theAnticlough

I missed it sleeping (my alarm didn't work!) but BBC2 had a nice full replay starting at 7. Thrilling game. Woke up today to the great news of USA 1 Belgium 4 Balogan won the free-kick for their goal. I hope Belgium make the point that without that equaliser they might have gone on to win easier, 0-5 or 0-6 and have had the chance to rest players ahead of the QF with Spain. So the damage to the integrity of the tournamnet is done. USA got a big advantage in keeping the score down, so it was worth Trump using his influence over Infantino to get the ban lifted. I wonder if countries like Congo, Uzbekistan, Iran could have got any bans lifted. Guess we'll never know.

Hope Super is feeling better now We got to Alfreton. My youngest got quite a haul of photos and autographs. What a good set of players/people we have at Notts County! We're off on our travels now, mostly offline, so probably won't get the chance to post for a month or so... Wishing all a lovely summer

The fact the news was released on Saturday might suggest there's a flood of other news from Monday onwards

Alphabetic order is their only hope

Describes himself how Frank Vincent described himself - so could be a similar player... Love the name. I'd have given more chance to hearing a single 'Lip shook' from a pop star called Darius, than to land a midfielder of the same name. Teams always need players who put in the yards, so welcome and good luck to him,

The last time we played Leicester in the first game was in the top flight in 1983. We won that 0-4 to go top. This time it's at home and two leagues lower, so hopefully we can go one or two better, so 5-0, 6-0 County hopefully ;)

Echoed... The commitment is amazing, but its the skill that amazes me most. I can only dream

Little change, but time for an update, with Concrete Rod re-committing? I'll go.... ......................Belshaw .........Ness.....McDonald....Bedeau Tsaroulla..Sanders..Robertson...Jones ...........Roberts......Grant ...................Jatta Not easy. But RodMac was our play-off winning Captain and IMO played at the highest level of anyone in his games last season... So Ness or Gibbons? I'll have to be won over by Gibbons....I know he was Cambridge player of the year and in the L2 team of the year, but is he our kind of player? In Ness, Montague picked up a player with the potential to reach a level much higher than Gibbons could. If it wasn't for the inhuries, he might have moved on from Charlton in the other direction, up, rather than get picked up by us as a restoration project. He's kind of a poor man's John Stones...a Rolls-Royce of a defender who can aim for higher than L1 if all goes well. That's my thinking anyway Anyway, 7 weeks 1 day to the first league game and we can be sure there'll be at least the same number through the door in that time. The team could still change a lot

What an amazing start If we'd have jumped straight up to the Championship Leicester (H) might've been our biggest game And even for neutrals, this fixture might be the pick of the entire EFL Can't wait, balmy summer's day, bright sunshine, maybe nigh on 20,000 at Meadow Lane. Way to start our average Att. tally!

2010 revisited - Huddersfield (H)

The 'massive club' description seems to come more from those outsiders @Chris mentions Like others on this thread, I think 'ok mate, you carry on believing that'. We're too scarred by decades of 5000 to declare that ourselves. I think the perception comes from seeing that Nottingham is a 2-club city and, with the exception of Bristol, that usually means 'big'. The irony though is that they're right. Nottingham is a hell of a big metropolitan area, bigger than Sheffield for example (who cannot count Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley & Chesterfield) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_in_the_United_Kingdom When Nottingham was much smaller, we were getting the 47,000 or so post-war crowds. The dormant fanbase has always kind of been there. I think we have to give credit to all those great-grandparents and grandparents (in my case), who passed on the flame. Maybe it skipped a couple of generations, but I think the great-grandchildren are the ones to pick up their family heritage. It's amazing how young the crowd looked at Wembley. Just 10-15 years ago, It still looked like you needed a cloth cap to be a Notts County fan.

1974 for me...so many memories running home from school (the usually busy streets empty, I must have sprinted out at the bell) trying to catch Yugoslavia v Zaire. Gutted that I was watching highlights on the small black and white telly. Finally the penny dropped it wasn't highlights, it was just Yugoslavia running up a 9-0 win.

He had a great second season for us but no more pining for Didzy Bottom line is we couldn't win promotion with him, we only acheived that after he'd gone. In the end we didn't need him to achieve our goals.

My most played this week is this one...best song to come out of Nottingham IMHO

Italy v Brazil 1982 came up in conversation today - I realised I still haven't gotten over it!

