Fair enough @Robbie. Preston and Burnley could blow us out of the water financially and pay any compensation we demand, but I can't really see Burnley wanting him at this stage. It's probably more about securing his services for the time being and putting us in a better position to benefit financially if and when he does leave (hopefully not soon).

1 hour ago, Robbie said:

Stuart has joined a list of Notts County Managers that have done wonders for this club over the years. I think that the vast number of Notts supporters will be very pleased that he has put pen to paper.

Stuart’s coming back? 🤣 Sorry @Robbie couldn't resist.

Seriously I’m pleased Martin has signed a new contract but as we all know they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. At least as you say we f he is tempted away we’ll get a good payout.

Excellent news. We know he's good but he might be double-promotion good.

20 hours ago, Chris said:

eSports, but it's more like event management and streaming. Some of his friends were involved in the World Cup in America, doing overlays for the live games, and some have been doing snooker events.

That sounds like a profession I could of enjoyed, good luck to him, then world is his oyster once graduated 🎓 👍

Apple crumble and custard is a must, it's sacrilege to have it without, my Mother would turn in her grave if she knew i was having it without. 😵‍💫

Care is a commodity that's well founded and something to cherish.

Happy Birthday @ARLukomski have a great time in London. 4 day working week is the future, I did it for nearly 30 years and enjoyed every minute.

@Piethagoram good business done there, enjoy the trip. We love Eurostar and have been to Paris on it, had a great time. Managed to upgrade on the outward journey, living like Lord and Lady Pie. 🤴👸

Nice one @Fan of Big Tone you and Mrs T look well settled, Carry on and you will need a crane to get the pair of you out when the bubbly hits the right spot. Enjoy the rest of your break. 🥳🍾🥂

@Fan of Big Tone Cruise along with Tone is now Spa along with Tone. In realityI only get to the Spar supermarket🤣

When you visit the seaside you have to have fish and chips it’s the law!

Middlesbrough 2-1 Norwich City

Preston North End 0-1 Lincoln City

Cambridge United 1-1 Reading

Plymouth Argyle 3-1 Barnsley

Colchester United 2-0 Crewe Alexandra

York City 1-1 Swindon Town (joker)

Halifax Town 1-2 Hornchurch

Yeovil Town 2-1 Fylde

Middlesbrough 2-1 Norwich City

Preston North End 0-1 Lincoln City

Cambridge United 1-1 Reading 🃏

Plymouth Argyle 2-0 Barnsley

Colchester United 0-1 Crewe Alexandra

York City 1-3 Swindon Town

Halifax Town 1-2 Hornchurch

Yeovil Town 1-1 Fylde

The results:

@ARLukomski and @theAnticlough take the glory this round! Honourable mentions too to @cheeky~k8 and @Paris Sandwich Man.

There's change at the top! @Paris Sandwich Man overtakes @4everapie to claim top spot, while @ARLukomski goes third and I surge into a glorious seventh place, which is much cooler anyway.

I'll post Saturday's fixtures on Wednesday (tomorrow at the time of writing). Thanks for playing!

PONdle #14 — 4/6 — 7 letters
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Play PONdle

PONdle #14 — 2/6 — 7 letters
🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
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Play PONdle

PONdle #14 — 2/6 — 7 letters
🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
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Play PONdle

I guessed all the words (25 out of 25) in today's Combinations puzzle.
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Can you guess this puzzle?
https://combinations.org/

Scoredle 4/6*

14,855
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I guessed all the words (25 out of 25) in today's Combinations puzzle.
✅✅✅
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Can you guess this puzzle?
https://combinations.org/

Wordle 1,913 3/6

⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
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Wordle 1,914 5/6

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Wordle 1,914 4/6

🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
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#waffle1698 3/5

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🔥 streak: 62
🥇 #wafflegoldteam
wafflegame.net

#waffle1698 3/5

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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🔥 streak: 140
🌟 #wafflecenturion
wafflegame.net

#waffle1698 3/5

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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🔥 streak: 28
🥈 #wafflesilverteam
wafflegame.net

Connections
Puzzle #1191
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🟦🟪🟪🟦 Nope, too hard for me.

Connections
Puzzle #1192
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Connections
Puzzle #1192
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Strands #925
“OH MY GOSH!!”
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Strands #926
“If you build it”
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Strands #926
“If you build it”
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It could give us time to get some injured players back

On 09/09/2026 at 20:20, StarkMallard said:

I suppose this happens when you hit the big time, but three weeks without a proper game is way too long. Surely we're risking a fixture pile-up?

