I agree with @Robbie sometimes the order of the dark arts becomes a necessity, and all teams utilise this when necessary.

Our Team did what they needed to do and showed the confidence of togetherness and working for each other, all we need now is another gritty performance against Walsall on Saturday. COYP ⚽

@McPie

It was good enough for Port Vale and AFC Wimbledon to get promoted last season by not dominating teams by possession a lot of the time, but winning matches by being dogged, resilient, physical & hard working all over the pitch when they had to, & taking their chances when those opportunities presented themselves.

Some good points have been made above. We might be happier to put our foot through the ball when under pressure, but we're not surrendering possession by design. A bit of solid possession would have been handy while Grimsby were chasing their equalisier. However, what happens in the boxes ultimately decides where the points go, and that's the department we've been lacking in since promotion. It's so nice to be winning these games for a change!

You can't beat a good, gritty away win at a proper old-school ground like Blundell Park. But that's easy for me to say from my armchair ;)

Dennis & Jatta goals from another angle. Radio Nottingham commentary.

We're going to need additions because the squad needs strengthening due to our underwhelming summer and because you can't just stick with what you've got. You can't stand still in football.

None of the potential five areas are certain to start but we do bolstering. We definitely need a goalkeeper, more creativity in the 10, especially as Luker is injured and Grant is better out of possesion than creatively. We need a RWB due to Cotter most likely going back and Tsaroulla being a temporary solution on that side.

A back-up striker because Jatta and Dennis need support. I remember Donny getting Rob Street last season, to help Joe Ironside and Billy Sharp (Street scored twice against us on the last day). Probably a CDM as well as cover on loan due to the undisclosed amount of time Palmer is out for and despite Robbo dropping in there, he's better as a number 8, rather than a DM.

The Notts team have jelled as a team under Martin Paterson. Those players acquired in January will have to fight for a place like everyone else, & may not be guaranteed a spot in the starting eleven.

As it stands, even Palmer & Robbo will be fighting for a place when they become available after injury. Competition for places is a good thing & Martin will be loving it.

Yes, feel better soon Super Ram...

But basically what the news is saying is true - there's an epidemic out there, maybe multiple, of flu-like illnesses. My eldest daughter came down hard straight after the Bristol Rovers game and is still dealing with the aftermath of it.

I took my flu jab early this year, and I was really annoyed to get a cold about 10 days after. But that was all it was, classic cold symptoms, never once had a fever or felt weak. I was then in the same car/rooms/spaces as my daughter and the friend who passed on the bug. I've been fine though, which I attribute to the jab.

I'm sure it'll be all gone by Xmas Super Ram and you'll be stronger for going thru it. It's the turkey that should start worrying.

No Rams game today so I will be watching Notts on laptop and hoping they help make me feel better.Thanks for all the good wishes.

Good morning, how are we all this morning, feeling pretty good no doubt given the result yesterday.

This is a picture taken from our bedroom window, what a sunrise.

Sorry to be so sceptical, but Wrexham FC is just another example with what's wrong with our beautiful game. Enough said.

"The most obvious point of dissonance is the grant of public funds. Why is the Welsh administration giving money to an entity now part-owned by US financiers?"

This hurts me deeply. @Dry Nelson Ray

£18 million could be put to much better use such as filling thousands of road potholes around Wales.

6 weeks! Ouch that’s a real blow.

Ollie Norburn suddenly becomes very important and Hinchy will have to cover from the bench

Great time then for Iorpenda to get that tremendous confidence boost, we’re going to need him to be right on top of his game this month, including when Palmer comes back

2 hours ago, theAnticlough said:

6 weeks! Ouch that’s a real blow.

Ollie Norburn suddenly becomes very important and Hinchy will have to cover from the bench

Great time then for Iorpenda to get that tremendous confidence boost, we’re going to need him to be right on top of his game this month, including when Palmer comes back

I've not been impressed with Norburn but fairly open to seeing how Hinchy comes across.

Hinchy has a big opportunity here if he can get into the side as a substitute & impress while he's on the field. Hinchy has already shown that he has potential & I think that the way Notts play suits him.

@Fan of Big Tone Were Notts on fire when Flint sparked them into action🙃

3 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

@Fan of Big Tone Were Notts on fire when Flint sparked them into action🙃

Groan 🤣

7 hours ago, Fan of Big Tone said:

Groan 🤣

It's the way he tells them!

