theAnticlough

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If I see a Czech beer available, I don't consider anything else. I'll group in the Slovak ones too and say that Zlaty Bajant (Golden Pheasant) is my all-time favourite. All their local beers too - Corgon, Topvar, Saris and back to Czech - Krušovice I enjoy all others though from all type of places (Chang and Singha?) and like @Chris will happily have a few ciders, especially in the summer after a walk. Guiness also good for me. Real Ales as well...but a bad bitter can put you off for a while

Scored in Altrincham's victory over Eastleigh tonight. Now 27 he's really established himself there

Absolutely. Completely credible IMO. Different to the suggestion on Magpie Circle that he wanted to move on. There's pride involved obviously, and loved lost because of the long silence and the eventual answer, but the most important point is that he's a 28 year-old player with a terrible injury history who needed more job security for a young family. He didn't even asked for a rise!

Burnley 1-0 Bristol City Millwall 1-2 Bolton Barnsley 2-0 Stevenage Joker Burton 1-1 Cambridge Accrington 1-2 Crawley Bristol Rovers 2-0 Rotherham Fylde 2-0 Worthing Wealdstone 1-2 Kidderminster

I think this is a Damien McCrory type situation by this stage - keeping fit while getting another club

I found that spare time to watch it @Graham. Well done to K-Ci on getting that done and giving him the perfect platform to go into depth on his Notts career On the departure, I'm delighted we got to hear JJ's side. I also think we got most of the other side there too, re 'the model', but not all...they'll have been influenced. It didn't change the way I feel and think. As well as appreciating Jodi as a player, he's a great guy too and that shows in how he'll keep on supporting Notts. He's one of us now, at the same time as being a Bromley player, unfortunately.

I think the new depth and the general, overall quality of the 15 arrivals has given us a strong chance of establishing ourselves as a L1 club, and is insurance against the worst-case scenario - going back down. This is taking the next step in the resurgence of our club, so you have to be happy with it. Whether we have players and a team I love to watch and follow....only time will tell. I'm high on Roberts, Mustapha & Kanu (and Smyth which each new game) but it's wait and see for the rest, for me personally

Interesting about the 'terrier identity' @Robbie (identities are very important for probably all pro sports teams) I think we can say we've faced 2 teams that will be up there (L & L), but were facing teething problems at the start of the season (i.e Mansfield scoring 5 v Luton), like so many do, including eventual champions of leagues. And let's face it - Burton & Doncaster are no great shakes. So yeah, the most difficult game so far and that identity means that our defence will face its sternest challenge yet. There's big Cambridge-away potential and the risk of being blown away early. We'll need the front 3 and WBs to hold up the ball and not give it away cheaply. But the key could be in CM...we'll need protection of the backline and solid playmaking to relieve the pressure. Who would be the first choice CM pairing for this, if all fit? I'll guess Sanders, Campbell (both unavailable). Cooper has to play obviously, but I think Pato will move him to No.10 and ask him to help out more deep. I think he'll go for Evans & Finneran behind him and hope that Evans can be good be with the ball to go with his combativeness, and that Finneran isn't overawed and can impose his best game. This will be key to the game IMO, cos as good as they've been, I'm not sure that Belly, Gibbo and Ness could stand up to CONSTANT pressure. LWB? Lipsiuc is rested, I'm quite sure about that. I'd say Longelo comes straight in. But wouldn't be completely shocked if ISS is picked for his defence

Good post. Yes, I remember the game at Bristol Rovers for example. Good summing up@Robbie ....was rooting for him to settle in and stabilise his form, but that fatal flaw kept setting him back, and the confidence of those in front of him I hope he can find a good club to spend the last few years of career

I think the most encouraging thing so far is that the new team has more than held its own in terms of balance of play. Established L1 sides have not been able to dominate us at all. We spent long spells away at Doncaster looking like the best team, just like we did against Leicester for example. It looks like we're going to be OK, but grim spells lie ahead that we haven't seen for 7 years. In Pato, we have someone who can snap us out of those and prevent a bad run spiralling out of control. For now though, we should enjoy this first positive run.

I actually think that's become something of a myth. And back-to-back promotions would've had us plummeting back down anyway, we were nowhere near ready. The team/squad including Cameron, Baldwin, Brindley, Rawlinson, Slocombe, Palmer, Scott etc. was bombing away at the top of L2 and still right up there in December. Then LW's wheels fell off with the sudden loss of our CM Palmer/Bostock...we could no longer control games, which his entire system was based on. He left. Maynard came in, and that was that, 1st to 14th. It wasn't giving those guys a chance that cost a promotion chance IMO I'm happy the club gave those players a chance to prove themselves at the higher level. They had their shot, some made it (Palmer, Jones, Baldwin (elsewhere). Some didn't, and quickly fell back down the pyramid, but at least they'd had their shot at it. Fans stay forever, we are the club, everyone else is temporary. But I don't want to side with the employers, I want to side with the employees and see them treated well. If respecting achievements for the club and rewarding success is sentimental, then so be it, call me sentimental. The day we're ALL hard-nosed businessman will be a world I don't want to live in. Jones' case though is not just about rewarding success, he's got a rare creative talent and that's what I want to pay to watch. If I wanted to watch energy, there are pylons not too far from me and I could stare at the national grid for a few hours. I've always wanted to pay to watch skill, creativity, flair, touch, imagination - stuff with the ball us everyday mortals can't get anywhere near doing. I've had my say on JJ, and there will be a fair few that agree with me. I'm not going to stop thinking the club got this wrong from a football philosophy, fans relations standpoint. There were big clues in MP's post-match interview though...'the club being able to see them play to prevent them from going'. There was obviously a stand-off "I deserve a contract extension' v 'show us again that you deserve it'... and the rest is now history.

