ARLukomski

This is a mad decision tbh. He's got them competing in the Championship and they were written off before the season began. The gap between League 1 and Championship is getting bigger and if you stay up in your first season, that's a good achievement, especially if you have (most likely) the smallest budget in the division. A great coach and someone who will no doubt be high on many clubs lists. Makes you wonder

The sausage-egg McMuffin I had at 7:30 yesterday morning

With all due respect, Salford were nothing special. They worked hard and pressed us, but they didn't play through us like a knife through butter. No team has this season and that's the thing. This league is very very average. This is the lowest standard I've known League 2 to be. I've still not seen a side that makes me go "Crikey they're really good, they'll certainly be up there." Stockport, Crawley and Mansfield were the best 3 teams I saw last season and no one has come close to it. As for injuries, it is an issue, but it is now at a point where it can't be used as the certified No.1 excuse. We had enough on the pitch to beat Newport, enough to get a point at Walsall (where defensive errors and a goal straight from a corner lead to their 3 goals). Nobody is tearing us apart. The reason why it's easier for teams is because we move the ball so slowly. As I said above, if you want to play this way, you have to do it with intent and a quick tempo, but we aren't doing that. I have stayed behind Maynard through his tenure and last season was a write off anyway. We can say we were 5th at the time, but as I said above, performances, results and the goals we were conceding, even before he came in, were not sustainable and we were in a false position. Our lack of defensive summer recruitment in 2023 and not reacting to injuries in the transfer window started the issues. This season we started well and I was pleased with how we were playing and whilst I pointed out the problems within games where we could improve, there were good aspects to our game as well. We weren't and still aren't a million miles away. We just needed to play at a quicker intensity for longer in games and be more ruthless. The issue is we haven't seen performances like Donny (1st half), Wimbledon (2nd half), Grimsby, Bromley, Harrogate, Accrington and Carlisle (1st half) enough. We are so slow in how we play and there is no pace in the team and nobody ball carrying. Another worry is that once a portion of the fanbase turns, it's hard to come back and a good amount of Notts fans made their minds up last season. We need to realise yesterday was totally unacceptable. He'll get the January window 100% but form needs to turn now rather than later. I want him to succeed so much, however he's got to perform a comeback no Notts gaffer (I can think of) needs to perform to unite us all and get us back into contention in a very poor league.

That was by far the worst performance this season and one of the worst performances I've seen and I've seen quite a few, so that takes some doing. This is not me exaggerating either. There was NOTHING, literally NOTHING to get excited about or good to take away from that game. Our body language was terrible, there was no effort, no care, no intent and I had no idea what sort of game plan we had to try and win the game. Too many players were bone idle. We created next to nothing and we misplaced so many passes, it's like they'd never met before. I said before the game that I'd like to see us play at a tempo quicker than coastal erosion, but it turns out coastal erosion is quicker as once again we resorted to possession for possessions sake with zero movement out wide or in front of the back three. It's all too robotic. You can play a possession based game and passing football, but it only works if you do it at the correct intensity and with movement and players carrying the ball forward, running at the opposition. Once again, there was no player willing to get the ball and run with it and take the game to the opposition. Another thing to add to the list of Notts nausea was every players inability to trap a bag of sand, as every first touch landed on the moon. This was not to do with the pitch as Salford players didn't have the same problem and it's basic stuff to be able to control the ball. We didn't have this trouble last season when we played on Bradford's sand castle city. The players and the coaching staff need to realise how disgraceful that was. It's not a performance or result that is good enough to represent Notts as a football club. I can take losing, but not when you put in zero effort and don't look bothered. The fans had a right to boo and voice their frustration at the end. I won't abuse players either and we shouldn't, I don't condone that, however we need to criticise in a way that makes them all realise that it was nowhere near good enough and not good enough to represent Notts County. I am pretty much Maynard out now to be honest. If he stays he stays, but if he goes I wouldn't be entirely bothered. He's a nice guy but the more I thought about it on the coach back to Notts, the more I thought we aren't moving forward and we're throwing away a season that is wide open in a very average league. Last season was already nose diving before he came in and our performances, results and goals that we were conceding weren't sustainable and was only going to end up with us dropping down the table. After 16 games, we had won 9, drew 3 and lost 4. Then we lost Palmer to a season ending injury and Williams' last 10 games after that were won 4, drew 0, lost 6. Do that for the remaining 20 games after and we end with W21, D3, L22, 66 points and still not in the play-offs. He had the summer and despite some decent recruitment, we didn't fill enough holes in the squad and the injuries have been a problem, but there has been enough on the pitch to get points. Despite beating Swindon, we were poor. We lost to Gills and Vale in big games (Gills were 2nd at the time). At Morecambe we were poor as well and despite a good first half against Carlisle and eventually winning the game, the mentality shown in that game showed our lack of ruthlessness and relentlessness to go for the kill, rather than being bailed out by Alex Bass on more than one occasion. Harrogate at home was a good performance but we should have pelted them. Barrow and Crewe were very lackluster and there was enough to take 4 points from Newport (W) and Walsall (D). I just don't think we are playing at a good enough intensity and we don't have a mentality good enough to fight for promotion, never mind win promotion. The reason why he won't go yet is because January is around the corner and we've most likely got our targets lined up and he's still got 2 years left on his deal and if we got rid, then we'd have to pay him, Matty and Craig.

