theAnticlough

There could be a resource issue and other practical reasons why it's not extended to all 4 leagues. Maybe they do this already, but I'm not aware, but massive improvements could be made with points of emphasis for refereeing - focussed on the so-called 'dark arts', persistent fouling, time-wasting etc. I hope L1 next season gives us fewer referees that side with spoiling teams and enable them to cheat their way to points.

Very good message. Good luck to him - the new team are going to benefit from having him

Seconded on O'Reilly. But with Jones, Cal and Tsaroulla already in the room, I think the 4th player should have Iorpenda-style physical attributes to give L1 teams different things to think about.

Massive chance for him to leave a legacy as an accomplished EFL footballer. He will be highly motivated. (It's interesting how records look. If you see Notts County on profiles post-retirement you see a L1 club not NL) Cal's talents deserve to be showcased at this higher level. I'm sure we all wish him luck. If he stays injury-free his talents will shine through and he'll be a great success for us.

Great to have him back now. He must be buzzing to go up 2 levels, but he earned it. Might boost season tickets even more - most fans want to see skill, and Cal certainly provides that. Hope the next 2 years are as healthy as the last two at Scunny. If so, he'll realise himself as an top EFL player

Well, we already have Lasagna Jatta according to some

@piedestrian's quote says he's been RCB for the last few months, so a shape similar to ours in that case Impressive signing - L2 team of the year, a direct rival's player of the season... Now we're up, I might be able to stomach watching the Cambridge match on Pies Player

It's definitely the player profile of what we need in CM. His loan at Mansfield ends the day after tomorrow. You'd imagine at 21, Spurs would want him to try the Championship, especially now that they're not in it :) btw Spurs had a whopping 18 players out on loan last season

Interesting discussion on yesterday's Magpie Circle on VAR Stall seems a bit conflicted. No worries, a lot of people are. It was interesting to hear him say that he would absolutely behave differently, as a striker, if it was a VAR game - like going down when he knew his shirt was being pulled. Well, VAR was as good as gold in our final, it didn't intrude at all. And fans could still celebrate the goals (look at the vlogs), maybe Stall had to be more tentative as a commentator. But more than that I'm sure that that changed player behaviour due to VAR helped us win. Exhibit A - Ness' header. There's no way they would've let him do that if it was a normal game at the Peninsula or Meadow Lane. He would have been wrestled down to the ground in a way that made it look like a foul on the defender. And that's what the usual bog-standard L2 ref would've given. I was in favour of VAR at the start but turned against it since, mainly because of the delays. But our final makes you think. VAR and the big pitch both played a part in ensuring the better team won.

Yeah, slightly surprising, maybe in a good way. Norburn definitely proved his worth. We needed his fearlessness and aggression for this succesful run in. But I'm happy in a way. It's not the type of midfielder I want to see and there was a problem stylistically as he didn't really want to show for the ball or try to dictate play. I disagree @Sheffield Pie Palmer + Robbo should be better. Palmer is 2 years younger. But at 31, he should enter a new phase of his career - embrace being the midfield general, but think like an old man now and get pissed off with all these youngsters he's playing against. Hopefully, he'll leave the captaincy to others and concentrate on becoming a less tentative and more assertive CM than he has been at times this year. Can we have the attitude of Norburn but the game of Palmer, please? I hope Norburn doesn't end up at Oldham, where he got sent off. If it's the NW, maybe it's Fleetwood or even Salford... The right one of Kouhyar and Bennetts is staying. Maz has been consistently good off the bench this season and that's where he'll be next season. But can a sports psychologist solve the problem of his game falling off a cliff when he starts? Hope we can reach an agreement with Concrete Rod. Won't blame him for bartering on terms after his fantastic season. I think Macarri will sign.

Ndlovu has his contract and I think the club will be happy to have him. He’s elite at the main thing he does - come on and hold the ball up. He’ll always appear whenever we’re winning or drawing away. Maybe we can see a bit more of him as an assister and scorer next year We also need the toughness he brings, just him showing up when it kicks off up is a message to the opposition

Keeping it on this thread, a 2nd promotion in 3 years is vindication of the club's model - including recruitment Pato has rightly won lots of plaudits for his fantastic coaching this season - but what an advantage it is we have over other clubs, that he can concentrate on his coaching job and leave contracts, transfers and recruitment to another team (and just contribute as required). I can see more and more clubs copying our model. What a distraction it must be on the training ground when the players think the coach is deciding on contracts and in and outs. And more than that, what a distraction for the coach who needs to focus on how to make the team and players better, which MP certainly did.

From right side attack in a 4-3-3 to Inside-Right for us won't be a difficult transition His return appeals the more you think about it - entertainment with the skill level (a left foot to rival Jodi's) + loads of goals & assists

Subdued is generous, largely absent would be more accurate. If you look at the line receiving and lifting the trophy, Bennetts and Kouhyar look halfway out and Dennis isn't there at all. Looked like he gave it a miss then had a change of heart, but still didn't really enter into the spirit of it. So, selling for a small fee seems likely to me. He started so well, but doesn't seem to have reacted well when the going got tough. His substitute appearances got worse as the season went on, and there's no excuse for that.

