theAnticlough

Yes @Robbie a promotion-winning AM duo might not be on the books at the moment. Hall had made one of the positions his own, but the drop off over the last 3 or 4 games has been alarming and could've opened things up again. Grant's star has been rising and Iorpenda's falling. Both are capable footballers but I've been saying all along that their output won't be what we need to sustain a promotion challenge over 46 games. MP can try Jones again, Jarvis, Dennis back there, Kouhyar, (I think Traore has shot it). It was a shame Luker got injured, he might have been part of the solution. Hopefully, MP and Montague will settle on AM has a big priority area for Jan. Two might be being greedy, but 1 first choice and let the likes of Hall and Grant compete for the other shirt might be good enough to grab one of the 4 slots.

Yeah Hall has looked like Charlie Whitaker on a bad day in the last couple of games. Despite his goals, that may cost him his place. I think Grant starts and he's earned it. Let's hope he can maintain the level of play. Big question for me - does Platt come straight back in? I bet it's a close call for MP, who wishes he still had RodMac

Top post @menzinho These days I think a radical change of formation is a summer thing or an act of a struggling, desperate team. Our squad has been assembled and prepared for 3-4-2-1 this season. As you said it's served us well since 2021. The variations can come from 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2, the height of the wingbacks and many other subtle moves the coach can make. And there's the thing that always seems to happen on the rare occasions we've played with a back 4 or something different, the players look really unfamiliar with it and the impression given is that they think the formation is being evaluated and not them.

Stoke City 2-1 Coventry City Wrexham 2-0 Charlton Athletic Joker Doncaster Rovers 0-0 Barnsley Exeter City 1-0 Wigan Athletic Bristol Rovers 1-2 Gillingham Harrogate Town 0-2 Oldham Morecambe 2-1 Sutton Truro City 1-1 Altrincham

Sticking to the micro-level of the goals conceded last night...the balance of the criticism doesn't seem right. Sure, Roos punch wasn't the best but it was out of the penalty box, which gives the defence a chance. He could've done better with the high ball back in, but where did Ness drift out to? Platt would've been in the centre of the box contesting that. RodMac would've been there at least rather than the corner of the 6-yard box. But as our main CB, Ness can't take himself out of that position. Bedeau was grounded and Macari retreated to the goaline, leaving Hall as the nearest to their scorer. None of the backline cover themselves with glory here. Roos gets the biggest slice, but Ness isn't blameless. His position in our 3-4-2-1 means that he should never leave that central area.

Norburn not showing for the ball was raised in those first few games he played. There's less excuse this time - he's had bags of time to get fit. It just seems like a tendency. If players have spent a lot of their careers playing under different styles, they don't develop the instincts that players like Palmer has - now many years playing possession football at Notts.

Key points for this defeat seem to be... Matty Palmer rested Norburn handles in the area to concede penalty on 90+6mins So turns out that giving the FA Cup 95% respect is still disrespecting the competition. Just couldn't resist being cute for that 5%...and it costs us an infamous exit to a non-league team. Will they ever learn?

I stand corrected, Matty Palmer rested

@Fan of Big Tone Proof of a good holiday :)

First choice XI. You have to assume Palmer has some minor injury. No defensive/holding CM on the bench, with Hinchy out on loan. Not a bring problem, but says to me it's an injury rather than being rested.

Makes sense for them and Macca. Not for us IMO

He can't repeat what he did for us - we had a winning squad assembled and he had pre-season to install his system of play. No time for that arriving bottom of the league in November. He'll have to go about it differently It's an appointment that kind of suggests 'we're going down, but we want you to take us back up next year', but they're only 2 wins off safety with 32 matches to go. The club will want to stay up and the fans will be against him if they don't. I tend to agree with @Robbie

I think it's important, to be able to bag those statement wins. It's a fair measure of where you stand in the division's pecking order. Of course you can still get complacent teams that can slip up against the lower orders and miss out on promotion because of that. But regularly losing to your close rivals says a lot. I guess we'll know through the December fixtures. SM's team was awful in crunch matches and at clutch time. We can see that MP is instilling more steel, and insisting on gutsy performances rather than just tactical instructions - let's hope it's enough to give MK, Walsall, C'Field and the like a really hard time.

