liampie

not long to go, i feel more nervous and the vibe i am getting i think its going to be one of those games we will just want to forgot. i hope i am wrong. it would have been nice to see some stability with the defence, i cant help but agree that changing every game is making it harder. we will see how this works out but i dont have a lot of high hopes in playing only one recognised centre back, with connell rawlinson being the only other on the bench.

still plenty of time to grow but i love the desire of notts to go out and strike a deal with stoke. it says a lot about the club and i think within time lewis macari could become one of our most important defenders. i am pleased he sees notts as somewhere he can grow and i hope he does well.

i like that luke williams is always thinking about improvements, i know this will take time and i understand that currently we have something that with effort we can overcome but again its about time and having a bit of luck maybe.

its good to know that the clubs training hard, i dont doubt that and it will take time to sort out our defensive issues. it might not even be resolved if we sign a defender in january, but working towards getting better results is a must. we are in a good position and our earlier good work should not be undone with a dry patch. lets just try to navigate december the best that we can and rekindle that buzz in the new year.

i do think we need to be mindful about the squad we start with and the options that will leave us on the bench, an unpopular suggestion would be to leave jodi jones on the bench and allow adam chicksen to start. i think jodi can be a massive influence but his spark is usually bigger when he comes on. i dont think he deserves being benched, i just think we would get more from him if we did. he plays like he wants to prove a point, like hes sending a message for being dropped. we dont have many players like this and it makes it such a useful tactic. hopefully we do go back to giving steadier performances but harrogate being a team that can play in ways we struggle, it will make it interesting.

first half i thought we did well. a little too much focus on passing backwards instead of going forward or taking their marker on, but we defended very routinely. walsall was not a great squad by any means, they just worked together and fought hard for their goals. if notts had got their act together sooner, i think we could have turned it around. defensively, walsall looked clueless but we never really tested that in the second half. jodi jones tried but it was all from crosses. we needed to attack around the box a bit more imo. i thought the changes made by luke williams made us very defensive. jim o brien and richard brindley are not two players i would introduce to a game where you want to fight back. jr morias coming on gave us some pace but we failed to get him involved. Very few balls was played to his feet which meant he had to work for it. our midfield was terrible, they couldn't press, win back the ball or make a simple pass. walsall did not apply any pressure for this to happen, to me it was all a lack of application, confidence and a weak mindset. luke williams should have kept dan crowley on for longer, i dont think he was injured and taking one of the players who can put someone through with a clever pass going off made no sense to me at all.

good player for us, he was one of them we really did not appreciate properly until he had left. it amazed me how fans wanted him back after some of them would call him. he did very well with luton. good luck to him in his coaching.

its going to be interesting to see how walsall approach the game, i think they have struggled to score which could be a jinx for us. i just hope that we defend bravely, a clean sheet would be also night but not expected. provided we only concede good goals, thats all that matters and of course us out scoring them.

i believe that the players give their all even when mistakes are made, but knowing that they are working hard to cut it out will help us in the long run. i felt annoyed watching the shrewsbury goals live but i am back to wanting to see notts succeed. nobody makes mistakes on purpose, i know this. kyle cameron gives an honest take on it and i appreciate that.

seeing how kyle cameron has spoken and further words from luke williams, my frustration has passed and i just want to support the players in their transition to improve defensively. its not going to be instant, but at the same time does not mean our defence is not good enough, for heaven sake we are not in the bottom 3. we are much higher up, we need to be patient and be supportive.

how do you play it?

i felt frustrated by the goals we concede but i believe there are ways we can improve, i also like how luke williams has backed his players. should we as fans be a little more supportive once we calm down? we have players who are good enough, but as most of us agree on a solid centre back would strengthen things up come january. we just need to cut out the mistakes as much as possible and back the lads.

i am less worried about our defending because we are capable of controlling games and with our attacking options we should have enough about us to lead the game. i dont think we have any issues of scoring at home, so hopefully we can be 2-0 up by half time. this said i am sure walsall will test us, but i feel confident that we will be in control by half time. its the second half where i think they will make changes that prove to be the challenge. so hopefully, whatever happens we are able to put on a strong performance and ease the tension of fans with regards to the defending.

it seems every season we are coming closer and closer to having an academy player as part of our full time squad, but for some reason we always tend to push them back and never fully give them the chance to develop within our first team. there is only so much i believe you can learn from going on loan, hopefully james sanderson and some the new youth are going to be an exception to this and make their way into the team eventually.

you can see that luke williams was hurt in the interview, he took his time to answer and started with shorter responses. i dont think hes disappointed as much as we are in the players, i certainly can get over it because i know the next game will be different and they need our support. i just hope we put some time into defensive situations to cut out when we become flustered at the back.

all three goals we painfully caused ourselves, it was very poor defending. we did look okay going forward and had some good efforts which might have made a difference if they had gone in. shrewsbury town deserve the win, we cant expect to win when we cant control our own errors.

in luke williams we trust! that said, i do hope to see more of jr morias as he seems a very useful asset and just needs game time.

i do feel excited about the cup, i think we do have a good chance of making the next round. if we play to how we can, i think we should be able to use meadow lane to our own advantage we just need to start brighter and stay alert. coyp!

jr morias looked very eager to do well, i think hes proving that there is room for him. his finish was that of pure instinct. i thought dan crowley was going to try to slip macaulay langstaff through but once he played it to morias it seemed destined for the back of the net. i am so happy for him.

what a guy, its hard not to love or appreciate jim. his celebration really got the kop going. when players make an effort to interact with the crowd, it does encourage the support and we saw this against crawley town. he had that chance a short time earlier where he seemed frustrated not to have gotten onto the ball. he did not need an invitation for his second chance. great goal!

we need to compose ourselves a little better to begin with, crawley chased everything and made it hard but a good team might have scored a second before we had even equalised. i am very happy with the overall performance, the second half we were superb and i always felt confident knowing we would be attacking the kop. i think every player who covered did a very reliable role and helped not to miss anyone majorly but we can see the difference the likes of matt palmer makes. yet sam austin coming in and doing what he can certainly helped.

crawley had it all to play for when they started so brightly and having scored, i am thankful that david mcgoldrick found the net as i feel his efforts really helped to change the outcome of the game. i felt confident that notts would be attacking the kop in the second half, but still that goal for me was the turning point. our players did very well.

i hope we can make the home advantage work to our favour, it must be exciting to hear the full support from fans in the kop as the players take to the field. we just need to be alert and determined to get the points we need.

i have a mixture of nerves and excitement, my boss has asked if i can stay half an hour behind which i have agreed but i will be in a rush to get to meadow lane. despite my disappointment about seeing the incidents in the last game, i still want to show my support because i do believe we have the role to play in supporting them. that is why i reserve my criticism here but i do try to be positive minded. i really hope we can show the best qualities we have as a team because we can do well, no doubt about it. maybe we need to start getting a bit of luck? we seem to have a tough break with injuries and decisions.