I hate to say it, but it might be a blessing for Aston Villa. Leicester City winning the Premier League wasn't the best outcome in the long run for the club, wage increase demands and rushing natural development undid their efforts. Whilst Villa are unlucky, at least they can continue to keep building.

Teams are always in a rush for success, without thinking of the downsides which often outweigh the positives. Yes, the decision sucks but they are finally achieving and I personally would hope it continues without focusing away from the Premier League.

Interesting Podcast. 

One of the realities of modern football that was mentioned is that the Football pyramid is no longer a pyramid but a Skyscraper with the PL right at the top.

As they all agreed the gap between the PL and even the Championship is getting wider year by year.

They mentioned that a Sky commentator said that the Championship playoff final was a match between clubs that whoever won would be favourite to come straight down next season.

That reality is sadly very true now & some people wouldn't even place a bet on it now.

The results of the final matches today confirmed that 5 of the top seven richest clubs in the PL qualified for the Champions League, & the sixth, Spurs, qualified for the CL by winning the Europa league during the previous week. So nothing has really changed this season.

A football regulator with strong powers to regulate football is what's needed.

The podcast talked about having a fair game 

This is the website.

With success comes higher salaries, better players means gate prices increase and it's a natural progression. A skyscraper would be a good way to look at the Premier league, but not so much the Championship. Teams can flirt between the 3 lowest professional tiers without much changing. Establishing yourself as a Championship side, and modernising at that stage can he costly. Teams that buy new stadiums, don't always get the success they in vision and then there's your Blackpool's, Portsmouth's and even rarer Bournemouth's.

I wonder what Sol Campbell makes of this? Lee Grant was a good keeper, it's nice to him being given a shot at management but I often feel moves like this are setup for failure. He needs plenty of time and support, hope he does well.

@super_ram

An interesting appointment .I wish him wel.

Walsall:

"Monday’s result made it even more painful for Walsall, after being 12 points clear at the top of the table in mid-January and 15 clear of fourth place, then just three wins in their final 21 games meant they had to settle for a spot in the play-offs." 

This doesn't look good..

If he goes to MK Dons that would be terrible news. 

@Chris is this a credible source or just one of those made up click bait stories?

I’d be gutted if McGoldrick left, even more so if it was join MK. He's played under Paul Warne and he wanted him to stay at Derby before he signed for us, so I could totally see it happening...

A case of wait and see now I guess. If MK have offered him a deal there’s no way we’ll be able to match the wages offered. It's mad now, whatever league we are in there’s always a club that can pay ridiculous amounts of money to players. 

As good as he is realistically he won’t play every game next season and that’s probably reflected in the deal we will have offered him. He will be tough to replace though, just in terms of skill I don’t think many can get close to him at this level.

If Plymouth return with £750k Jatta bid, some real elbow room for rebuilding. Though worried about Didzy's own future here

Noticed lots of transfer dealings going on except at Meadow Lane. Let's get this new Head Coach in place asap & get this recruitment phase rolling.

I'm going to leave this one here. Ollie Pearce. Yes he's 29 but he's a proven goal scorer. He's out of contract at York next year. I think he's worth taking a chance on, especially if Jatta leaves. 

Paddy Power do well with their skits, they always tend to be funny and I enjoyed Peter Crouches involvement. Peter Reid also, respect to him for mentioning the Everton draw. 🤣

I'm not sure point deductions works as a penalty, transfer embargoes and the likes tend to cause a fairer balance. Perhaps, they should sell players to cover the loss as this would significantly weaken them.

Manchester City being allowed to drag theirs on, is the only exception I agree with point docking.

It’d be nice to see him figure more in the first team squad next season.

I'd love to see more youngsters pushing into the first team, Cassius Cisse does look like a great prospect but I can't help but feel Notts tends to focus more on one, at the cost of others and never push them enough to see it through.

Good to see him scoring and earning some spotlight, I hope he does break into our team. Just hope it doesn't work against us.

Many thanks to anyone who has helped me out with the survey. It is still live if anyone has a spare few minutes. 

I agree that Match of the Day won't be the same without him. He is a very good presenter with lots of experience & knowledge of the game.

He will be missed but we all said that when Kenneth Wolstenholme, David Coleman, Des Lynam & Jimmy Hill left. All were excellent in their own way.

Kenneth Wolstenholme presented & commentated too. Things are so different now.

Someone else will come in and make the programme their own. I personally don't watch M of the D as there is more analysis than highlights nowadays. If I want to see brief highlights I can get what I want online.

Match of the Day could be good, but the host needs to have played football for me. I don't think, you can connect with a pundit or general host. If he had the time, Ian Wright would be a good call, but someone younger might be a better decision. I don't watch it these days, but have seen comments on Twitter (x).

