It's round four of the prediction league already - and if this one seems a bit more tinpot than usual, that's because the National League is included too. They all kick off at 3pm on Saturday, and remember your jokers!

Coventry City v Reading

Stoke City v Nottingham Florist

Fleetwood Town v Cheltenham Town

Shrewsbury Town v Plymouth Argyle

Hartlepool United v Walsall

Scunthorpe United v Sutton United

Halifax Town v Maidenhead United

King's Lynn v Southend United

Starting 11 announced. 

About as expected?

Pretty sure it translates to this. 

Strange, angry interview. Obviously haven't seen the game, but anybody that has watched Elliott Hewitt play at RB will know he is absolutely terrible in that position (granted he's not anything special at the other positions either). 

Says more about the manager for A: signing Hewitt and B: playing him at RB. 

Slocombe 7.5 Rarely troubled. Thought he had let one shot slip in the 2nd half but was OK

Brindley 7.5 some strong forward runs cutting inside

Rawlinson 7 Solid, does what it says on the tin

Cameron 7 Will have harder days at the office

Taylor 6.5 Disappointed he didnt continue runs down the wing..but he may have been instructed to cut inside

DKE 8 Energy in abundance, great ball in for Ruben

Palmer 9 MoTM a Phil Turner style performance

Francis 6.5 Fantastic ball through for JOB

Ruben 8 Two goals, great movement

Wootton 7 Spearhead but team set up stretched the Barnet defence

Roberts 8 Three forwards that are all a threat. well on and well taken pen

Subs

JOB 8 awesome 

To help us keep tabs on the squad during the summer break, here's an overview of all our first-team players under contract, with contract lengths in brackets where known. I'll update it as soon as there are any changes. I'll open another thread so we can discuss how it's shaping up.

Goalkeepers:

Jake Kean (goalkeeper coach)
Sam Slocombe
Luke Pilling
Tiernan Brooks

Defenders:

RB: Richard Brindley (30.6.2021)
RB: Dion Kelly-Evans (30.6.2021)
LB: Damien McCrory
CB: Ben Turner
CB: Alex Lacey (30.6.2021)
CB: Connell Rawlinson
CB: Sam Graham (on loan until January)
 

Midfielders:

CM: Jim O'Brien
CM: Casper Sloth
CM: Jake Reeves
CM: Michael Doyle
AM: Ruben Rodrigues
RW/LW: Enzio Boldewijn
RW/LW: Callum Roberts (30.06.2022)
 

Forwards:

Elisha Sam (30.06.2021)
Wes Thomas
Kyle Wootton (30.06.2022)
Jimmy Knowles (season-long loan)

Departures:

Kristian Dennis (St Mirren)
Joe McDonnell (Eastleigh)
Sam Osborne (unknown)
Zoumana Bakayogo (unknown)
Regan Booty (unknown)
Tom Crawford (Hartlepool United)
Mitch Rose (unknown)
Scott Wilson (unknown)
Owen Betts (Basford United)
Pierce Bird (Eastleigh)
Remaye Campbell (Grantham Town)
Max Culverwell (unknown)
Declan Dunn (Basford United)
Ross Fitzsimons (Boston United)
Alex Howes (Basford United)
Tyreece Kennedy-Williams (unknown)
Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain (unknown)
Matt Tootle (Boston United)
Nathan Tyson (Chesterfield)

Updated: 10 September

Hi, i'm new and this is my first post.

My question is this:

How come Notts Co don't have a similar strategy to Bradford City in order to fill their stadium and not have vast numbers of empty seats. I've lived in Nottingham for over 10 years and always looked out for Notts but have always genuinely never understood how come they don't take advantage of having a huge stadium and do season tickets for £149-£199 provided say at least 11-12k sign up to it. I would love to hear peoples views.

1. Stockport (P)
2. Notts County
3. Grimsby
4. Eastleigh
5. Barnet
6. Wrexham
7. Chesterfield
8. Halifax
9. Southend
10. Solihull Moors
11. Dagenham Redbridge
12. Boreham Wood
13. Bromley
14. Torquay
15. Maidenhead
16. Aldershot
17. King's Lynn
18. Altrincham
19.  Yeovil
20. Woking
21. Dover
22. Wealdstone
23. Weymouth

Coming towards the end of our pre-season, so how do we rate our chances? Lots of big signings by the bigger clubs (Stockport, Wrexham, Chesterfield etc...) and some weaknesses of our own exposed against York.
 