I thought this too, especially as they’ll be more international breaks over the season. I really don’t think turning 2 Saturday matches into mid-week fixtures is beneficial, we’ll go from getting a week to prepare to just a few day and players are potentially less fresh for them too.

Be interesting to see who has been called up, depending on who it is, I wonder if we could've still played the matches?

I don't think it's such a bad thing, but those who encounter issues with the postponements, such as not being able to make the rearrangements or having subscribed to the Pies Player, are a bit of a blow, and I feel for them. It doesn't bother or affect me. We'll have to make the most of the Reading game, which, for me, will be another tough fixture.

By the time we are back in action, ideally some of the injured players will be back and our strength will have increased. I do think we need to rotate players a little, just so that we can keep players sharp.

Hopefully the gap will give some a chance to work on their fitness, and others a much-needed rest.

Not really worried either way as not sure they are going to say what we all saw on Saturday, that is, that Bradford we're the better team.

Not that much better but second half their L1 experience and knowhow told. We got a bit out muscled in the middle of the park. Be good to get Robertson back as an option.

Bit disappointed in Mustapha and Roberts but thought Smyth has improved a lot since the Leicester game. Quite liked Kanu too.

It's going to be a tough October and a tough season but I feel well have enough to survive.

The 2 week break may be just what we need to reset.

8 minutes ago, Mapperley Pie said:

Not really worried either way as not sure they are going to say what we all saw on Saturday, that is, that Bradford we're the better team.

I am not sure Bradford are the better team; they just had a good strike on goal. They barely troubled us with efforts, and James Belshaw could have sat in a deck chair for most of the first half.

As I left, I felt that neither team deserved anything from the game.

Had Notts attacked the game better, who knows? It was an underwhelming performance, but Bradford were just as poor themselves. Several previous teams would have put the game to rest well before them if we had played the exact same way. Midfield never got going; Luka Smyth still doesn't look match-fit.

I’m pretty sure it’s Radio Nottingham who do the interviews, surely they could request to talk to one of the players? I’d be interested to hear the players thoughts, a bit like Martin Partinson’s post match, they’d never give everything away but you get a different perspective because the players are the one’s playing. We, like Martin Paterson, are only watching.

And if it just went out live on the radio, no Notts social media involvement, you’d avoid the social media negativity.

I didn't understand why some of our fans were giving him stick, but as the game went on, I thought he looked like a different player. Not sure why he tried to wrestle James Belshaw in the second half, acting as if nothing had happened, but I think he looked decent when he wasn't being dirty. I can't remember him playing like this with us, but he was all over some of our lot and I thought he was disappointing to see.

Good players don't need to act like this, and seeing how he got away with so much became quite frustrating. He will always be thanked for what he did for us, but he isn’t that player anymore.

@Chris or anyone else. I can't get to many games because of my job/location...

So was there any reception for AB at all? Any interaction between him and the fans/anyone before or after the match? The negative stuff you mention only?

It's a strange and interesting case

7 minutes ago, theAnticlough said:

So was there any reception for AB at all? Any interaction between him and the fans/anyone before or after the match? The negative stuff you mention only?

There were some boos and chants of 'County Reject' in the early minutes.

I don't think there was much of a reception, but it did turn more towards booing once Aden Baldwin started using more of the dark arts. It wasn't the worst, but it started before he really did anything.

I thought Jacob Bedeau was one of our steadier performers defensively and looked composed despite Bradford putting us under pressure. Bedeau had a really solid game — strong defensively and one of the few County players who looked consistently composed. I must admit Finneran came a close second, making himself available, with the skill set of a seasoned pro and the nous to put things into practice, great game and a positive future.

Finneran had a very good first half but Bradford pushed up more in the 2nd half & I thought Finneran wasn't so effective. Lipsiuc & Mustapha did well in the 1st half.

I thought the whole team competed well in the first half, but it was missing after the interval.

I think a fit Matt Palmer could have made a difference in that 2nd half. I thought Cooper maintained his form in both halves, that is why I'm choosing him for my Notts MotM.

Lucas Ness, though once they scored, did become more nervous, I felt. Without Ness, we would have conceded in the first half, even though I think Bradford looked lacklustre in front of goal. The way Ness dealt with marking two defenders, clearing, and choosing when to be a ball-playing defender was quite something.

