https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2021/april/torquay-goal-260421/

Welcome to round 44 of the prediction league! If I had $2 billion of funding I could rename it the Super Prediction League, but unfortunately JP Morgan aren't returning my calls The matches kick off at 3pm on Saturday, don't forget your jokers and good luck!

Blackburn Rovers v Huddersfield Town

Coventry City v Preston North End

Lincoln City v Hull City

Ipswich Town v AFC Wimbledon

Carlisle United v Harrogate Town

Exeter City v Newport County

Halifax Town v Bromley

Solihull Moors v Yeovil Town

Game 40 - The Gulls (A)

Team: Torquay United

Date: 24/04/2021

Where: Plainmoor

What line-up should Neal Ardley opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

As any of you not living under a rock will know by now, 12 "elite" clubs have pulled off an unparalleled show of arrogance, greed and hubris by announcing a breakaway European Super League.

You probably don't need me to tell you that the format is rubbish. The idea of having 15 founder teams that are always present spits in the face of sporting merit, especially when you consider that several of these clubs don't even quality for the Champions League regularly. And if they have 38 Money League fixtures plus the Premier League, the inevitable result is that they'll send what is basically a B team into the Premier League. It'd make a total mockery of the competition.

Of course, the American owners of Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool don't care about any of that. They want to secure a place at the top table forever, no matter what.

Now is the time to show backbone. UEFA and the Premier League do at least have the clout to kiss this scheme dead, and the government also seems willing to take action. It is so important - right now we don't really know how many people are going to be returning to the stadiums, and grotesque nonsense like this could motivate many to turn their back on the game completely. But I think and hope the dozen have overplayed their hand - maybe the time has come to finally roll back the tide of corporate influence in football and give fans a real say, maybe roughly in line with the ownership model in Germany.

From a Notts perspective, I can't help wondering how many promotion places would be up for grabs if the dirty dozen are expelled from the PL. And why didn't we think of the "founder members can't be relegated" wheeze back in 1888?

Another Slocombe injury.

Notts sign 36 year-old Luke Steele.

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2021/april/luke-steele-signs-200421/



Sorry to be negative again, but what is the point of this? If Pilling isn't good enough, why have him on the books, especially that in the case that Slocombe is injured, we immediately bring in another keeper. Don't get me wrong - I don't think Pilling is up to standard on quite a few areas - but what message does it send to backup keepers? We don't even use them as bench warmers, essentially Doyle is our backup keeper!

I had exactly the same feelings when we brought in the 20 right backs, of whom none contributed in anyway. 

Even if Steele is a revelation it won't change my feelings - if we don't put a keeper on the bench and sign another player the moment our number 1 is out, there is no point of having Luke Pilling. 

First of all, I was Ardley in. I didn't want him to be sacked and whilst I was frustrated with performances, I didn't think he should've gone. He should have had till the end of the season at least. 

However, performances were becoming a concern. Since the start of 2021, we only played well against Dagenham and Yeovil and the last 20 against Solihull (h). I didn't think we'd win the league but probably would have slotted into 5th or 6th. He wanted us to take risks and gamble. He said it a lot in his pre-match and post match interviews that's what he wanted us to do but the team, more often than not, failed to step up. 

We needed to commit more players forward, find ways to defeat the high press and release out of our feet quicker. We needed to press the opposition back and give them more to think about as there is more players forward. This would've given us more options to pass to in the final third, which means a higher chance of putting a chance away. We needed to sign an upgrade on Rose to help us with this to allow the connection between the defence and attack but we recruited the wrong type of player in Reeves. We also never replaced Kristian Dennis. Knowles is raw and untested and instead of a 19 year old unproven talent from up the A60, we needed a goalscorer. Playing one up top has done nothing to help Wootton, as he thrived off playing with Dennis in a two man front line. In my opinion, the Ardley signings were Reeves, Chicksen, Pilling, Knowles and Wolfe and the Football Radar signings were Rodrigues and Sam (not counting Sloth cos he wasn't really here). There really should have been a more closer look into scouting methods. Let Ardley and his staff scout and let FR scout and then come together to compare to determine who we exactly is the best fit. 