1. Are we returning to the football league?
2. Position finished?
3. Top scorer?
4. Top assists?
5. Player of the season?
6. Most yellow cards?
7. Number of goals conceded from set pieces?
8. Position of first loan signing?
9. Points from first 3 league games? (Barnet A, Torquay H, Wrexham A)
10. Average attendance?


I'll start:

1. Are we returning to the football league? Yes - winner of playoff final against Barnet.
2. Position finished? 2nd
3. Top scorer? Cal Roberts
4. Top assists? Ruben Rodrigues
5. Player of the season? Cal Roberts
6. Most yellow cards? Dion Kelly Evans
7. Number of goals conceded from set pieces? 12
8. Position of first loan signing? CB
9. Points from first 3 league games? 6
10. Average attendance? 5145

Before the Woking division has even kicked a ball, the Football League - and the prediction league - are onto their third match. This is our first midweek round of the season. The rules are the same - predict the scores, add your one joker and good luck! Predictions can be submitted up to kick-off - 7.45pm on Tuesday - and everybody is welcome!

Millwall v Fulham

Peterborough United v Cardiff City

AFC Wimbledon v Gillingham

Oxford United v Crewe Alexandra

Wigan Athletic v Wycombe Wanderers

Bristol Rovers v Oldham Athletic

Port Vale v Carlisle United

Walsall v Scunthorpe United

“We didn’t feel there was anything to offer William Hondermarck at this moment but we’re continuing an open dialogue with him while he explores other options. There’s still a possibility – but right now there’s nothing on the table.”

Roman Glass St George Football Club, a name I have not come across before!

But which team which has played in the top division (Division 1 in old money) started their FA Cup campaign today? (probably too easy a question but hey)

While I'm happy Grealish has got his well deserved move to a club playing Champions League football, I personally don't think City is the right move. 

He may win trophies etc but in years to come I think Pep and City will slowly hamper his progress. There's a number of players City have done it too. Look at Mahrez for example, plays excellently but is often left out of the starting line ups. 

As for Pep Guardiola, I do think he's a good coach but he hasn't had much of a challenge. World Class Barca team consisting of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. A Bayern team that were already dominating Bundesliga. Now a Man City team that has unlimited funds it seems. 

Pep said that City had no money to spend but then splashes out £100m on Grealish. Kane and Messi are linked to the club. 

Don't forget Man City were suspended from the CL for breaching FFP but later got overturned and now there's fresh evidence against them for breaching FFP yet they still happily splash the cash. 

If City go on to sign Kane or Messi or even both then it is safe to say that the PL are bowing down to the "top 6 elite" 

There's also a quote going around from 2009 in which Guardiola said that modern day football saddens him because clubs choose to spend big money on players rather than utilitise the youth squad. Before anyone defends this, remember Man City built a brand new state of the art training facility that is supposed to be beneficial for youth players. 

I noticed a new member so I thought I would welcome him to the PON site @steve61, welcome!

What's your background story and history of supporting Notts?

Is there a FPL league for Pride of Nottingham? 

If not, I've set up a league if anyone's interested in joining on the official Premier league app/website. 

Code: qxozmn

With Messi leaving Barcelona and PSG looking the likely destination there's a few things that have come to light. 

Apparently PSG are going to be able to sign Messi on top of signing Donnaruma and Ramos already while also keeping their key players and won't face any sanctions for the next 3 years. 

The reason they won't have sanctions for the next 3 years? By not sanctioning PSG they are helping World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar. The quote reads as the following

"The Committee in charge of Financial Fair Play have decided not to apply any economic sanctions on PSG until 2023. This was decided to help Qatar as they're hosting the World Cup in 2022"

Effectively they're saying that PSG have the power to break all rules possible and face no consequences for the next few years. In that time they can achieve multiple things before sanctions are put in place. If any are. 

Plus, isn't the PSG owner under investigation for bribing UEFA officials? 

Manchester City were investigated for breaching FFP and cooking the books hence the suspension from the CL yet it got overturned they made the final now they have splashed £100m while fresh evidence has come to light. 

Barcelona are a club being run into the ground by poor ownership as they need to offload €135m to register the 4 new signings. 

Inter are on the verge of liquidation hence the sale of so many players. 

No wonder these clubs want the ESL to take off, none more so than Real Madrid. 

Talking of the ESL, Premier League clubs were fined £3m each for the part they played which is nothing to those teams. Meanwhile clubs in leagues one and two who have had poor ownership and no funding from them get punished with points deductions and fines that they simply can't afford. Where is the logic? 