In the second half we never really clicked for some reason, our short passing was poor and the direct passing even worse. We kind of got dragged into a slogging battle with Bradford as the match went on, with the last 20 being the worst of it. Bradford were just happy to whack it long and we just kept giving it back to them. The Powell v Ness battle, where they were both as bad as each other to be fair, was erm, something.

I thought we really struggled out wide and agree with @theAnticlough about the right-hand side being worse off. I can’t put my finger on it but my guess is that Bradford prepared for the inverted wingbacks better than the other opposition so far, because they really stifled us here. I wanted Tsaroulla to go at Touray more especially after he got booked early on, but we proceeded to put very little pressure on him for the rest of the match.

As for the last 30 minutes or so, I actually thought we looked worse with two upfront, because it made us play more direct and we didn’t do it effectively, instead of playing balls in behind/into the channels we just kept forcing Kanu and Smyth into duels.

We were also limited in the middle of the pitch and that is just through injuries. I get why Cooper was dropped deeper but I think he’s much better higher up the pitch. I think with either Robbo or Palmer alongside Finneran we’d have been able to get a bit more control and we’d have been more dangerous with Cooper higher.

There still wasn’t much between the sides, it wasn’t a great match, I think if that gets played another 9/10 times in that way it finishes 0-0.

Yeah, Tsaroulla probably spent the weekend asking himself, what the hell just happened there.

He didn't have his best game by any stretch of the imagination, but the number of times he was isolated and left with two markers isn't the way we play. In our 3-4-2-1, the wide defenders have to join in and get forward to create the overload - there are 2 holding mids and the defence can slide over to cover. Hopefully this is a wake-up call for Pato and Gibbons for home games. If Gibbons can't get close to support our RWB, and sometimes make runs ahead of him, we should pick someone who can. We'll need a points haul from home games that's going to take more positivity and risk-taking than that.

I noticed that Bradford are quite the tall team, some of their players made it very difficult for both good and bad reasons. Notts just weren't at their best, and I think the starting line-up should have had a little more thought. I realise it's usually good to avoid changes, but I think one or two would have made the difference we needed.

Bradford City are a good team, but nothing special. It took some real quality, and a chance to strike from a defensively Notts must start doing better to close down.

The criticism of James Belshaw I heard and have seen after the game is incredibly harsh; why was Nick Tsaroulla the only player close to challenging? Why didn't we defend as a tighter unit, and once they scored I think we became quite the risk at the back. A more efficient team at goal could have made it a real nightmare for us.

If our midfield had its act together, we'd have done better and quite possibly turned it around.

Switching to two strikers helped, but we need to stop trying to walk the ball into the net and try to open up play from striking distance as Bradford did. Sometimes those types of goals are the only difference, but despite how we played I don't think we deserved to lose.

I think Patto is trying to combine aggression with a good footballing style. We can see he wants the team to to press high and win the ball in the opponents half of the pitch, but its not all about physicality. He often comments on the need to pass forward through the lines and not side to side. This is not hopeful long balls but passes through the centre of the pitch to feet. This is clearly a work in progress and I believe we have the squad capable of pulling if off.

Considering some of the teams last season I still thought we were one of the better footballing sides, but the difference was we were more flexible. Take the play-offs, we were kind of happy to let Chesterfield have the ball because we’d worked on the out of possession shape and we knew we could create chances from pressing. Then in the final, given it was 30°+ it’s virtually impossible to play an effective press so we switched back to a more possession-based style. Salford were very much an up and at you team under Robinson and they didn’t adapt.

Now we aren’t side the is 100% committed to trying to always have possession of the ball, we can be just as effective without it. It’s a double edge sword, but in a good way for us! Against Huddersfield we were more focused in our out of possession play and we came away with a point. Against Burton home (second half) we showed we are still capable of dominating the ball and creating chances through good passing play. It’s the best of both worlds right now and I think it’s going to serve us well this season.

League One is very competitive; the gulf between a good League Two side and a team that must avoid relegation from League One isn't all that different. A team can have quality and depth, but it takes consistency at a much higher level to stay as an established team at this level.

The talk I heard prior to Bradford about us being "Championship" ready is, at the kindest possible reading, optimistic thinking.

