNG Notts fans having the time of their life is pretty amazing after all these years.

There are plenty of home tickets left for the Chesterfield game - maybe 1,500 - especially in the family stand, I guess due to the kick-off time. So we've sold 'only' 13k to home fans. That's a pretty good effort in a few days and we'll probably sell out, but they've not been snapped up which suggests a 20k stadium is still more than enough. As everyone has said it's just the configuration. If they could upgrade the Sirrel somehow so that more seats could be used and there was a large segregated away end, and maybe the corner nearest the Kop filled in, that would be great. I'd like the safe standing expanded to more rows in the Kop. I know some people who like to sit would be displaced but it would enhance the atmosphere even more I think.

This feels to me like Cook vs Patto rather than Notts vs Chesterfield. We need to win the midfield tactical battle (and not get any red cards). Also need to play the players in form - so not Palmer, not Hall. Not got lots of alternatives though! What's happened to Tangen?

Really good first half. Evans made one change at half time and we seemed to lose all our shape and belief - worrying. Just to be masochistic, I had a look back at the run-in: 13 points from the last 8 games would have been good enough but we only managed ten. We could only beat Harrogate, Newport and Colchester. Cambridge only got 10 points from their last eight games as well, with only two wins, against Barrow and Notts.

The squad as a whole hasn't been good enough to get autos from L2. I know we came close and MK are a special case budget wise but it's a pretty low bar - the bottom division and three places up for grabs. We lack a little bit of flair, fight, leadership and discipline, and we are injury prone. So time for a clear out even if we get promoted. Keep if we can: Jatta, McDonald, Tsaroulla, Robertson, Grant, Macari, Bedeau. Belshaw will do as well but an upragde would be good. Sign if we can: Iorpenda and Luker. No idea about these but retain if they are serious prospects: Browne, Enoru, Perott, Griffiths. I'd actually take offers for Dennis, Jones and Palmer. This would raise some cash and help with the reset. We need a couple of senior pros we can build a team around. The rest can go if we can shift them.

Well done Notts. Happy but also sad. Just a couple more wins and we'd be over the line. Even just a win against Barnet would have put us in pole position. Living in hope for the last game, but more realistically, just hope that the players have learned some lessons to carry into the play-offs: about concentration at set pieces; not being wound up and getting sent off; starting and finishing games strongly. Booked my flight to the UK for next week, and the return journey for the day after the play-off final ...

Oh dear Notts. This season, like last, is turning into a slow motion car crash. We might scrape into the play-offs because of other teams playing each other. But with zero expectation. Hate to say it but at what point do we conclude the footballing side of the club is being badly run? Big crowds, good commercial set-up, transfer fees, data ... but 14 defeats and counting and zero success in the cups, all against pretty limited opposition.

Anyone able to name the scorers? I was probably there (had a junior season ticket) but can't remember anything about it. Some incredibly memorable games that season but not that one! Looking back at the records, this was one of only two wins in the last 11 games of the season. A stronger finish and we might have ended up in the top half, above Forest. Conscious as I'm typing this that it's ancient history - the equivalent of me in 1982 hearing from some old guy about the inter-war years.