It's semantics really. We have promotion seasons now with Nemane and JJ playing key roles. They're wingers - but remember Nemane's block v Boreham Wood? And JJ does his best to get back and defend under orders from MP. Another example was Calvin Miller, who was on fire for us as winger/wing-back for a short time. Fans can label them what they want. The important thing IMO is that there's cover behind them. The LCB and the whole team is designed to slide over to cover attacks on that side. But if that wing-back/winger doesn't attack down that side? There's nobody to 'cover' that. That's why LW had to transform Chicksen and he got 11 goals in that promotion season. If you look at the video of Cal's best goals for Scunthorpe they mainly seem to come from the No.10 position. In Scunny's system he was r-side attack in a 4-3-3. If he comes back there's no way in the world he'd play left-winger or LWB unless we're chasing games at home. JJ can just about manage the defensive duties but Cal showed us that he really can't. In our system he'd be right side No.10 I think, but that'd mean we need a Iorpenda-type player (with more goals) on the other side. And Cal returning would probably mean we're not keeping Tangan? It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.

If we were still L2 it'd make perfect sense. @menzinho you make good points about the formation. If it was announced I'd be happy, but fear it was a mistake...

Time to chip in on this debate...players out of contract next month McDonald - I think we can be a little less sentimental than we when came up to L2, but this guy is a hero of our promotion. And a class player, whose reading of the game can help stretch his career into his mid-30s. I say we offer him a new 2-year contract. Norburn - Ditto. We can avoid his slow start now, and he'll bring the calmness and nous that'll be important in L1 Tsaroulla - don't let him do to us what he did to Crawley. Tie him down through his peak with a 3 year deal Platt - having two defenders out long-term to start life in L1 is a big handicap. How convenient it would be to cut. But we just can't. Reputation around football and within our club dictates that we have to look after him. Also, he's too good. If we ever did slip back down, having a warrior like him would mean we'd never slip down to far. Length of contract to offer though is tricky Bennetts - we have to say goodbye and good luck. We can't ride with a player who'll struggle at the level and won't score or assist. We have to take a punt of someone else, or use the salary slot, combine it with another ,and get a top first teamer in. The consolation for Bennetts is that his association with a promotion team will land him another team in L2 Kouhyar - exactly the same. I think he'd be closer than Bennetts, but we needed to see much more in the games he started. Tangan - unless they've seen great things in training, I don't think we should pick up the option to buy. He's not always involved and we can't afford that type of player in L1 matches. It's still a gamble and we need sure things in the No 10 positions Perott - keep

I agree about consolidation but I think we can allow ourselves to be a bit more ambitious and optimistic. The Reedtz bros, Monty and now Pato are on a upward curve together. 4 years NL / 3 years L2 / and then the fairybook ending to Chapter 3 is 3 more years, so NL to Championship in 10 years of their ownership! What might that look like? Year 1 - 14th to 9th, Year 2 9th to 6th, Year 3 - Play offs again

Will conceed on those two @StarkMallard, but lets ask ourselves who we're really afraid of... Bradford? No, we were beating them only last year Doncaster? Ditto Mansfield? Notts fans would never allow that Bromley? Ditto Wimbledon? Bunch of thugs we owe one to Luton? Old sparring pals from Nolan's days, now on a level again Sheff Weds? Might still be in disarray for a season or two Oxford? When Ruben went there we were all saying he's gone to smaller club MK Dons? We have their number recently Cambridge? Let's focus on the 2-0 win at Meadow Lane Stockport? We could bring back Frank Vincent and beat them that way Wigan? Didn't we outplay them when we met in the cup? Burton? Really? Add to those Stevenage, Orient, Wycombe, and that's 16 not to be scared of at all. We can spend the first season saying 'only x pts off the play offs', even though the L1 promotion system is as close to the NL's as it is to L2's. We can definitely aim for mid-table upwards.

I think I was still happy that our previous had departed to be disappointed! But yeah, 'underwhelmed' What an appointment though. I know this is in the afterglow of a Wembley masterclass but he really does have all the hallmarks of a succesful team manager with a long career ahead of him relentless focus astute man manager - seems to know player psychology tactically sound makes good team changes, only when necessary plays a positive and entertaining brand of football incredible work ethic that has to rub off on others and the list goes on, kudos to the brothers for this great pick (and some credit to Gagliardi too, who at least gave us Luker, in the beginning Dennis, and in the end Norburn)

For sure Big Tone, but my thick head is a permanent condition I'll go out today to celebrate it properly...my youngest has really got into it and that adds to positive vibes The renaissance of our club is outstanding. All those years of thinking what happens when all the old codgers go? Are we in the wrong part of Nottingham? Only to see new generations of County fans to emerge in numbers much greater than we had in the 80s and 90s even. Then there's the stunning matchday experience, with The Nest and an unbelievable slate of big, local and localish games against Leicester, Sheff Weds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Mansfield, Peterboro, Doncaster, Oxford, Luton, Barnsley, Stockport, Burton etc. A great time to be a Pie, let's all savour these days.

It really was the game of the season for player performances - a lot of 8/10s and better. Belshaw, Ness, McDonald, Robertson plus a couple of the subs, Grant for sure. But I've got Jodi edging out Jatta. Having JJ hit one of his peaks was just too much for Salford to cope with

Fantastic so far - such a sweet moment when that 2nd went in. Norburn and Robbo great - they've got nobody doing that job for them. Great we had Jodi Jones peaking at the right time - playing brilliantly and one of the best assists I've ever seen. The ball was going sideways by the time it was in front of Jatta. And now Mnoga on a yellow... Without their small pitch, no tolerance of their usual antics, exposed for lack of skill, I'm not sure what they can do to get back into this...

As expected, nobody will argue with that Still slightly uneasy at not having Browne on the bench...In a dream world it'll be all over after a hour and we can stop worrying about it ;)

Echo all of that. But strangely calm here - confident, but ready to accept the reverse in a nigh on 50-50 game. I think I need to catch sight of Robinson and some of their players to remind myself how much I want us to win it!