On 29/10/2023 at 10:29, DangerousSausage said:

Fine lines. The visitors really couldn't have complained if we'd gone in ahead at half time - if Langstaff or Jones had scored, we'd have won and everyone would've been singing their praises. Uncharacteristically for us, we didn't take our chances. Wrexham are always good for a goal or two, and so we got punished.

A few things did annoy me. In the second half we took a succession of short corners that we ended up passing back to our keeper. And, like against Mansfield, the concession of one (unlucky) goal was quickly followed by another and we suddenly had a mountain to climb. The collapses are becoming a bit of a habit and are causing us to lose games we could have drawn. The lack of cover is also a concern.

All the same, the performance wasn't bad and the team don't deserve some of the criticism they're getting. We've come through a difficult month with ten points from six games. If we're serious about maintaining a promotion challenge, we shouldn't be making a habit of getting beaten at home by our rivals. All the same, we don't need to turn into a long ball team, we shouldn't sack our recruitment team and we didn't have a disastrous transfer window. Honestly, the way some of our fans react to a minor setback, it makes me wonder how they manage to navigate through life.

To sum up, we just have to dust ourselves down and go again. 

A very balanced and sensible criticism @DangerousSausage.From what I saw in the highlights ,a case of 'on another day'

I think we need to mix things up a bit.  I don't have a problem with the short corners, but not all the time.  We don't have the height to launch it into the centre, but there are other options other than the short pass.  At the end they stuck 3 / 4 men about 7 yards from the corner and immediately pressured the receiver, and the next man forcing us back to Slocombe. Occasionally putting one long or to the edge of the box would give them something else to think about and mean they couldn't commit so many men to the short corner.  Mind you, their corners were just as successful as ours resulting in 0 goals, but we often came away with the ball, so at least we retained possession, but ....

When we attacked we did so exclusively down the wings. Wrexham doubled up on Nemane and sometimes had 3 on Jones, which restricted their effectiveness.  I think it was a reflection of how good Jones is that he still caused so many issues.   The trouble was that when things came to a halt on one wing the ball was recycled back through the midfield, defence and on to the other wing.  Wrexham simply drifted their defence from one wing to the other.  There was soooo much space in the centre but we never exploited it, we simply continued our pattern of switching wing to wing.  This meant Wrexham moved their central defence out to support the full backs and double up on our wingers without fear of being exposed in the centre.  Sometimes they were moving in anticipation of the move stalling on one wing, and leaving huge gaps.  They sort of formed a dome around their penalty box and allowed us to pass around the top of it, knowing we were never going to make a move through the centre.  I think we missed Ruben for once, who would see the gap and have the confidence to exploit it. Crowley and McGoldrick didn't do that as they were tracking over to help the wingers... because they were under pressure and needed 'an out' because Wrexham didn't need to commit to the centre.  Against Gillingham, Macari exploited the gap when it appeared, but nobody seemed to want to take the risk this time.

My last point was that Wrexham were more prepared to take a shot and take a chance that something would come of it.  We seemed to want to score the perfect goal,  Their approach led to the deflection and indirectly the second goal (I maintain if thy hadn't scored the first they wouldn't have got the second). Sometimes, it's worth losing possession to give the opposition something else to think about, or roll the dice to see if something different happens.  

All that said, it was a good game between 2 closely matched teams.  we will both be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. I thought our defence was largely sound and Solcombe was excellent. We were let down by those up front, but nothing to get despondent about.  We are still learning and we will improve.  If we can learn the lesson and be a little less predictable as a result of this experience then I can see us being right up there.

I read all the comments here whilst I was away and, I looked at the score updates - feeling like 0-0 could actually be a Sometimes, what appears to be a negative situation can actually turn out to be a Sometimes, what seems like a misfortune can actually be a stroke of luck. Then we were 1-0, quickly 2-0 and I thought it was obvious when we get pushed, we lack a defender who is of the mould of Mike Edwards.