I thought Gibbons & Tsaroulla did well....but it comes down to Ness v Cooper for me. Very hard to separate them, but I went for Ness for his thou shall not pass approach - a giant in the middle of our defence. Off to bed, good night all

A good, well-earned point from quite a forgetable match. They are a very ordinary, forgetable side. I think we'd have won if it wasn't for the rookie blunder in the first half. LWB position looks problematic tonight. JJ gone, neither Lipiuc nor Kouyhar look like the answer, so banking on ISS taking his chance when he gets it.

Amazing message. If he isn't bitter, then maybe I don't need to be either but the wisdom of the sale? We'll have to see

Very annoying half. Great stuff up until the finishing. As we've been seeing in home games, Lipsiuc's inexperience makes him a defensive liability. To be involved in 3 goal concessions in 4 games is too many. With the yellow, Kouhyar should be brought on for him at HT. Too late for ISS, who should've started IMO. Some lovely stuff being played by the likes of Cooper and Mustapha

No need to apologise @Mapperley Pie there'll always be disagreements. It'll be interesting to see how far energy takes us, or lasts, and whether we'll be rueing the loss of skill and creativity that's just left the club, in the months ahead.

All true @Robbie. But now it's done, I'm even more pissed off about it. The club will be 'misaligned' with a part of the fanbase on this, and I think Jodi Jones himself. As I, and others said, on the other Jodi Jones thread, I want to hear JJ's side of the story. Data cannot thrill you or make you jump out of your seat. Nobody covered themselves with more glory spanning the two promotions than Jodi Jones...As Danny Blanchflower said of football: "The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom". IMO, the Bros and Recruitment have a missing piece here. This is one that I don't think we have to wait to see what happens at Notts and Bromley. He should have been offered a longer/improved contract to reward his exploits. God knows we've thrown a lot of money at a lot of others. Apparently he wasn't asking for all that much. Or maybe the Head Coach was influential in this too. I hope Jodi speaks up a bit about his 3.5 years, achievements, and the way it ended.

@Robbie, agree with starting with the 2nd half side from Burton... I am intrigued with what he'll do at LWB though. I think the idea on assembling the squad was ISS ahead of Lipsiuc at LWB, but he was injured. For a tough(ish) away game he might want the defensive strengths of Samuels-Smith, especially after Lipsiuc didn't challenge Delap for the header and didn't close down the Leicester goal the home game before (harsh, but some players would've thrown themselves) The other point is that Chelsea don't loan out their players to sit on the bench, so I'm pretty sure ISS will get at least 30mins in this one, or might possibly start the match.

Pato might be tempted to bring in ISS. I'll think he'll get a minimum 30mins, even if he doesn't start. Darius Lipsiuc didn't maintain the great form from the season opener, and was the defender involved in both goals conceded at Meadow Lane Smyth, Roberts, Kanu, Mustapha, Tsaroulla...we're a very dangerous team for Doncaster and we can definitely turn them over

Birmingham 1-2 Southampton Swansea City 1-1 Watford Bromley 2-1 Leyton Orient Huddersfield Town 2-0 Oxford United Joker Wycombe 2-0 Sheffield Weds Chesterfield 1-1 Gillingham Exeter City 1-2 Barnet Northampton 1-1 Crawley

I remember being at those games. Roeder was a pure footballing CB. Wasn't his calling card a step-over?! Unusual for a CB...The crowdfunding thing suggests that Notts fans have always appreciated skill and skillful players. It's hard to come up with a better debut from memory. My mind went to a Lloyd Sam hat-trick, but that might not have been his first appearance....

For a while, that's for sure, @Robbie. What stood out for me was the stylishness of his play, kind of a cross between Steve McManaman and Andy Townsend. This year, the Club are putting their foot down and saying no, injury will not wipe out our central midfield. What wouldwe say is the depth chart of our CM now (if all fit)? First team - Robertson & Finneran Reserves - Sanders & Campbell Third team: Evans & Palmer

Sign me up for the Luka Smyth fan club, he proved himself yesterday The first goal is amazing, he gets the pre-assist too! If you're not looking closely, you'd think a tackle got the ball to Tsaroulla. Freezing the tape shows that it was a perfect back heel from Smyth, who then got up of the floor from behind the goal-line to head in Tsaroulla's cross. Without Smyth I suspect it would've been one of those impossible nightmare defeats.

Have to say Tilt getting sent off like that, conceding the pen to lose the game, really made my day