Going back to carrying out instructions on the pitch. One word. MENTALITY. The thing that has been lacking at this club for what seems like an eternity. Ardley and Burchnall want us to take risks, get forward and press the opposition back, but we have this mentality of sitting back, inviting pressure and letting them come on to us when there is no need. It's like we're constantly worried that if we concede or make a mistake it's the end. There's no urge to have a go and take risks and take the game to the opposition and press them back into their penalty area. There's no mindset to rise above what the opposition will throw at us and come out with our just rewards. There's nothing there saying "no matter what happens, we will win." There's no mindset of we will win no matter if we play well or not and there's no belief. There's no standards and no motivation to keep on going and to run our socks off for the club. All this talk of "we want to go up cos it's a big club and we want to get the club back to where it belongs" is just talk. Show us you want to because in the last few games of Ardley's tenure and so far Burch's reign you haven't. 

I've stopped feeling angry about it tbh. It isn't even a numbness inside. I just don't feel anything. I don't feel attached. I love this club and I am never in it for the just the glory, but this is unacceptable. I may have not been there for the past eras but it's disrespectful to the past legends. It's disrespectful to the legacies of Sirrel, Warnock, Bradd and Masson and many others who helped build the history for this club. Show you care and sort it out because we can't carry on like this. 

I think you all deserve an apology from me.

Back in 2012, my then girlfriend (now wife) took up crocheting. She found that she enjoyed it, and one day she presented me with a crocheted magpie. It was nearly all black and to be honest looked more like a crow, but it's the thought that counts. It took pride of place on my work desk. We were in the top half of League One at the time and had players like Alan Judge and Lee Hughes in our team. Life was beautiful. My wife got bored with crocheting and never bothered to make a second one for me. One for sorrow.

Then bad things started to happen. We began to circle the drain in League One and eventually went down. Alan Hardy took the club over. I changed my job, took my now-dusty single magpie home, put it in a  drawer and forgot about it. The unthinkable happened - another relegation. We reached a play-off final, but ultimately couldn't overcome the power of my lone crocheted magpie. And now we lose against Solihull Moors.

Recently I found the sole magpie again and realised, to my horror, that it's all my fault. I have begged my wife to crochet a second magpie (two for joy). Then we will definitely turn the corner and climb the leagues again. What could possibly go wrong?

Welcome to the last midweek prediction league this season. The matches kick off on Tuesday at 7.00pm (with the exception of the Bananarama Conference Alliance matches, which kick off at 7.45pm). You know what to do by now. Good luck!

Preston North End v Derby County

Sheffield Wednesday v Blackburn Rovers

Accrington Stanley v Doncaster Rovers

Shrewsbury Town v Wigan Athletic

Colchester United v Southend United

Mansfield Town v Scunthorpe United

Chesterfield v Halifax Town

Wealdstone v Maidenhead United

We're also underway in Germany now - we've had the first round of the German Cup (DFB Pokal) and the Bundesliga started at the weekend, while the lower divisions have already been in action for a few weeks. Summer football feels strange, but this season feels a bit special to me.

The Bundesliga has long since turned into the dullest division in my opinion. Despite the lack of top-class transfers up to last week's capture of Philip Cotinho, Bayern Munich are the overwhelming favourites to win the league yet again. Only Dortmund have a serious chance of overtaking them. Eintracht Frankfurt just missed out on the Champions League last season, have been hit by the departures of Jovic and Sebastian Haller and Rebic and Gacinovic are also trying to engineer a move away. I doubt they'll trouble the top of the table due to the burden of a Europa League campaign, but they're good for a cup run (see below). Unfortunately the Bundesliga is blighted by a number of plastic clubs no-one really cares about (RB Leipzig, Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg) and which are likely to be in or around the European spots again. At least Cologne are back to bring a bit of colour and noise to the league.

Bundesliga 2 - with Hamburg, St. Pauli, Stuttgart, Hanover and Nuremberg, the second division has a number of real heavyweights more used to life at the top level. Will they monopolise the promotion spots or will Holstein Kiel or Heidenheim make a bid? Last year's promotion race was an incredibly tight race, with Paderborn ultimately winning a second successive promotion, so I'm not making any bets here. "Interesting" stadium experiences can be found at Darmstadt, with one stand under construction, Karlsruhe, whose ground currently consists of a pile of rubble and some temporary stands, and SV Wehen, who are likely to be outnumbered by away fans most weeks.