There's a reason why clubs struggle to make it in the Premier League and that's because they haven't got the funds to compete and when they have that opportunity like Newcastle did with the take over, the "Top 6" clubs complain and the PL bow down to them and stop it happening. Why? Because it would disrupt the balance. 

Do members on this forum like a Saturday bet on the football? Would members (and Admin) like a weekly competition on here, where I list all the forthcoming games on the Saturday and members have a virtual £1,000 kitty to select a single, double, treble, accumulator from the matches and odds listed? the winner would be the member who has the most virtual money at the end of the season, or maybe the only player left in the competition. Obviously once you money has gone you are out of the competition. Let me know what you think (particularly Admin) and if enough are interested I'll draft up the rules on here and have the first set of games and odds on here well before the opening games on 21 August. Over to you!

Positives:

- Palmer again played well. Tidy throughout, never looks in danger.
- No injuries.
- Rodrigues a little rusty but 'full of it'. 
- Cal survived a fair few challenges and got his goal after a bit of a frustrating afternoon.
- Taylor looked fairly solid down the left.
- JOB changed the game when he came on. Injected pace and running.
- Continue to play despite the ref. It wasn't just the red card, but everything.... I hope he doesn't ref us in the actual league... mickey mouse ref. 
- Sam was impressive when he came on. He'll need to be, if the competition is anything to go by.


Negatives:

- Conceded on the counter, again.
- Conceded from a set piece, again.
- Rawlinson doing his best Ben Turner impression.
- Whoever told Slocombe he's Neuer needs to have a word because he actually believes it. Does stupid **** and makes dumb decisions. There's taking risks and there's being stupid.... at the moment I fear we're on the verge of stupidity.
- Cameron does stupid ****. Back-heeling and losing the ball. Not there. Not there.
- Francis. Not exactly sure what he does. Not aggressive enough defensively to be that passive. 
- Mitchell. Oh dear. Fear we've been sold a dud here. Raw - to say the least.
- Wootton didn't impress.
- 2 up front, if that's our backup formation - won't work with Wootton and Mitchell. Think again. 

Think we need a striker and a CB, if truth be told. Rawlinson needs competition beyond Lacey and we still don't have backup/alternative to Wootton. 

GK Sam Slocombe
GK Tiernan Brooks
RB/CB Richard Brindley
RB Dion Kelly-Evans
CB Alex Lacey
CB Connell Rawlinson
CB Kyle Cameron
LB Joel Taylor
LB/CB Adam Chicksen
CM Ed Francis
CM Matt Palmer
CM/CAM Jim O'Brien
CM Frank Vincent
CM Michael Doyle
W/CAM Cal Roberts
W Elisha Sam
W/RWB Aaron Nemane
CAM/ST Ruben Rodrigues
ST Kyle Wootton
ST Kairo Mitchell
ST Lewis Knight
ST Tyreace Palmer

Good versatility within the squad with several players able to play different positions. Also a very flexible team and if we have to adapt mid-game and switch formation, I am sure we will do so, just fine.

I think Burchnall and the coaching staff will help develop the new signings and the other young players into better players. Francis, Vincent, Knight, Nemane, Tyreace and Mitchell to name some. Really looking forward to this season, probably more than any other season before. The whole positive atmosphere around the club is the best I've known it before the start of a season. The connection between players, staff and fans is excellent.

Our second round of fixtures kick off at 3pm on Saturday. Have a go at predicting them and see how many points you can get - and don't forget your joker! And feel free to get involved even if you missed round one, the more the merrier!

Barnsley v Coventry City

Hull City v QPR

Lincoln City v Fleetwood Town

Morecambe v Shrewsbury Town

Sheffield Wednesday v Doncaster Rovers

Bradford City v Oldham Athletic

Mansfield Town v Newport County

Rochdale v Scunthorpe United

Both players have been mentioned as signings ideal for Notts to build a promotion chasing team, Andrew Dallas has been mentioned by the NEP as a player the club is looking at.

He scored 10 league goals with a very poor Weymouth team, but does have a good pedigree about him, and he's only 21-years-old.

Kabongo Tshimanga has been tipped as the next Jamie Vardy, although he hasn't been officially linked [correction might be needed] - he does fit the style of recruitment that the club has become used to under the Reedtz ownership.

At 23-years-old has proved himself to be good enough at National League level and, again would only improve further - especially with a club that can progress alongside him.

What are your thoughts on these forwards? Would you like to Notts to try to capture their services? Discuss. ????????

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/just-ridiculous-notts-county-player-5756115