Now one or two lapsed members have returned to the fold I thought I’d try and resurrect the weekend chat feature and hopefully I won’t be talking to myself.

What is everyone up to this weekend? Regular readers won’t be surprised to learn we are on holiday on the south coast, we are staying in a hotel in Havant for two night before moving on to a cottage in the New Forest.

Yesterday I went to see my older brother who is now an incredible 85 years old and as bright as a button.

We were also hoping to catch up with our two eldest grandchildren who are in the navy but sadly that can’t happen for various reasons.

We move on to our cottage later this afternoon and looking forward to a restful week.

What are your plans? Chat about anything non football here.

Completely one sided game. Scotland Xg of 0.01

Germany an example to SM as to how to do clinical pressing, passing and shooting

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/videos/cw99vygpjdvo

Game 6 of the Notts 20/20 Blast season 

Rapids v Outlaws.

Outlaws win the toss and will bowl first.

Let’s give a big PoN welcome to our latest acquisition, welcome @Spindley Pie I hope you enjoy being part of our friendly community.

A big welcome to our latest member @Peter Downing I hope you enjoy being a member of our friendly community.

Very sorry to read this News.

RIP Willie.

I have been here some years back. Perhaps they can be offered to build one similar on Broad Marsh!

This is Great Brilliant Fantastic News.

There making another Wallace & Gromit Film. Due out this Christmas a 70 minute full length Feature Film starring everybody's Favourite Clay Motion Stars return along with an Evil Villain from a past Adventure. After 31 years in the Clink, like Arnie in Terminator He's Back, Feathers McGraw in Wallace & Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl.

My only Concern is it's  on the B.B.C  I just hope they don't force Nic Park to Include Modern Day Messaging.

With the signing of New Players the Opening of the Nest, the construction of a New Pitch things are in Full Flow down the Lane, in readiness for the Start of the New Season. With all this Going On it seems the Notts Head Coach has sort of  Faded into the Background. Yes he's spoken about New Players and the appointment of Macca as the Magpies New Captain. But what about the Man himself, nobody has sat down with him and asked what kind of pressure he's feeling going into the New Season after all his current Results Record is Very Poor. How difficult as it been adjusting to becoming a Full Time Coach and how hard was it stepping into Luke Williams shoes, after what he achieved at Meadow Lane?

How does he feel about some Fans wanting the Owners to get Rid of Him? Does he think he would have Benefitted from having a Experienced Director of Football  with Footballing Knowledge helping him to learn how to better Man Mange Players.? He is Still on a Massive Learning Curve and if the Magpies don't get off to a Decent Start as the Season Opens and Pressure Mounts. Can Stuart Maynard Cope ?

Another addition to our defence tonight. Notts are building a side that can challenge for promotion next season.

Our defence clearly needed strengthening and now we have two players that will make Notts much tougher in defence 

It appears to be a regrettable choice, but there are superior alternatives available. I’m simply glad that we supported him through his injury, as it demonstrates our class. Unfortunately, too many teams discard a player when they suffer a serious injury.

Can we all welcome our new member @ShannockPie to PoN!

A warm PoN welcome to @Michelle Evans I hope you enjoy it here we are a friendly bunch.

Here We Go. A Nice Simple Question  for all you Magpie Fans.

Would You Like To See Notts County F.C. In the Premier League?

His 2023-24 stats

PLD 43

Accurate passes - 1,019/1,474 (69.1%)

Accurate long balls - 98 

Tackles won - 47 

Clearances - 196

Headed clearances - 104

Recoveries - 189 

Ground duels won - 94/155 (60.7%)

Aerial duels won - 132/236 (55.9%)

Right then, here we go. The most important position in Notts' summer recruitment. Baldwin and Brindley have been released and Rawlinson has been transfer listed. That leaves us with Cameron and Macari. One left footer and one right footer. 

In my opinion we need 3 right footers and 2 left footers. The recruitment has to be spot on in this position. They need to be able to defend their box, but also be comfortable to play our style. They have to have the required strength, height and athleticism. We also require more leaders. With that in mind, here is the list.

Notts have been rumoured with Riley Harbottle and it would make sense as he has played under Stuart Maynard at Wealdstone. For me, Will Wright is perfect for us. He can play anywhere across the back 3, he has the height and the ability to play out from the back. He has been a regular for Crawley this season and whilst he has an option for a further year in Sussex, he could be tempted to a move to a team with a higher ceiling. Lucas Ness has some impressive stats, despite not playing a large amount of games at Charlton. He isn't first choice there either, so it would be a decent signing. Tom Bradbury has the height (6'3), the leadership and pace (shown by his goal-line clearance against Burton). Definitely good competition for Cameron. 