Middlesbrough 2-0 Millwall Stoke City 1-1 Cardiff City Charlton Athletic 1-1 Mansfield Town Rotherham United 2-0 Northampton Town (Joker) AFC Wimbledon 2-2 Doncaster Rovers Grimsby Town 1-1 Crewe Alexandra Altrincham 1-2 Sutton United Southend United 2-1 Hartlepool United

I think he'll get another loan somewhere. He's got promise but needs another club to show it. It's utterly crazy what's gone wrong at Burton. Need to look into it. 20+ signings and 11 points

My top 5 targets in each position Striker 1 Johnny Kenny (Celtic) 2 Jack Stevens (Solihull) 3 Luca Thomas (Leeds) 4 Callum Stewart (Leamington) 5 Benji Magee (Larne) Left wing/left wing-back 1 Jacob Mendy (Wrexham) 2 Ben Jackson (Barrow) 3 Oliver Scarles (West Ham) 4 Brandon Kavanagh (St Pats) 5 Ben Doherty (Derry) Right wing/right wing-back 1 Shea Kearney (Cliftonville) 2 Stanley Mills (Everton) 3 Ronan Boyce (Derry) 4 Neil Farrugia (Shamrock) 5 Jack Holmes (Rotherham) CAM 1 Ben Krauhaus (Brentford) 2 JJ McKiernan (Lincoln) 3 Conan Noonan (Shamrock) 4 Chris Conn-Clarke (Peterborough) 5 Ellis Chapman (Sligo)

Luton Town 1-1 Swansea City Plymouth Argyle P-P Oxford United Blackpool 1-2 Rotherham United Cambridge United 0-1 Shrewsbury Town Crawley Town 2-1 Stevenage Gillingham 1-1 Salford City (Joker) Harrogate Town 0-1 AFC Wimbledon Newport County P-P Carlisle United

Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Mansfield Town Leyton Orient 0-1 Bristol Rovers Stevenage 1-0 Northampton Town Wrexham 2-1 Barnsley Bradford City 1-1 Barrow (Joker) Colchester United 2-1 Swindon Town Salford City 0-0 Harrogate Town Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Morecambe

@NottsTastic @JIMBO The toughest targets to get will depend on the fee needed to get certain players. I imagine after his stellar season in Ireland and St Pats' resurgence under Stephen Kenny, it'll take a decent fee to prize away Brandon Kavanagh. Harvey Vale has been Chelsea U21 captain and so I imagine that'll be difficult, especially as he had a good loan spell in League 1 last season. On the flip side, Ellis Taylor is possible because Harrogate could do with a bit of money and Taylor is good enough to step up to a top end League 2 side. Jack Holmes would most likely be available for loan, as will Dylan Duffy. Jacob Mendy and Anthony Forde haven't had the game time they would have probably wanted and I imagine they could be tempted away. I would like us to spend a bit of money in January and look at young talent available and not try and go down the player resurrection route. For every Jodi Jones, there's a Charlie Colkett.

First things first, yes the subs were poor. Maynard should have spaced the subs out and not subbed on 4 players at once and yes we needed to make the subs. If we made no subs today and lost on Tuesday because the players are knackered, Maynard gets stick. If we make subs now, lose the game (even though Posh were all over us) and then lose Tuesday, Maynard gets stick. He can't win in any situation. The truth is Posh were all over us and it was going to be inevitable, subs or not. I didn't expect us to control it against them but we were hanging on. Also, Bass' pass out to them for their third isn't about him following the tactics. It's just common sense. He had a good game but a complete brainfart at that moment. I do have issues with bits of Maynard's management. I don't think we build-up and play at a quick enough intensity enough (check my tweets from Newport and Alfreton). Some substitution decisions are questionable. Sometimes the inverted wing-backs don't work (Newport for example, but they did today because the first two goals came from our wing-backs crossing from their inverted sides). However, the calls for sacking him are stupidly annoying. I get people are annoyed. I'm frustrated (not overly because the goals were coming, subs or not) but he's got 2 and a half years left on his contract, a decimated squad (the 18 we had is nearly the strongest we can put out at the moment) and he'll be given January because our owners see the bigger picture.

I will look into the Scandinavian and Dutch market for more players @NottsCountyKev. Scandinavia is an area I've looked for strikers and found Taylor Silverholt (Helsingborg) and Sævar Atli Magnússon (Lyngby)

Kyle Dempsey is an interesting one and someone I can find fitting in at Notts. He's not been a regular starter this season. He could come in and play in the 10 or out wide, or a deeper midfield role. These were Dempsey's stats for Bolton in 2023/24 PLD 41 (24 starts) Assists 6 Accurate passes - 676 Chances created - 27 Passes into final third - 115 Accurate long balls - 26 Dispossessed - 13 Tackles won - 27 Recoveries - 101 Ground duels won - 67/142 (47.2%) Aerial duels won - 58/105 (55.2%) Reece Cole is a more natural centre mid and whilst he hasn't made many appearances and would be available, we are rather stocked in that position, especially with Edwards and Robbo to come back. Kyle Joseph would be a great signing, however he has started most games for Blackpool this season and is their top scorer.