After a quick look through, the one that stands out for me is Swinkels - looked excellent for Chesterfield The AM options are mainly investments for the future, rather than anyone who can take and keep a first-team shirt straight aight away. With Tangan, Luker, Iorpenda and Hall all gone I'm expecting big things for the AM position. As it stands (early days) a front three of Roberts/Grant/Jatta would have us relegated - not because they're aren't good, but susceptibility to injury, and low production in Grant's case. We need a splash. Might we be able to get someone like Chis Willock from Cardiff? I think we need someone with that kind of profile.

Thanks for posting. I'll have fun with that - shopping for our most needed position, which is another AM

Well, the challenge is right there ahead of him @Chris and he'll get another crack at the championship soon enough. Oxford struggled, but switching from Des Buckingham to Gary Rowett was bad news for Ruben. Two goals in the play-off final gives him a platform, and it's a bigger club with a better chance of establishing themselves. He must have a very high level of motivation, and I think it's going to stick this time. He'll have improved since he was with us and that elite, specialist talent of his doesn't grow on trees. 54 goals (from midfield!) and god knows how many assists, (plus those many 'hockey assists' when he's the one to put the likes of Nemane thru to cross) in just 3 seasons, and he missed almost half of the first one due to Ardley. He was an absolute machine of goal contributions for us. And 3 Wembley final wins in 4 years! 4 goals, 2 assists (at least)...an amazing record (Grant can't hold a candle to him IMO) There used a to be discussions on what level he could reach. Well he already played Championship under Buckingham, and he's back there again. I think you have to say that's the level he reached.

I think so @Robbie. I think Pato was as desperate as the fans for production from AM All he asks is that we defend as a team, like his comments on JJ in a post-final interview. Ruben's reputation is cemented as a player who works hard and gets stuck in defensively, rare for a flair player. Cal will have do to that side of the game too....or see the minutes reduce. Whether Cal starts, or it's still Grant, the other starter will have attributes that complement them hopefully. I'll think we sign a couple as we still need to replace Iorpenda, Luker and Hall.

I think that was more of a case of needs must, plus SM being quirky with his inverted habit Rod kept saying in interviews that centre was his position but he's happy to help the team (from RCB). It's amazes me how horrible he looked at RCB compared to how magnificently he played in the centre. I don't think that was just position. SM's game plans and schemes could make players look bad (Matty Palmer is another example) Ruben would've walked straight into the troublesome AM slots, no? A Championship level player with an elite talent like his (creative passing) would have won us autos I think (if he was fit) but he's out of our league now. Maybe one day we'll see him back. With his vision, he'd certainly still be able to entertain aged 35.

Our place in that is definitely going to change next season. We'll push up to 65% maybe (if results are OK) and hopefully only about 7000 seats (seats are for banners anyway, in my house I've followed Notts' example and stopped the family using the chairs and sofas - I cover them with stuff I want to promote)

Great times Who else can we mention? French, Hemmings, Cooper, Johnson. Sobers seems like another age though, the only footage seems to be in black and white!

I was as into cricket as much as football as a youth. I was regularly at Trent Bridge for Hadlee, Rice & Randall and played a tonne myself. I've followed the NBA for years now. I'm struggling though with 8 champions in 8 years. It's too hard to stay at the top in that competition. Tomorrow night sees Game 3 of the finals. The 7' 5'' alien Wemby goes into Madison Square Garden 0-2 down. It's going to be funny seeing midgets like Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Timothy Chalomet etc shouting trash at somebody who looks twice their height. If it gets to 1-2, it'll get interesting.

Me too, but I have a slight doubt because there might be another Notts County out there. By that I mean a club deep into analytics and on the look out for value in young, injured players. In one of his interviews MP said that Macari was underrated. My hunch is that won't be by the data. I'd expect him to show very highly in the analytics as one of the best players in L2 last year. Number of passes, completed passes, ball control, interceptions etc. (I just looked at Opta and Bedeau had the most completed passes in L2. I'd be pretty sure that Macari's per game stats were higher) So there'd be a pull factor from other teams and also a push factor for Macari himself, who now has a top player to dislodge in his position. Gibbons would have the main counting stats for goals/assists, plus intangibles that got him into the team of the year, but I doubt he's a better pure footballer than Macari. I hope Macari stays but I wouldn't be totally surprised if a club with resources (P'boro, Salford), that could absorb his injury situation, makes him an offer and the player agrees.

I think so @Robbie, whenever a contract expires the player belongs to all 92 clubs as much as they do Notts. Personally, I think they'll both sign. But to go straight on holiday, and let the agent see what's on the market seems fair to me. How would it work from Notts' side? You can't bang the table and say sign now or else. But there has to be some kind of deadline for the sake of planning.