If he can save them from possible relegation, it will be a good achievement, but if he fails, it may well give him an opportunity to bounce straight back from the National League. The January transfer window will be key for him.

i think if i am to go for their whole performance and contributes, then i have to say nick tsaroulla.

he started well and gave notts hope going forward after the opening set back. he worked hard, did his role and more importantly got us playing without confining play to just the wing. i thought keanan bennetts had a classy game too. i would also say the midfield did a very solid job. with kelle roos making some crucial saves at key moments. defending could do with being tighter, but thats pressure for us as mk dons looked exactly the same at the back.

Yeah Iorpenda for me, he was everywhere in this match always pressing and wanting to get us moving forward, well deserved goal at the end.

The Poll has now closed. Thanks to all who voted. I'm delighted to announce that Tom Iorpenda has been voted the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match against MK Dons. Well done Tom.

@theAnticlough I can understand his frustration as they probably deserved a point at least (or at least they would if they weren't the franchise, all they deserve is expulsion from the league, but I digress). However, I think neither side dominated that game. The visitors were wasteful with their chances, and they had plenty. They cut through us too easily to my taste. With Palmer and Robertson in midfield, we would have had a lot more control over the game, but then being able to replace key players is a sign of a genuine promotion candidate.

It was tight, but we found a way to win, and that's my key takeaway. There so many big games last season that were on a knife edge and could have gone either way, but we rarely ended up collecting the points.

It's a game that we probably would have lost last last season, Patto has set us up to be a less bullied side, It's a working progress that coming on

I agree about the midfield, even though Iorpenda had one his best games I thought he had too much license to roam at times, he was popping up out wide on a number of occasions. Norburn filled in as the "6" pretty well, he’s not as good as Palmer at receiving and then passing the ball under-pressure in the middle but he played some lovely weighted forward balls at times.

You can't fault the character or work rate of any of the players and that's always a necessity if you want to do well at any level. I just think second half we needed to be a touch more as we gave MK the ball back too often. And that wasn't from sloppy passing but more from going long too early. I'm all for clearing the ball when under pressure but at times we did just punt it with no real aim and Jatta was chasing a lot of lost causes. At one point Dennis was annoyed at Platt as he'd dropped back to help us try and play out but he just launched the ball out of play. It can be worked on and I'm sure it will be.

To be fair @piedestrian Notts have invested in players that have had past injury records. Jodi & Lucas being two of them.

The Club may decide to recruit the services of a player that has had a past injury record, but It's always a risk when a club does that

This latest Knee injury for Palmer, it's not clear if it's the same knee that caused him to miss most of the 23/24 season, but if it is, that will be a concern

To be fair, the appointment of Dr Rhodes was head of performance and it was to help to reduce injuries by tracking players more closely and probably introducing methods that can help put less strain on them. But he wasn't magic and you'll never stop getting injuries it was more about trying to help reduce them.

As for Palmer I don't need to state the obvious, I'm just holding onto the fact it's all pretty vague, it could be a few weeks or it could be months... Paterson also said he needs some rest and that it's unfair to keep playing him with respect to the injury too, that makes it sound less bad.

Matt Palmer was interviewed in hospitality and he says his injury is not serious he expects to be out for a couple of weeks, it’s the opposite knee to his last injury and is tissue related. Robertson is thought to have flu so hopefully he’ll be back soon.

it makes you think we should have just let him stay with dagenham the season we gained promotion, he was a big player for them and it looked like we had made a good signing but for whatever reason we just did not play him. i hope we did not do it to hurt dagenham in reaching the playoffs. his career seems to have suffered due to signing for us, but he is a good goal scorer.

I recall us signing him on a three-year contract @theAnticlough. That's not cover for injuries, that's a player we rated and wanted to build around. He didn't get a long run in the team, but he didn't make himself undroppable either. Unfortunately it seems to have been the story of his career. Hope he gets games and goals with his new club.

I don't think you can underestimate the desperation to get out of the division at that point @DangerousSausage. Scott and Maca were both in the first years of their contracts, so of course Morais was cover for those two, who had both proven themselves. Wasn't Scott injured for a while? And we had nobody else at all in terms of strikers. So no forward on the bench and if Maca was injured nobody at all? We just had to sign someone as insurance against an epic season and a chance of promotion going down the drain.

