YoopEyes

There is a glaring inconsistency - both between and during games. Whatever the philosophy and plans are, we struggle to put a coherent performance together. We seem incapable, yet, of producing successive positive displays. I cling to the hope that the extra steel & grit we are showing can be harnessed to more fluent and creative football. If enthusiasm and passion count then MP has tons of both - getting the players to respond accordingly appears to be a trickier, but critically important, factor.

Dennis injured & no Traore in the bench…………I suspected we might struggle without pace and a replacement striker amongst the subs.

Oh dear, bad start to 2nd half! This will be an even tougher 45 mins…….

“Nothing for the highlights programme….”, just about sums it up. Poor game it would seem.

Not the greatest start - so far…… Stallard not impressed.

Interesting - good selection from MP in my view, apart from leaving Traore out of the squad entirely after last week’s effort. That’s only a minor matter but leaves us short of a striker (and pace) should we lose a striker, particularly if early in the game and/or we need some extra mobility. I’m less concerned about Jones, genuinely don’t think we missed him last week. In fact we were more fluent and cohesive without him. COYP. Let’s have this one.

He’s earned that accolade. Highly impressive start to his Notts career - long may it continue.

Bizarre response. If that example is supposed to offset the other 160 years of our history - and that of the other 90+ Clubs - then I’m still not convinced!

Not surprised or concerned by his departure. Timing is good, we have an opportunity to either change strategy or simply change the personnel involved. Managers/coaches and players on the pitch are far more significant than this role. I have far more faith in Paterson than some arbitrary “recruitment” guru tbh. Football managed to cope admirably without these “made up” roles for long enough. The manager carries the can, he should call the shots.

I thought McDonald was solid, commanding display despite a couple of lapses. Iorpenda was busy and posed them problems for an hour, showed some neat skill. My vote went to Palmer for an energetic, determined and robust performance. Back to his neat & tidy best on the ball and far more likely to pass forwards under MP than either Williams or Maynard. Terrific performance.

Solid performance and hard fought win. We’d have drawn, or even lost that last season. Whilst never really igniting any spark, we plugged away and produced the sharpness we’d lacked to get the early 2nd half goal. Excellent individual displays from Palmer, McDonald & Iorpenda. Very robust and gritty contributions from Tsaroulla & Norburn in the 2nd half too. Grant & Robertson showed some quality when they cane on as well. Maybe not the most fluent performance but a well deserved and hard fought win & clean sheet. Good stuff from the team and the manager today.

Well, ahead of today’s game with Fleetwood - at least the pitch is fit! Hopefully, some of our returning players will soon get an opportunity to get in some game time. I go along with MP, having the likes of Ness & Robertson back plus Jatta returning from suspension is similar to acquiring “new” signings. COYP

Thought there may have been a few “outs” but wasn’t expecting anyone coming in tbh. Jatta staying put is a bonus, albeit temporary it would seem. The return of players like Robertson, Ness & Hinchy is also a plus for my money. We do seem light in respect of strikers and gk cover. Traore seems to be struggling to adapt to L2 & now it looks like Jarvis is injured. We’ll need to address that in Jan surely? The sooner Luker is back in the picture and Robbo & Ness are “up to speed”, the better. The numbers are there, it’s the overall fitness, quality and balance of the team that are under scrutiny at the moment.

He looked more than useful in the early stages last season. Energetic, combative and tidy on the ball - pity he got injured. Clearly, he was not in MP’s plans do good luck to him, think he is good enough for L2 level football tbh. He could well end up back in Scandinavia but wherever he ends up, someone will get a decent player in my view.

Even better - Gordon scores. Notts in front on 63 mins.

That’s a great start - Dennis levels the score early in 2nd half. Now, come on Notts, let’s have this.