I've felt this a few times, but none of our defenders offer the level of awareness, communication, organisation that he offered.

In January, I would hope that Notts can find a defender who offers everything outlined but as for the result. We'll go again; this season is going to see us have results like this, and we need to avoid knee-jerk reactions that linger on.

As for the video, so much waffle that makes it incredibly boring to listen too. It's a shame because there's some valid and interesting comments, but it's got that irritant which comes from people who are trying to force humour and failing miserably. Also, I think the overall performance and teams were better in the National League. Poor teams stand out by miles in this league, but it is a valid point that most do look like they deserve to be here.

20 minutes ago, super_ram said:

You Skegness random selections have put you second @cheeky~k8. Living up to your user name!

If if weren't for a stoppage time Peterborough goal, she'd have landed full points for her joker too. It's just showboating at this point.

Thank you, i do just randomly guess the scores quite quickly with only a slight bit of knowledge from memory on some teams and theres @super_ram who looks at who is where on league tables... we all do it differently.

Well done everyone!

9 hours ago, cheeky~k8 said:

Thank you, i do just randomly guess the scores quite quickly with only a slight bit of knowledge from memory on some teams and theres @super_ram who looks at who is where on league tables... we all do it differently.

Well done everyone!

There's a bit more to it than checking league positions, @cheeky~k8Obviously I haven't found that elusive 'bit more' yet or I'd have won on the football pools years ago.

I guess they would likely form part of a consortium like they did with Viborg, maybe involved more for the stats/analysis they can offer. Be surprised if they bought them outright. However if they got involved with another club that would mean less time spent at Notts.

Would it impact us though? From what I gather they very much put people in place and let them get on with the job. The new CEO, Joe Palmer will be responsible for the day to day running like Jason Tuner was.

I can't see why they wouldn't be looking to buy / invest.  I think they have access to much bigger funds than they let on, and I think their management style lends itself to owning a stable of teams.  That may help all the clubs as they can loan / sell players between themselves.

Owning a Serie A club would be a huge undertaking, so I hope nothing like that happens. That said, they seem to largely leave the running of the club to other people.

When they first took over, I wasn't sure where the money was coming from as Football Radar isn't such a big company. But apparently their dad's a billionaire. They're clearly not short of a bob or two. 

they featured in @Chris faces of pon from the mansfield game.

That is so cool @Piethagoram! They are genuinely crackers. If you're reading, reveal yourselves ????

I went to the Netherlands for the first time this year, loved it. When I was there I found a magical black and white striped shell that I took home with me, which was the sole reason we won promotion. 

I hope so @Fan of Big Tone. Even ignoring the incident, I found the atmosphere at Gillingham unusually hostile, even to their own players.

2 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

I hope so @Fan of Big Tone. Even ignoring the incident, I found the atmosphere at Gillingham unusually hostile, even to their own players.

They we're top with a few 1 nil wins, look where They are now, no wonder it's tocic

They had more trouble at the weekend with a fan removed and arrested for racial abuse of a Newport player.  Also, they have recently been handed down a fine for a couple of incidents last year.  They could be looking at points deductions at this rate.

Wrexham had a player injured during the warm-up @gtownjohnno.

I thought it would've been strange to leave him out, but according to LW we were expecting long throws without him too. You always expect an aerial onslaught against a Phil Parkinson team, whatever the personnel. 

I know all about that... But Tozer wasn't in the starting X1 or named on thru subs bench 

On 29/10/2023 at 10:54, gtownjohnno said:

I know all about that... But Tozer wasn't in the starting X1 or named on thru subs bench 

Can someone explain to me,too?

 Brilliant

The whole family were delighted to see you

Seriously though, don't they look a bit like poos? I'd have brought one home!

@DangerousSausage They're supposed to be Pepperami, but I did think what you did at first. As for the whole lot, I just thought you had minons.