The length of the contract suggests Montague and the club thought he could be a squad player for multiple seasons. If they did they were wrong, you win some you lose some.

Adam Chicksen and Matty Dennis

@menzinho Rumoured that Collins joined Franchise FC for £800k... splashing the cash

carl regan anyone remember his loan stay with us?

@theAnticlough

I think that Hall being a reasonable finisher & similarly effective as an AM may have influenced Martin Paterson's thinking in keeping Dennis as a fresh striker to come on in the second half of matches or when needed due to injury. Of course Hall's pending suspension may well change that thinking.

One positive take away for me was Roos’s performance, he needs to show that kind of performance consistently now, he set the bar for himself.

biggest for me was how we the fans stayed behind the players and it felt like we were with them in spirit, our support is generally very good away from home but this match most games from when we gained promotion. we felt united together and it made the will all the more special. the lads did brilliantly to shut up the shop and sneak the win. we did not deserve it, and it reminded me of how some teams have been lucky against us but its nice that we are on that side for a change.

Yes, he was very lively and made lots of good forward runs for them. I’d say sign him up but when you look at his career for an attacker he doesn’t tend to score many goals (I guess you could say that about all the Bristol forwards though!)

I thought Tom Lockyer was good at the back for them too, he was one step ahead of Jatta for most of it. Now that we’ve won considering what he went through I can say it was good to see him back playing!

Yeah, I was impressed as well - their best player.

But as a 'winger' he might not fit a position in our set up. Maybe the kind of player to consider in the off season, out of contract, when there's time to work out how they'd be integrated into the team

he is also very frustrating with his simulation efforts and getting in the faces of the opposition, i would not want him to do that for notts but otherwise he did look a very capable player.

i thought both teams did well, mk dons might feel unlucky but we share a lot in common with them. i think the pressure makes our defence switch off, and i feel the same way about mk dons. they are a dirty group of players, who seemed to enjoy being rough in stages where they tried to manage the game and break up our momentum but they did play some good football.

their first two goals, those could have really punished us, and i think matthew dennis strike is the get of jail card we needed. as it came from nowhere, and even tho they went back in the lead. it showed us we could score, and they made a similar blunder by allowing jatta in.

the game would have felt a natural draw, but to sneak the win does feel all the more satisfying.

tom iorpend was unlucky to hit the post earlier in the game and to see him win it for us in the dying minutes, well it makes one of those match days where you feel lucky and over the moon to have all 3 points.

On a positive note they’ve just said on the local news we are no longer in drought.

Sneak preview of what we have in store tomorrow with Storm Bram.

Storm Bram update.

Storm Bram is battering the UK, leaving thousands without power and prompting flood rescues.

That is indeed fantastic news for anyone suffering from blood cancer, another first for Britain that gives hope to thousands of sufferers including yourself. Thanks for posting.

It is a great read. Thanks for posting it @Piethagoram

I do hope that this treatment can also help Patients that have a Primary Cancer because the blood can carry Cancer cells to other parts of the body, a process called Metastasis.

There are many cases where a Primary Cancer has been beaten only for the Cancer to turn up somewhere else. This new treatment could bring hope to all those who have found themselves battling the big C.

Oh dear. How could Celta Vigo do such a dastardly thing? The Madrid manager will be on borrowed time after this🤣

I saw the content and how long it was to go on for and decided unanimously not to watch. This wonderful stage of the best footballers this planet can offer has been turned into a Circus for money makers. No thought of climate, travel distances and cost have been taken into consideration. A chance in a lifetime has been made unrealistic for most. Players once again are expected to train and perform in temperatures most would only lie in. To top it all that person @Fan of Big Tone talked about thinks it's his and his only show and that's all you'll hear next year, and as far as peace goes, he's done nothing other than wine and dine the person who awards this inanimate object???

Yeah, I turned it on saw Robbie Williams on the stage singing and turned it off. I agree about that peace prize thing it was just laughable, what subject that they have nothing to do with are they going to branch into next the FIFA Food Awards? It was the most unnecessary event ever, 99.9% of real football fans just wanted to watch the actual draw take place, no singing, no dancing, no celebs and for it to have been done in about 20 minutes.

Anyway as for the actual draw I think it’s about as good as you get. Pot 2, Australia and Iran aside, had a number of very good teams but Croatia are one of the strongest teams in that section, they are still reliant on their older players but they beat France in the Nations League this year. Panama are ranked 30 in the world right now, no idea how that happened but they are not the 30^th best team in the world and I can’t say I know much about Ghana, they didn’t qualify for AFCON though so they clearly aren’t that strong a side.