Sounds absolutely dreadful tbh. Still not convinced by Jones in this “new” role. He seems to argue with officials, opponents etc & he’s far too easy to wind up. He got credit for 2 or 3 assists v the Shrews but, to be fair, one was a serious gk error and another a goalmouth scramble so I don’t believe he had as any really significant contribution, no more than anyone else could have made for certain. Stall has just mentioned, we are getting neither of a clean sheet or a 90 min performance! That’s a major part of our problems tbh.

Very sad news - gone too soon. He was a great character and his post match interviews were often very amusing. His wit and personality were highlighted every time he featured in the media. A loss to the NCFC fraternity but a greater one to his family and those who knew him. RIP Thommo.

Good finishes for all the goals - a couple instinctive, one bullet & one sublime touch. Hard earned and important victory. Onwards and upwards.

Tsaroulla was my MOTM - comfortable in possession, quick feet, deft touches, drives forward, lovely goal. I’m not Palmer’s greatest fan but I thought he was excellent tonight. Covered the ground well, got stuck in, rarely gave the ball away & kept things ticking over. Iorpenda was busy, showed some good touches but was, occasionally, clumsy and lost possession. Generally, a decent display from him tho’. The team looked balanced, had shape and played with conviction and determination. There were plenty of problems too but Shrewsbury were poor and offered little threat. Overall, promising display, we need to keep improving but there were some optimistic signs emerging - good stuff.

Glad to see Tsaroulla starting but surprised that Norburn, Palmer & Cotter all start too. Expect Jones to be in the “roving 10” role & Cotter & Nick T on the wings, we’ll see. Nothing but a win is good enough tonight, full stop. COYP - we need this one.

I wish I could share the confidence in Jarvis tbh. He just seems an enigma to me. The occasional mazy run, a random spectacular shot/goal and a turn of speed are the highlights. In between there has been a lot of ineffective “downtime” and a tendency to go missing in action. I don’t doubt his talent, just his ability to produce meaningful performances. A “cameo” from the bench is how I see him - unless he can harness consistency with his rare bouts of genius.

Welcome back Nick. Tsaroulla is a more than decent player at this level. He was messed around by Maynard, popping up at left back, right wing back and some sort of hybrid midfield role. Never settled in any position. He has good feet, neat skills, plenty of strength and he can actually cross a ball to a player in the same colours shirt! Plus, he does shoot - with power and accuracy. When fit, he should be a first choice starter, preferably as left wing back - where he first appeared as a sub for the amazingly over rated “pass it backwards” Chicksen. (Who had pace but rarely seemed to use it, always negated it anyway by passing backwards and couldn’t cross a ball to a Notts player to save his life - yet some folks said he put “good crosses in”. When was that I never saw one, well, maybe 1 only). Tsaroulla is likely to be far more use than the ephemeral & incredibly inconsistent Jarvis in my opinion, not only in respect of ball retention but also defending when we lose possession. Jarvis, as a pure left sided striker, is an option - as long as he doesn’t have to defend in our half or tackle anybody because he can’t do either.

Whilst I agree with FofBT - it is early season, things can take time with new personnel & management etc - there was very little on the pitch to be optimistic about yesterday tbh. The lack of shape, structure and the fact that we ended up, effectively, with 7 midfield players and no strikers was a major concern for me. Luker showed a bit of spark and scored the goal, that was a significant improvement on anything the starting XI produced! In a sea of mediocrity and dross, that was the only highlight apart from the more robust approach when we were out of possession, which was far too prevalent for my liking. We need to far better than that, massively so, if we are going to restore faith, optimism and provide something to feel positive about.

Not many impressed - but Cotter put some good tackles in, worked hard and actually beat a man a couple of times. After Dennis went off we had 7 midfielders, 6 of which play almost identically. Could see the value ofhaving Grant, Iorpenda, Luker, Hall & Cotter on at the same time tbh. Iorpenda got sponsor’s MOTM, which was probably a good shout - not much competition other than Cotter and Platt. Thought Jones was a waste of a shirt and Norburn adds a “bit of ballast” but the game by-passed him for the most part. Bennetts got involved after half time but drifted away again then we were swamped with to many similar style players and only Luker with a bit of invention.