The results:

Huddersfield Town 0-4 Cardiff City
Swansea City 0-1 Watford
Lincoln City 3-1 Charlton Athletic
Northampton Town 2-2 Leyton Orient
AFC Wimbledon 2-4 Accrington Stanley
Crewe Alexandra 0-2 Stockport County
Dagenham & Redbridge 1-3 Boreham Wood
Eastleigh 0-1 Woking

---

Six of our eight games were away wins, so that's not promising. But we had some decent scores, best of all from @Joshua, with @cheeky~k8 and @Chris close behind. We also had some crap scores, like mine.

@Joshua - 10
@cheeky~k8, @Chris - 8
@CliftonMagpie, @Fan of Big Tone, @OoooooTommy - 5
@allardyces tash, @liampie, @upthepies - 4
@4everapie, @ARLukomski, @gtownjohnno, @william1984 - 3
@DangerousSausage, @Megan_Elizax, @nottsnutter, @super_ram - 2
@magpiejue, @TheSkipper - 1

---

@ARLukomski still leads the way, but @Joshua and @cheeky~k8 move into the top three...

ARLukomski - 87
Joshua - 69
cheeky~k8 - 69
gtownjohnno - 68
liampie - 65
nottsnutter - 64
upthepies - 61
Chris - 58
DangerousSausage - 57
Fan of Big Tone - 56
4everapie - 55
super_ram - 55
magpiejue - 55
TheSkipper - 52
DonnyNotts - 50
william1984 - 49
Megan_Elizax - 49
Dan - 48
allardyces tash - 46
OoooooTommy - 45
KingWilliams - 44
NottsCountyKev - 41
thommo - 39
jimbob - 38
JIMBO - 38
Nocturnal-Magpie - 38
AmericanPie - 36
CliftonMagpie - 36
KB1862 - 22
George L - 6
Canadian - 4

The next round is on Saturday, and the fixtures are online now. Go on, have a go!

Thank you, @DangerousSausage.

Pleased to see I'm moving up in the Prediction League table, well done @Joshua. Those are some vital points. Let's keep going everyone.

You're welcome @Chris. Keep eighth place warm for me, I'm reclaiming it next week ????

So he's off to the National League North and what a great start! Rushall won 5-0 he came off the bench and scored! Should be a good move for him, if he does well there maybe a move to a National League club will be his next loan.

I hope it highlights that he can make the step up, and we can get him a longer deal with a National League club. He's got the ability, he just needs confidence and form. Whilst I'm glad he's doing well on this month loan, I do have hoped that he will get a chance with a team that proves he could be a good asset for us.

I watched it the night before coming away, it was nice to see his thoughts but I do feel the club needs to acknowledge all supporter groups. It's not one or the other that makes the clubs fanbase, it's us all collectively but as I've said elsewhere some won't want special treatment or to be in the "know". I thought what he said was mostly to be expected but it's encouraging to hear that the commercial side is going to be a focus. I could run the tea bars blindly, so he's right with the right training and staff things can be much quicker. Hopefully, we see more merch in the club shop too.

Mick Vinter

At the start of the season I was quietly confident we’d have a good season, I didn’t think we’d start as well as we have done though.

A lot of opinions have been voiced about our defence, there’s definitely room for improvement but I still think a lot of that comes down to how we set out to play. I think regardless of individuals we will always look a bit susceptible at the back because we load our team with attacking players and push everyone forward leaving space in behind. This season the quality of opposition has also improved, our defenders have pretty much stayed the same. It was always going to be more challenging.

But right now our attacking prowess, one of the reasons we are very enjoyable to watch, is seeing us through. If you look at the stats we are actually very efficient in attack; given the high number of goals we’ve scored we haven’t actually had that many shots. I think in only a few games this season we’ve had more shots than the opposition; those were Grimsby, Tranmere Salford & Colchester (we lost that one!) – I know stats can tell their own stories, dangerous shots would be more interesting and better stat (but I’m not going to re-watch every game to compile that). Quite a few teams we’ve played have been happy to shoot from distance but we don’t tend to just hit and hope, be it in crossing and shooting, we’re much more likely to be patient to try and create a genuinely good goals scoring chance.