What was just seen TV, these days is a bit of a joke. I would rather see much highlights, then some of the discussion segments.

I wished ITV could get a shot at having their own highlight show, as in the past this made the BBC work for it.

I watch MotD every time it’s on usually in bed while Mrs. T is reading, I sometimes fall asleep near the end but catch up next day, it was very emotional on Sunday, they did a bit of a montage of Gary moments he was very emotional. I much prefer Gary Lineker to Mark Chapman on his MotD2 on Sunday there’s far too much analysis on that programme.

We don't sing "We're the Pride of, we're the Pride of Nottingham..." There's so many generic chants which does nothing. Such, Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottingham.

Once that's been changed at the start of the game or before kick off, there's no real point unless the the opposition chats warrant the response.

We don't really counter opposition chants either, it happens far more often away from home but virtually rare at Meadow Lane.

@Chris Singing "We're the Pride of Nottingham" seems to have been lost in recent years 

14 minutes ago, Piethagoram said:

@Chris Singing "We're the Pride of Nottingham" seems to have been lost in recent years 

Occasionally, it's sung but very rarely these days. There's a number of chants we should always at least chat once, Jimmy's one for example.

End of the days play.

Yorkshire are 176 for 5 chasing 463 runs to win.

Lunch on the final day. 

Yorkshire are 239 for 6.

A win for Notts.

Yorkshire 299 all out.

Notts win by 164 runs.

Problem is, the man in black who is the only opinion that matters, made the decision to send Jatta off & unfortunately that decision had a big bearing on Notts's chances in the 2nd leg.

A refereeing decision, ( and subsequent FA rulings) that sums up our season, as regards how we were ref'd. A sense of injustice lingers

The thing is, I don't deny the red card was the right call and he should have left the field without controversy. However, the referee deserves to be fined for failing to control the game and missing key decisions. Some of the AFC Wimbledon players should be investigated for their actions, but these won't happen.

Morning all, the overnight rain has cleared and it’s bright and breezy at the moment.

The Ring doorbell we bought the other day for £99 has now been reduced to £49, so we’ve bought another and we’re sending the original back for a refund thus saving £40. 

It’s a shame the weather has changed this weekend our son and family are camping but they’re making the most of it yesterday they all went paddle boarding on a lake, the kids took to it well but mum and dad went in the water a few times. 

Have a great day everyone.

Well we had a good amount of rain on Saturday morning here. It was very welcome indeed for Gardner's like myself.

It's a nice pleasant morning today but a little windy. Mrs has put the washing out to dry.

Time for a little walk I think. Get that heart pumping a little. 

Had a video call from @Chris and family in Skeg this mornng.Hope the weather holds o.ut for them

I might be in the minority but I don't think Notts should take Williams back. I will be eternally grateful to him for getting Notts back into the football league, but it's time for Notts to look elsewhere.

I'm sure that Luke is still hoping to make it big in the Championship, so I don't want Notts to be a temporary stopgap for any Manager or Head Coach.

Notts are a big club at this level & the owners shouldn't have a problem attracting lots of interest from experienced Managers & Head Coaches.

Depends who he’s up against! If in a couple of weeks he’s announced as the new head coach I won’t be upset lets put it that way. He was 6 points off the play-offs in the Championship before he totally fumbled the West Brom managerial situation…

I wouldn't disagree with you, but a lot of fans forgave Williams far more easily than they forgive Maynard. 

You make good points in your last paragraph and this is why I'd like to see the experienced coaching staff around him. For the last 4 months, he hasn't really had much to bounce off.

For those who voted it was an overwhelming vote for Stuart to go. 

Excluding don't knows...reflects roughly the 91% to go on Notts County Talk

Grealish will come again at another club. Wouldn't surprise me that Villa might take him back, especially as they look like they will be back in the CL.

With Grealish spending most of his time on the bench it demonstrates that City can afford to have a £100 million player on the sidelines, when at another PL club he would be a regular starter.

The farming of the most expensive players by the richest clubs has to be prevented, whether it be by capping the total transfer amount clubs can pay out every season or a restriction on the number of most expensive players a club can have in the squad at any one time.

Also, I think these rich clubs buy the best players from another club to make that club less competitive.

I'm expecting that some of the Forest players will be farmed off in the same fashion in the close season. Gibbs-White has already had interest from City, Murillo from Liverpool & there's talk of Elanga having interest from Newcastle.

The top six clubs can't have an outsider upsetting their champions league prospects. It just won't do 

Sunderland have the potential of being a massive club if they make it to the PL. They have a large stadium which has the potential of being extended to around 65K, which they could regularly fill easily.