Huddersfield showed what quality there is in the lower half of the Championship; Leicester, despite being very poor, showed they had Championship quality within them. I am not downplaying our squad, there's much more needed from them and it's still early days. The signs are positive, as we look capable of playing well in two halves.

Teams all have off days; this Saturday perhaps comes down to us not choosing the right starting lineup.

Defensively, I think we have made a lot of improvements, but more is naturally to come. The lapse in awareness and judgment is what is still costing us points.

We can attack very nicely with pure passing football, and I have noticed we look a lot more dangerous on the break.

Counter-attacking football is massive at this level and higher. Bradford turned it on quite nicely, though they failed to make their finishing count, I feel. So, I think comparisons are only half of the picture and that we have made progress. Yet, I wouldn't gloss over what further we need to do in order to be at our best. I think, with time and the new signings settling in more, we'll start to show a lot more of the quality we have seen in the earlier games so far, but on a more consistent basis.

It took a bit of time last season for the quality to improve; this season it might be a little harder due to the talented teams we face, but I am confident that we can establish ourselves. I would like Notts to walk before running, as we need to be fully ready to push for promotion.

I would hate to see all our good work undone by failing to get the basics needed to improve at this level right first.

What a story, it's something I have never heard about. True underdog story, though with a sad ending.

It’s a story I’ve not heard either, interesting stuff thanks for posting @Piethagoram

@Fan of Big Tone it’s amazing how stories like this stay hidden until somewhere highlights it, hopefully it will continue to be picked up and do the loops as stories like this do deserve to be told. Triumph over all, it's something quite remarkable.

The football equivalent of a person having two compound names.

I wished Blair would slow down; Super and Jake say I speak fast, but he's spitting words out in a very thick Scottish accent, which I honestly find hard to understand. That complaint had it is a good video and I do love the insights in this. Those steps early in the video remind me of Meadow Lane and other clubs with traditional stadiums.

I also think it's a myth that you have to spend money to save a club, and the issue I find with constant takeovers is that they're not addressing the actual problem. I think Albion Rovers would benefit from supporter ownership and a better understanding of what makes clubs successful without throwing money.

There's a lot of uncaptured football talent in Scotland, and I think a club like them would benefit from finding talent that hasn't found a club to get the best out of them at academy level. They could get the foundations right there and replicate what has made other higher-up teams successful in producing talent that has a resale value. I am not suggesting it's this easy, but the club does seem lost and stuck in their ways; it's clearly not working, and they appear to have a loyal community supporting them.

I haven't watched it in years; does anyone still persist with it? I don't even watch the Football League highlights anymore, but I am interested in what people think of the absence of Gary Lineker.

Yes I watch Match of the Day and Football League highlights Saturday night wouldn’t be the same if not, MOTD is usually watched in bed and sometimes I nod off but watch the recording next day.

I thought I’d miss Gary Lineker and was sad to see him go but I haven’t really missed him to be honest the other presenters Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman do a good enough job. I wish there was less chat with the pundits and more football though. Mark Chapman in particular seems to go on and on with the analysis.

I will give the next airing a watch and share my thoughts. Personally, I would rather ex-players who are good at hosting shows were given a chance. Mind, those who wanted Alan Shearer to take over must have wanted to go to sleep early. He's an alright pundit, but he tends to be quite negative; he was during this past World Cup.

i hope we can see that some times slow seasons build and the win at wembley has been one of the proudest moments as a notts fan. to hear some talk notts were going to get relegated and i think martin paterson won people over through hard work. there are some who dont seem to like when notts are doing well, i find it hard to believe they are notts fans. the battle was really against us at times with form and injuries, but we crossed the line.

i would rather notts builds for life as an established leag

Having drawn 4 of our first 5 games in league 1, have we learned the lesson from last year? Respect the point! It seems we have a team that knows if we can't win the game, make sure we don't lose it. That has to be basis for a successful season.

The footballing standards this season are way above EFL2. The whole season is whether we can win matches with so many teams evenly matched

When I was a boy we lived in a two up-two down terraced house within about half a mile from the ground.

Dad was a postman and worked an afternoon shift, mam was a home help and would visit old people’s homes. I had two brother both older than me I was the baby the nearest in age to me was my brother David, he was five years older and had to take me everywhere with him mam used to say “look after your little brother David”. I’m sure I was a burden and I know I used to torment him and be a pest but he always did take care of me.