I agree with Luke Williams that we haven’t hit our peak performance yet, probably Salford away and Swindon at home were stand-outs, overall I’m very pleased with our form!

I had us down as starting the season slowly and finishing outside the playoffs by the end of the season, so I’m delighted with the way we have started. One thing that worried me all summer was the fragility of the defence and that has proved to be correct, but I hope and expect Notts to start addressing this in January. Whether or not we do enough to go up isn’t an issue for me because I can see us being even stronger next season and I would rather see us get out of this division stronger and only need to change 3 or 4 players, rather than need 7 or 8 as that has been a recipe for disaster in the past.

We will get better, just need to keep picking up as many points as we can before the transfer window opens. LW has been spot on by giving the players who got us promoted a chance to prove themselves, and half a season is more than long enough for them to do so. 

Early Santa wish list

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/drogheda-united-reject-multiple-bids-30814275

A "Bostock style" central midfielder

Yes, what appears a comfortable win, thought our sloppiness could be ruthlessly exploited by a team like Wrexham come Saturday

Yep a very good night for us. Jones sounded like he gave their full back a night to forget, Macca unlucky not to get a hat-trick and chances for Morias too. But most importantly to me we got a clean sheet (maybe aided by the poor performance of Newport) but a good confidence boost for the defence nonetheless. Sets us up nicely for Wrexham.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/23877480.coughlan-newport-county-didnt-basics-3-0-notts-loss/

Thanks for starting this @Piethagoram I’d completely forgot, don’t tell the gaffer he’ll sack me. 
 

I’ll add David Pipe to the list a very popular player for both clubs.

Yeah, tough one this, but I seem to remember John Sheridan had a short spell as manager at Newport.

and the late Jason Turner

Just back from Gdansk,,, wind felt like -10 in Sopot @Fan of Big Tone

Luton airport arrival hall just chaotic

Up in a few hours for Gillingham away

No Park Run this morning as it was cancelled due to flooding in fact they could probably have staged a Park Swim looking at the pictures I’ve seen, so I had a local walk instead, this afternoon I’ll be listening to the match and hoping for a win.

We got stranded at Boston, if we managed to get all the way - I think we'd have felt lucky and I am surprised the train made it that far. After a short stroll to McDonald's for Super, we hopped into two taxis splitting up into two groups but both taxis were near each other the whole journey into Skegness. It's been really nice, a bit of rain at times but nothing that stops us.

On Sunday we went round Windthorpe which is our old stomping grounds. A lot of fond memories.

I haven't heard anything about this and can't find much information online. Maybe a youngster?

3 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

I haven't heard anything about this and can't find much information online. Maybe a youngster?

yes one for the future maybe.

Yes, people on Twitter thought it were a first team signing despite the transfer window being shut - clearly making it one for the B team. He sounds promising but I hold very limited hopes based on how much we give youngsters a shot to establish themselves.

It tends to follow other clubs, it's like this 'All Notts Aren't We'. A lot of our chants come from other clubs, but that's football in general. My grandfather used various terms to talk about Notts, but he did call us Maggies.

It's been "pies" since I've been going @Fan of Big Tone. I always thought it was just convenient, as the "come on you xxx" chant only works with one syllable. I looked up the origin of the word and it's an interesting rabbit hole.

Apparently the word "pie" has been used for the black and white birds since medieval times and predates "magpie" by several centuries (the "mag" prefix is said to come from Margaret - "maggie pie"). The baked product might be named after it too, as magpies pick up lots of random objects, and baked pies contain lots of random things. So "pie" is actually an earlier form of the word "magpie". There you go, impress/bore your friends at the pub with that one

More reading: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pie

Thanks @DangerousSausage that’s really interesting, it’s strange how these words come about.

Brilliant win, and a great way to bounce back. Gillingham did have some dangerous moments on the break (and we rode our luck a couple of times), but they really didn't look special and we deserved our win. Just 23 more points and we're staying up!