Croatia is the only real tough match for me, if we can't beat Ghana or Panama than frankly we don't deserve to get out the group!

Actually @menzinho I would be in favour of a FIFA Food Award. Infantino and cronies could descend on every greasy van parked outside a football ground in the UK to help decide who gets the prestigious gong.

Watching the FIFA powers that be crawl and scrape to the rich and powerful is nauseating, but that's hardly new. It's probably an accurate reflection of the top levels of our game actually - not only will clubs accept money from any old despot to get an advantage, the fans will also worship said despot. Can we be surprised that FIFA acts the same way?

(Steps off soapbox) Anyway, we've at least lucked out a bit with kick-off times, with the possible exception of the round of 16 if we win our group and make it that far (I think that's 1am my time).

@Michael D Pie. it sounds like you had a great time. We went to a Center Parks a few years ago, it was somewhere up north and we had red squirrels feeding near our lodge, I remember it was a lovely holiday. I’m glad you enjoyed your family break, family time is important.

Today is a chilly start here the temperature only just stayed above zero overnight. Our granddaughter is coming tonight for a sleepover while her brother is at scout camp and their mum and dad are having a date night.

We are going to order a takeaway curry from our favourite restaurant and watch a film.

It was cold as we packed the car to leave this morning. That sounds idyllic @Fan of Big Tone like you say family, moreso these days is so important. They bring light and effervescence to a dull old world. Staying in the nice warmth and enjoying food together is so special, something that has been done and loved for centuries. I hope you all have a wonderful time together. 👍👌

Morning all, it’s a bit warmer this morning at 9 degrees, last night our granddaughter stayed overnight, we had a nice curry from takeaway from the local restaurant, it cost £73 😲 but there’s plenty left over for probably two more meals for me and Mrs. T. After our curry we were going to watch a film but Chloe is studying media at college and has to watch films all the time so we ended up watching Masterchef.

What’s everyone doing with themselves today as Notts aren’t playing? After Chloe’s gone we’ll have a walk to walk off the curry but that’ll be in the afternoon as she’ll be in bed until at least mid day, typical teenager. 😂

11 hours ago, Robbie said:

That's now two wins for Roos & that puts him only one win behind the current joint leaders who've won PON Man of the Matches this season.

Who’d have thought it, I’m tipping Roos for player of the season, I reckon he’ll end up a Notts County legend, fans will sing his name in years to come.

Then again…….

1 hour ago, Fan of Big Tone said:

Who’d have thought it, I’m tipping Roos for player of the season, I reckon he’ll end up a Notts County legend, fans will sing his name in years to come.

Then again…….

A few more performances like we saw against Bristol R, starting against MK Dons, could possibly cement his place in the side for the rest of the season. Even if he did, Notts still need another goalkeeper in January to challenge him for his place.

Kelle Roos on his better days is a good L2 keeper for us. His weakness on high balls compensated by really good shot-stopping. He’s also shown that he can bounce back quickly from a poor performance.

What does he need to do? No more poor games up to the window. And something like no more than 3 or 4 over the remaining 27 games. In a word - consistency.

What’s Dutch for ‘authority’? That’s what Slocs has to scream 100 times a week on either catches or punches in training. If Roos has that, he’ll be ok.

Dennis should start in my view.

I’d go with Macari, Grant, Robertson, Iorpenda & Tsaroulla behind Dennis & Jatta. Ness, Platt & Bedeau at the back.

I somehow doubt that will be MP’s choice tbh but I believe that gives us the width, mobility, physical presence and goal threat that we need.

I agree @YoopEyes that Dennis should start upfront & Platt is now a fixture in the back three & Ness should also be in there.

I also think Kouhyar should start on the left. I do believe though that Martin will continue with the one striker formation. I've been pushing for Dennis to play behind Jatta in a similar role to Didzy when he was here.

But Martin will probably keep Dennis on the bench, or he may even start Dennis and bench Jatta as Jatta hasn't been 100% on the ball lately.

I agree Dennis deserves a start, perhaps we should start a petition, if we get enough signatories it has to be debated in parliament.

However I trust MP to make the right decision as to who comes in for Hall, he hasn’t done too bad so far.