Saturdays mam would go to Victoria market shopping and told us if we were good she bring us an orange, apple and banana each as a treat and it was in those days. She also bring some meat for Sunday dinner, beef or lamb normally which she’d cook on Sundays with roast potatoes, greens and Yorkshire puddings, Dad always got up first on Sunday to put a rice pudding in the oven to slow cook, I used to love the burnt skin on top. For tea we would have tinned fruit and evaporated milk.

One Saturday my brothers friend came and said he was going to watch Notts and asked if I wanted to go, my brother didn’t go he was a Forest supporter. I went with his friend and that was the start of my long allegiance to the magpies, I was around 8 or 9 maybe so it would be around the early 60s I can’t remember who we played but I think we were in the fourth division, players I remember like George Smith in goal, Ivan Hampton one of the full backs, Centre half Alex Gibson etc.

It maybe a surprise to many, but I had a geographically split childhood. Most of my childhood like schooling was in SW London / Surrey borders. From about the age of 9, every half term, I would be put on the train at St Pancras and travel on my own to Nottingham to be met by my grand parents and then take the bus to the first stop on Farnborough Road Clifton.

Neither my parents nor grand parents had a car so everywhere was by train or bus.

My grandfather took me to #Notts games. Clifton memories was loving Midland Counties ice creams, fish and chips, sitting on the wall at the Fairham pub in the beer garden, my grand mother cooking chicken thighs on the stove. Sundays, off to the catholic church be it in Clifton or in town , St Patricks, London Road ( sadly demolished) or to the cathedral. Although Latin mass at St Patricks went over my head, as I was never taught latin at school.

Burnley 2-2 Bristol City

Millwall 1-1 Bolton Wanderers

Barnsley 1-1 Stevenage (Joker)

Burton Albion 1-2 Cambridge United

Accrington Stanley 1-2 Crawley Town

Bristol Rovers 2-1 Rotherham United

Fylde 2-2 Worthing

Wealdstone 2-1 Kidderminster Harriers

Burnley 2-1 Bristol City

Millwall 2-0 Bolton Wanderers

Barnsley 1-1 Stevenage 🃏

Burton Albion 1-1 Cambridge United

Accrington Stanley 0-2 Crawley Town

Bristol Rovers 3-1 Rotherham United

Fylde 1-2 Worthing

Wealdstone 1-0 Kidderminster Harriers

The results:

Congratulations to @Fan of Big Tone and @nottsnutter who share the honours this round!

Thus, @4everapie leads the way for another round ahead of @Paris Sandwich Man and @Megan_Elizax. But it's only round 5 - it's a marathon, not a sprint...

That gets us up to date again in terms of scores. The next round will be on Saturday, with the fixtures posted here tomorror evening. Thanks for playing everyone, but please let me win next time!

Yes, I was there. Fantastic atmosphere

Quite a season looking back. Losing to Forest on penalties, the Juventus game, a bit of an FA Cup run, Martin Allen sacked after a terrible December and January, then a great run and missing out on the play-offs on goal difference. Average attendance about 6,800.

I have heard Lee Dixon in interviews/podcasts claim that it wasn't his fault. He bloody lobbed David Seaman; what was he supposed to do? Quite a funny own goal.

He scored some belters at the other end mind.

This round is Tuesday's, so it's over now - I'll post the results once I've got my PC and my magic spreadsheet back on Monday. @Megan_Elizax, go to the thread for round 5 for Saturday's round (if you haven't already (edit - apologies, for some reason I thought you'd submitted your predictions a day late, but you were actually just in time)).

I've relocated my laptop, my abacus and my magic spreadsheet, and here are Tuesday's results! A lot of teams "respected the point" on Tuesday night...

@Paris Sandwich Man will be dancing around the Eiffel Tower as he has absolutely nailed this round with 17 points! Well done also to @Chris, @ARLukomski and @menzinho - it's pretty rare that four of you score in the teens.

@4everapie stays top of the table, with @Paris Sandwich Man and @ARLukomski making big jumps to join the top three.

The bad news is that this is already out of date! I'll add up for scores for last Saturday's round tomorrow or on Wednesday to bring us back up to date. Meanwhile, the next round of fixtures will be posted on Wednesday night. Thanks for playing!

Two-point deduction for @Paris Sandwich Man, re count, re count. 😂 Well done👏🏻👏🏻