The 3. Liga is the one I'm really into as my favourites SV Waldhof Mannheim have finally won promotion into it after 16 years in "amateur" leagues. The season here is already a month old and Waldhof sit in fifth, unbeaten and with an average crowd in five figures - happy days! For the first time in 19 years, Waldhof have also moved above their rivals, the six-time German champions Kaiserslautern, who could be in for another difficult season. The league also boasts names such as 1860 Munich, Eintracht Braunschweig and European Cup Winners' Cup winners Magdeburg. Almost every opponent is an interesting one, even lesser supported ones such as Bayern Munich II (sigh) and KFC Uerdingen (an obnoxious little club back by a highly wealthy but highly volatile Russian owner who sacked their manager when they were third in the league, then sacked his successor as they slid towards the bottom of the table. Also employers of Kevin Großkreuz).

And of course there was the German Cup the weekend before last. This is seeded so that teams from the third division and below get a higher club at home. The first round passed without any major shocks, with the exception of fourth division side SC Verl's win over Augsburg As a reward for their efforts, they'll play the decidedly unglamorous Kiel in the next round. And Waldhof Mannheim played Eintracht Frankfurt in front of a sell-out crowd of 24,000, who brought their first team and very nearly got knocked out! Below I've shamelessly posted a couple of videos - the first shows the general atmosphere (whoever filmed it must have been standing close to me), the second the goals (plus loads of replays - it was the only one I found that enabled embedding). Enjoy!

Right then you lot. These matches kick off on Saturday, but at the earlier time of 12.30pm. So get your predictions in nice and early - they won't be counted if they're sent in too late Otherwise, the rules are the same as always. Good luck!

Middlesbrough v QPR

Stoke City v Preston North End

Burton Albion v Plymouth Argyle

Blackpool v Sunderland

Carlisle United v Port Vale

Newport County v Cambridge United

Chesterfield v Bromley

Dagenham & Redbridge v Solihull Moors

Game 39 - Spitfires (H)

Team: Eastleigh

Date: 17/04/2021

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Neal Ardley opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

Slocombe 6 Exposed for the goal conceded, one great save to stop it being 0-2

DKE 5 Not as influential as once was, but then again it maybe the wing back system

Rawlinson 4 Underperforming now is of real concern. Never comfortable in a back 3 which is asked to pass

Turner 3 Took a yellow for the team, or more precisely for himself, for being so utterly......

Lacey 6 At least looks comfortable in defending and passing

Chicksen 4 Dead ball delivery hopeless

Reeves 4 Too deep about nothing

Griffiths 4.5 OK ish, did some nice things but far too few in the big scheme of things to make a positive contribution

Knight 4 There is some spark in there but an ability to get into this game was lacking

Knowles 4.5 Back to goal, he cannot control the ball, consistently depossessed . 

Wootton 4.5 another goal less game, but the only front player who can hold up a ball

Subs

Enzio 5.5 at least showed some spark

JOB 5 a good cut back though it was well read 

Miller 3.5 awful crossing of the ball in good positions

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/mar/12/low-cost-high-pressing-how-barnsley-took-the-championship-by-storm

Barnsley have a “soft cap” on signing players over the age of 24 (at 26, top scorer Cauley Woodrow was the oldest player in their starting lineup in midweek) and target undervalued players from the lower leagues and across Europe who can develop into assets. Metrics such as PPDA (passes per defensive action) detail the intensity with which a team defends and can help recruit players accustomed to Barnsley’s gegenpressing philosophy.

“If we look at a player who is extremely talented, and his goals and assists are through the roof but he is not able to sustain an element of pressing and defending high up the field for 90 minutes, that is a red flag for us,” says Murphy. “There are lots of clubs that use data and have brought in analysts to push in this direction ... but at Barnsley it’s the principle, it’s the root of what we are doing. There are clubs that say, ‘We need to bring it in as an ingredient’ but here it is the bedrock. Like Brentford in a way and Red Bull on a global scale, data is the first thing that wipes out the noise for us.”