Kudos to every Notts fan who braved the weather in that open away end.

Bristol City 0-0 Coventry City

Hull City 0-1 Southampton

Burton Albion 1-1 Bristol Rovers

Peterborough United 2-1 Wycombe Wanderers

Bradford City 3-2 Wrexham Joker

Colchester United 2-0 Harrogate Town

Rochdale 1-1 Oldham Athletic

Southend United 0-2 Solihull Moors

I'll get your points counted tonight (no promises though) or tomorrow, so watch this space.

We have another round coming up on Tuesday and the fixtures will be posted imminently

The results:

Bristol City 1-0 Coventry City
Hull City 1-2 Southampton
Burton Albion 4-1 Bristol Rovers
Peterborough United 2-2 Wycombe Wanderers
Bradford City 1-1 Wrexham
Colchester United 1-2 Harrogate Town
Rochdale 3-4 Oldham Athletic
Southend United 5-0 Solihull Moors

---

This round's winner is @ARLukomski, who also nailed his joker!

@ARLukomski - 11
@Joshua - 8
@AmericanPie, @magpiejue - 6
@allardyces tash, @Megan_Elizax, @nottsnutter, @OoooooTommy, @super_ram, @upthepies - 5
@DonnyNotts, @JIMBO - 4
@Fan of Big Tone, @gtownjohnno, @liampie, @Nocturnal-Magpie, @thommo, @william1984 - 3
@4everapie, @cheeky~k8, @CliftonMagpie, @DangerousSausage, @KingWilliams - 2
@Chris, @Dan, @NottsCountyKev, @TheSkipper - 1

---

@ARLukomski is an absolute machine! But the rest of the table is still pretty tight...

ARLukomski - 84
gtownjohnno - 65
nottsnutter - 62
liampie - 61
cheeky~k8 - 61
Joshua - 59
upthepies - 57
DangerousSausage - 55
magpiejue - 54
super_ram - 53
4everapie - 52
Fan of Big Tone - 51
TheSkipper - 51
DonnyNotts - 50
Chris - 50
Dan - 48
Megan_Elizax - 47
william1984 - 46
KingWilliams - 44
allardyces tash - 42
NottsCountyKev - 41
OoooooTommy - 40
thommo - 39
jimbob - 38
JIMBO - 38
Nocturnal-Magpie - 38
AmericanPie - 36
CliftonMagpie - 31
KB1862 - 22
George L - 6
Canadian - 4

---

The next round is on Tuesday night and the fixtures are already online - click here to have a go! See you there

it looks like the cap has been well worn and must have been a favourite, as you need to live and die in them for caps to really start to fall a part. at least you will be sorted when you get the one @Chris is giving you. its worth noting, this must have been purchased whilst he was doing the raffles online and so, i think this hat will be validated as lucky. it would have seen notts make the playoffs successfully and promoted before its even been worn!

now that sounds like something special.  

@liampie yes the hat was definitely well worn by me, it looked new when I bought it although it was in a charity shop. I’d have been interested to hear about its history I don’t think “magpie” referred to a football team it must have been something else, anyway it’s in the bin now and resigned to history.

Good job on finding a replacement for your lucky hat. It’s unfortunate that it will likely be discarded, but the memories of wearing it will always remain.

It looks great and I can't wait to see it in person, the artwork is way better than how most murals end up in my opinion although I believe Luke Williams has earned his spot on there by now????.

It appears fantastic, and if it was painted without stencils, it deserves even more praise. It will be a pleasure to see it as I pass by. I’m not a fan of the colour the Navi painted itself as it’s quite jarring, but this helps.

The mural looks fantastic, it’s a very suitable tribute to the football legends of Nottingham.

This is awful news, which I am told @super_ram said to my yesterday but I didn't register it then. Very saddening to think only one player from England's winning World Cup team remains. ????

Rest in Peace, Sir Bobby Charlton.