Nottingham to Newport 3hrs 9mins. Peterborough to Newport 3hrs 33mins.

Another easy one I think...although it was a poor game overall, Jatta's might be the best individual performance of the season so far. His general play and battling was really good. He was our best defender for all the set pieces we defended. And then he won the game with a couple of Jatta specials that not too many others could've scored.

December was always going to be a pig of a month... But with Cheltenham (a) Harrogate (h) and Colchester (h) coming next we could be going into that month in a really lofty position A bit like the PON prediction league, only 5 pts cover the top 13 places in L2 tonight

Goodness me, what a terrible game. As the home team, there's more onus on us to make things happen. We need more urgency and quality from the defenders. And better play from the No.10 positions - a missing section of the team today. Not so much Grant, but Hall has been a liability I'm sorry to say. You just can't get a start and be that bad. Hoping for more from him straight after the break or he's going to get Halled off ;)

Blackburn 0-1 Southampton Millwall 1-2 Leicester City Barnsley 1-1 Rotherham United Reading 2-0 Doncaster Rovers Barrow 1-2 Barnet Harrogate Town 2-0 Newport Joker FGR 1-2 Boreham Wood Hartlepool 2-0 Solihull

Unchanged! The continuity is good (although I think Bennetts can consider himself a little unlucky). It's important that Grant was given the shirt he earned on Tuesday. Pato continues to run the team fairly as opposed to all the gimmicky stuff last season. C'mon u Pieeeeeeeeees

Really looking forward to today. I wonder if the 1981 team veterans will speak to the team or at least inspire them a bit by their presence.

I think a combination of the a) the competition for starting shirts b) Pato setting the expectations is leading to very few non-performances The midfield duo is a large part of this. It's very nicely balanced and they make sure we're always in games. Matty and Robbo are even doing well with pass and move when they're tightly marked.

Sad. Yes, that club is too big to fail. But it seems like administration is an unavoidable and necessary stage in any survival. You'd think that the EFL would give them every chance to right the ship

Like many of us oldish ones, I suppose mine would have to concentrate on the team that finished mid-table in the top flight a couple of times (before the relegation season). Level matters. Ruben is my favourite player, but I cannot allow him in. But Kaspar I can, he was just a cut above Schmeichel Benjamin Richards Short O'Brien Draper Masson Harkouk Mair McCulloch Johnson

@Robbie good observations. Yeah, Pato's established a good level of performance in all departments and we were a very good match for them. The healthy level of competition is there for sure. It's great though that Pato's picks seem to tally with what you see with your own eyes on the pitch. We didn't always get that with Burchnall or Maynard Talking of competition for places, as we didn't win maybe one more change could be in the offing for Saturday. Bennetts has done well whenever he's come on and did well starting in the cup game. I love Tsaroulla but he was our worst player at Swindon. Perhaps Bennetts has earned a shot, and maybe Jodi can surprise Cambridge from the other side. I can see it being unchanged, but I'd get it if he gave Bennetts a run out.

That was a tight deadline! Never mind, my vote goes to Conor Grant anyway. I really hope he uses this to push on and hit a higher level with more consistency. The injury to Luker and Iorpenda falling off has opened up a spot for the taking, so it's down to Conor. At Swindon, it wasn't only his key goal and assist contributions, he maintained a positive involvement for the whole 90. Before, we've seen him fade away for long periods, but there was none of that on Tuesday. I'd say 2 players pushed him close - Jatta, also involved in both goals and solid throughout, including in his own box. And then Macari...the pick of the defenders for me, especially in the 2nd half. Both goals came from his side, but none his fault. Their equaliser was a fluke. They couldn't have played the ball down the line, if it wasn't for a poor ball hitting their player's back and ending up in the perfect place for them.