I would have taken the bus from Clifton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Smith_(footballer,_born_2001)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Érico_Sousa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavan_Holohan

We've had some news on the striker front today. Firstly, Eli Sam has cancelled his contract to pursue opportunities elsewhere. By the sounds of it, we won't be seeing him in England again. I can't say I really blame him given the lack of minutes here. He was really unlucky to get injured just as the goals were flowing this season though. All the best to him, shame we didn't quite get the best out of him. 

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2022/june/elisha-sam-departs-010622/

And the new arrival is Macauley Langstaff from Gateshead, who scored 32 goals last season. Sounds a similar type of player to Kristian Dennis from what I've heard. It's good to see us signing promising players on their way up, just hope he's more Cal Roberts than Sean Canham. 

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2022/june/macaulay-langstaff-signs-010622/

We're back on the merry-go-round and need a new manager. As Michael Doyle is also rumoured to be off too FGR, we'll need a whole new management team. Who would you like to see take over?

The current bookies' favourite appears to be Bromley's Andy Woodman. Not sure how I feel about that. Boreham Wood's Luke Garrard is also among the favourites. I'd have thrown Pete Wild's name in the ring, but Barrow appointed him yesterday.

Possible dream team pairing for the Meadow Lane hotseat..... Tidsdale and Tidsdale........ 

Should be Tisdale and Tisdale... 

Also been reported that Michael Doyle will join him.

I can understand why he’s gone, a L1 club that’s well backed and even if he does get sacked, he’ll still probably be able to get a FL job. I don't begrudge him moving but I’d have preferred him to stay, just to see if he was capable of addressing our weaknesses. I think we’d have learnt a lot more next season in terms of knowing whether IB was capable of taking us up. Now I guess we’ll never know.

How do you feel about the news?

Gone to Southend.... Looked very useful against us.... Would have been an ideal replacement for Cal Roberts who i reckon will be moving on...... 

https://theathletic.com/2978880/2021/11/26/inside-notts-countys-rebuild-under-reedtz-brothers-and-burchnall-this-is-a-historic-club-with-a-modern-vision/

Grimsby's winner was off side

From what I can find these are the players who will be out of contract next month...

Wootton

Chicksen

Lacey

Brindley

Kelly-Evans

Sam

Brooks

Not that many for once. Strong rumours that Pompey are very keen on Wootton, it’s been widely predicted that he won’t be here next season and I have to agree. Assuming he won't re-sign, I think I'd want to keep the rest. However that would mean we would already have 19 contracted players going into next season. Part of me is a bit worried about a potential play-off hang-over and there wouldn't be much room for new recruitments to freshen up the squad. Equally I think it would be daft to get rid of good players for this level, it just means that the recruitment would have to be spot on given we would only be adding a few players.

What do you think? Who would you want to keep for next season?????

Play-off eliminator - The Mariners (H)

Team: Grimsby Town

Date: 23/05/2022

Where: Fortress Meadow Lane

Monday night is the big night! So it's time it had its own thread

How do you think we'll do? What team should we put out? And have you got your tickets yet? I've already reserved a place in my armchair

I'm feeling encouraged by our strong home form. Grimsby are on an unbeaten run away from home, but over the season as a whole they were only the ninth best away team with 30 points from 22 games. They also appeared to lose some momentum once their play-off place was secure. But the play-offs are completely different to league games, so none of that counts any more. At least we can rest assured that we'll be taking the opposition very seriously, which was somewhat lacking in the odd game this season.

Not happy with the club capping the number of away tickets at 2,000, I don't ever remember us doing that before and it could well end up with away fans in the home ends, all for the sake of keeping the JS stand half empty.

Slocombe 4 

Brindley 4

Lacey 5

Cameron 5

Richardson 4 Stupid free kick to concede

Chicksen 5.5

Palmer 5

JOB 4

Ruben 5.5

Wootton 4

Cal n/a

Subs

Sam 5

Francis 4

Brunt 3.5

No words says it all. No guts in defence when it mattered, always someone else's responsibility. Too soft, no midfield warrior, attack thread bare without Ruben and Cal

Been watching this game and several of the other play off games..... Is it my imagination???? Because I've seen more head tennis in these games than I've seen at Meadow Lane all season.... Anyone else noticed this??? 

Anyone else captivated by this competition this season? I spent yesterday evening watching Eintracht Frankfurt deservedly winning away at Barcelona in front of 30,000 travelling fans. As all the flights to Barcelona were sold out, some even took a detour via Tunisia to be there. Eintracht exposed Barca with their fast counterattacking time and again and could have scored more than three. Barca, on the other hand, carved out very few chances until they woke up in stoppage time. It looked like the kind of evening you always dream about as a football fan, and I'm also relieved that the competition won't be won by a team that sees it as a consolation prize.

It'll be interesting to see Eintracht, West Ham and Rangers scrap it out in the semis - the competition means the world to all of them. Just have a sneaky feeling RB Leipzig will nick it instead.

So Easter Monday brought good and bad news. Grimsby's win against KL means they leapfrog us in the table having played a game more, while Halifax's win over Chesterfield means we're now ten points adrift of third place, which will be a really tall order, especially with the Shaymen in fine form. Realistically, I think it's gone - if Halifax win three of their last five, we can't catch them whatever we do. On the other hand, a win in our game in hand (against Dover) would put us in fifth place above Chesterfield, and a finish in fifth or fourth would at least get us a home quarter final in the play-offs. But looking at their fixtures, Grimsby may well push us to the wire for that.

Looking downwards, Dagenham are only a couple of points behind us and have won three on the bounce, but they have to play Solihull and Wrexham still. On the other hand, those teams might well have their play-off spots booked by the time the Daggers play them ans be resting players. How do you think it'll turn out?

Remaining fixtures:

Halifax: Southend (a), Yeovil (h), Eastleigh (a), Aldershot (h), Stockport (a)

Solihull: Aldershot (h), Weymouth (a), Bromley (h), Dagenham (h), Boreham Wood (a)

Chesterfield: Dover (h), Bromley (a), Stockport (h), Torquay (a), Woking (h)

Grimsby: Torquay (h), Barnet (a), Maidenhead (h), Boreham Wood (h), Eastleigh (a)

Dagenham: King's Lynn (h), Wealdstone (a), Torquay (h), Solihull (a), Wrexham (h)