Slocombe 6 - Cracking save to deny Hudlin. Some of his late kicks gave me the scares

Rawlinson 5 - Poor decision making. Lost his man for one of the goals

Ellis 6 - Good distribution. Not much else

Lacey 5 - Like Rawlo, poor decision making and erratic passing

Kelly-Evans 5 - One good run forward in the first half. For all this "HE'S THE SAVIOUR" stuff, his forward outlet has been awful

Reeves 6 - Started well but his impact on the game diminished. Tries to do too much

Griffiths 7 - Controlled the play and put himself about a lot, trying to get things going. Only one of two who bothered

Chicksen 6 - Got down the line well and linked with Knowles in the first half. Diminished impact 

Knight 7 - Made some great runs in behind and always looked a threat. One of two who were bothered

Wootton 4 - Sorry I'm not having it. He scores that easy chance we win. Poor hold up play and lack of control

Knowles 6 - Well taken goal but he scores one and suddenly thinks he's won the ballon d'or and becomes ball greedy

Sam/Ruben/Enzio N/A - Didn't impact the game much

There is a massive problem in the mentality department. We have this issue where we will happily sit deep and invite pressure for no reason. It's like we want to concede. It's been the same all season. Go 1-0 up and think we've won. IB is trying with a group of players who didn't create much under Ardley as well. Both managers want us to take risks, press high and get forward but when the players cross that white line onto the pitch, they freeze in the moment and don't do what the manager wants. 

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

Powerful, no nonsense, no mistakes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ferguson_(footballer,_born_1994)

https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/pools-sign-david-ferguson/

Probably the best Left Back in the NL... a checkered career of ups and downs (maybe a late developer)  but Hartlepool have spotted a talent. How did we end up signing Chicksen when this guy should have been talent spotted. 

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

Physical presence with good feet and can strike a ball

Five rounds to go, 135 points still to play for... As usual, the action kicks off at 3pm on Saturday and you have a joker each!

Bristol City v Nottingham Florist

Huddersfield Town v Rotherham United

Crewe Alexandra v Oxford United

Sunderland v Charlton Athletic

Salford City v Stevenage

Southend United v Crawley Town

Aldershot v Yeovil Town

Wrexham v Stockport County

We've are 10 games in, but collectively we've only rated the performances 6 times, 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses.

Here's the results.

Some of the results are skewed as they've not played many games, with the games they've played perhaps being when we've lost, scoring a lower rating. 

Using a minimum 4 game rating gives a clearer picture:

It starts to show a clearer picture. The new Dutch boys, despite a bad start (especially for Sam), are starting to rate high consistently. DKE also has a solid rating, never spectacular, but consistent. 

The rest shows what you'd expect for a mixed bag of results - average ratings. JOB is having a poor season thus far, with Brindley and Wootton perhaps being below par.

You can see the limitations of these averages though. Turner, who has had a nightmare start and only slightly redeemed himself, ranks better than Wootton. Despite low scores, he's had a couple of high ones which bump him right back up. Enzio has been hot and cold, poor at the start but better recently, whereas a Doyle and Reeves have been much more consistent throughout.

Game 37 - Pools (A)

Team: Hartlepool United

Date: 10/04/2021

Where: Victoria Park

What line-up should Neal Ardley opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

Slocombe - 7 - Good command of his area in the first half where he was bombarded with cross, no real chance with the goals.

Rawlinson - 4 - It's his man for both the goals.
Ellis - 6 - Dealt with everything thrown at him.
Chicksen - 5.5 - Had one dodgy moment, otherwise did OK.

Enzio - 2 - Was it a tactic to let them cross it? Allowed so many crosses to come in from their full back in the first half. He's not a defender.
Barnett - 0 - I feel like a broken record. He's just not good enough.

Reeves - 6 - He wasn't terrible.
O'Brien - 5.5 - Runs about.
Griffiths - 5 - He was OK. Probably unlucky to be subbed.

Wotton - 6 - Won a lot of ball. Should be finishing that chance in the first half.
Knowles - 5.5 - Tried, but decision making lacking.

Knight - 6 - Impacts the game with his pace and directness.
Roberts - N/A - Gutted for him. We need to think about his career now, not our season.
DKE - 4.5 - Rubbish going forward. Always passes it back. 
 

Game 38 - The Moors (A)

Team: Solihull Moors

Date: 13/04/2021

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Neal Ardley opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

a composed strike of the ball 0-1

I don't think Jake Reeves is a bad player at all, I think his recent performances comes down to needing a rest.

He's been one of the better signings this season IMO, but he carries a lot of responsibility and I do feel hes one of the current players who plays with the right attitude. He wants to attack and use it in a way which can bring chances but as of late I have noticed he's been struggling.

If the performances aren't down to needing a break, but concern about his future or Neal Ardley [pre-sacking], I would've thought he'd return to his former self.

Due to the centre of midfield being quite bare, it's hard to give him rest because he's an important part of the team.