I've said that Notts need to look into Ireland and whilst we looked at Conor Keeley, a move never materialised. His CB partner at St Pats, Joe Redmond, would be a great signing. Once again, he's comfortable with the ball at his feet and playing out from the back (76.3% accurate passes) and is good in the air as well, with 67.8% of his aerial duels won. He would bring leadership as well, being St Pats' captain and a former captain of Birmingham's youth team. With St Pats only sitting in 6th place, it would be a good time to move. Nando Pijnaker is a colossus in the air and whilst not blessed with pace, he can play a pass. Sligo are 8th in Ireland and it could be a shrewd bit of business to sign the New Zealand international.

Cameron McJannet and Gavin Molloy are two more left footed centre-backs from Derry and Shelbourne respectively. Molloy maybe difficult to prize away, as Shelbourne currently sit top of the league and he is ever present in Damien Duff's side. McJannet is formerly of Stoke City and has been ever present for Derry in the last few seasons, which has seen The Candystripes be Shamrock's closest challengers. Ruadhiri Higgins is someone who the Reedtz bros wanted as head coach, after Ian Burchnall left, meaning his Derry side will have played a similar possesion based game to Notts. McJannet has been a part of that and despite only being 5'11, can win his fair share of headers too.

I will add Farrend Rawson's stats, according to my metrics, in the replies.

So, played 19, won 5, drew 3, lost 11, gf29, ga34. Not great. It's fair to say we've all got our opinion of Stuart's first few months at the Lane, some more warm and some cold. 

By all means, the results haven't been good enough and neither have quite a few of the performances. However, there is a few things to take encouragement, especially our form from MK onwards and bits said at the fans forum. Overall though, things must pick up if we are to challenge for automatic promotion. Scott Lindsey's record after the season he kept Crawley up was: won 6, drew 6, lost 10, gf22, ga32. Then look at them after he had a summer to recruit and look where they are now. 

To be honest, I've spent the whole month of May evaluating whether Maynard can take us forward. I needed to just forget about the comments on social media in the last few months and pick it apart myself.

He walked into a difficult phase. He took over from a beloved figure at the club, who gave us the season of a lifetime. However, the team had been conceding goals for fun for many months. Sutton (5), Colchester (5), Mansfield (4), Wimbledon (4), Harrogate (3), Tranmere (4), Grimsby (5). Even the games we didn't concede 3 or more in were still silly. 

Donny away. O'Brien, not clearing it in added time, leads to us losing our clean sheet. The 2nd goal against Wrexham (H), both goals against Bradford (H), both goals against Walsall (H). Simple things in the build up or at crucial moments. Even the FGR home game when we won to go top, we were poor, showing the owners were correct at the fans forum about us not performing at a good enough level to challenge for promotion, over the whole season. 

The biggest concern for me, when he was appointed, was the step up. You're coming from a side who were punching above their weight and finishing mid table and flirting with the play-offs on occasions, to a side wanting to challenge for promotion in League 2. It's a big leap. 

In his time at Wealdstone, he helped develop players and improve their game. This includes: George Wickens, Sam Howes, Jed Ward, Harry Isted, Riley Harbottle, Charlie Barker, Miguel Freckleton, Deji Elerewe, Jacob Mendy, Aaron Henry, Ashley Charles, Rhys Browne, Sean Adarkwa, Tahvon Campbell and Josh Umerah. You don't improve players' ability if you're not a good coach. Harbottle is now in the SPL, Howes in League 1, Ward is Bristol Rovers' number 1, Mendy and Isted are both in league 1. Rhys Browne got a move to Woking off of the back of his impressive form.

The signing of Matty Platt offers real encouragement to me. The fact we can take an out of contract player and convince him we are a better place to play football than Bradford shows we have the pull and that Stuart can attract them players, despite only previously managing in non league.

The fact he's not just coached that Wealdstone team to play and finish above where people expect them, but also getting the best out of them whilst being semi-pro and having limited time in training and in video analysis sessions, shows there must be a good motivator in there. A good man manager. This was also mentioned in Tom Williams' interview with Matty Saunders. 

Don't get me wrong, he's got and said things wrong as you'd expect. His subs haven't been great in some games (not helped by poor squad depth due to recruitment) and his post or pre match comments haven't been what I've been seeing on the pitch. I'd just like to see him go into depth a bit more and say when things are poor. I know he wants to protect the players but when we haven't played well (Crewe, Salford, FGR, Gillingham) then say it how it is. 

However, he's right about us not being countered on as much, how we need more structure, how the problems were here before he came in and that we haven't got the required height or physicality to compete.

There is a good head coach in there and I just hope he can succeed. Whether some of us feel good going into next season with him in charge or not, we all want him to succeed because that's what we want for Notts.