The big six won't like it because it will be another club threatening their dominance & likewise their European revenue.

In my opinion, parachute payments should be abolished. No team should be rewarded for being relegated.

If a club cannot afford players wages after relegation, they can easily make money by selling those players & scaling the club down to fit it's new level.

To even out the PL, there should be a transfer cap & wages cap. Also, clubs should be restricted in the total value of the players allowed in a squad. This would stop the richest clubs farming off the best players. 

These are all sensible ideas to make the PL & all the other leagues in the football pyramid competitive, but unfortunately these ideas will never come to fruition.

Just look at the problems of putting  a football regulator in place with a clear mandate & powers to oversee professional football in this Country.

Just look at the way they keep kicking the decision on the 115 charges against Man City down the road. Delay after delay even though we were promised a decision before the end of the season.

Absolutely spot on @Robbie

One frustration, Jatta standing beyond the last defender  on Notts goal kicks...and then we play it short...duh...

There are two ways to look at it.

Possession-based football as a good attacking, well-structured team, or one that uses possession as a means to maximise the amount of points picked up when their squad isn't as polished as others. Personally, there's nothing wrong with either, but you have to accept limitations and that reflects on a healthier level of expectations. To some level of degree, we suit both of these.

As it's just a means of how to get the best out of the squad. Playing 'pretty' football, you need to play with the desire to run and take on players. That level of creativity is important with the overall goal of being quality, not just in control, but with how to punish teams. I think we are over halfway to achieving this, as I would like to think Jodi Jones with his confidence back and Will Jarvis coming into the XI would most certainly give us wing backs who aren't afraid to run into space. Defensively, I think we are one solid defender away from being completed at the back. I believe that Lucas Ness and Lewis Macari will effectively strengthen this area, with Rod McDonald perfectly suited for rotation.

I do think Notts needs more attacking options if we are to be the complete possession-based team.

The thing is, now we have sacked Stuart Maynard and said our goal is promotion, we can't really fall back on possession-based football that is aimed at making the most of a team that needs to strike when a chance comes. We need another striker, a solid attacking midfielder, and one more creative outlet in the centre of the park to go alongside Matt Palmer and Scott Robertson.

Weak teams can become effective by making the most out of a system which suits the players, but comes with a lack of star power/quality.

I just want to see Notts treat Meadow Lane as a place where we must win, and be competitive away from home. Yet, I am not sure "promotion" will just accept possession-based football, with a lack of quality on goal. We need to become more clinical for this to work out, with a fair level of depth. The right signings could breed confidence, as would the right head coach appointment.

Pretty football is great, but you need to be creative. Players must want the ball, willing to make runs or draw players off them. I think our work ethic and stamina in games really needs to be boosted more than we need to see improvements in quality. The only exception would be clear goalscorers, as they make all the difference in football.

I see no reason to change the style of play, I fully believe you can get promoted playing whatever style you want as long as you recruit both players and coaches that can do it! We have assembled a squad that has a lot technically very good footballers whose skills are better suited to spending more time on the ball than off it.

I don’t think the style was the sole reason we didn’t get promoted, we were just far to lack-lustre and safe at times this season. I’ve seen lots of teams in League 2 play direct football and it be pretty useless, of course it can be effective if done right, but lots of teams in the division play this way and are worse off because of it.

I totally agree there has to be touch of pragmatism, if the pitch is truly awful then I would expect any half decent coach to tell the team to take less risks playing it out from the back. And you can still play possession based football and play direct balls, they just need to partnered with a good attacking run.

I fully believe we can get promoted playing this style of football, this season we’ve been pretty average and still finished 6th!

I would like to believe Notts allowed Charlie Whitaker to leave due to them not wanting to match potential wage demands, rather than the club believing he isn't good enough. I personally would have given him a two-year deal. He looked very promising for us, and I know he only scored a few times, but he was a creative spark. Him and Will Jarvis, I felt could be the future of Notts.

The rest make a lot of sense to me.

Regarding Sam Austin, I have defended him in the past, but he hasn't been the same player we know he can be this past season. Much like Adam Chicksen, there are moments of brilliance, but the overall consistency is lacking. I wouldn't have started him in our away leg against the Dons, so I think he would have been more of an impact/squad player. The fact he could fill-in in several positions, that is something, but really there are better and more consistent players.

That said, Whitaker leaving seems like a loss, whereas I completely understand the retained list.

I can see the logic behind it. It'll be tough to replace Sam Slocombe - whoever comes in to replace him will know he's going to be second choice behind Bass. In Slocombe we had someone who accepted he would likely be second fiddle, but who could also step in and do a job if called upon. I really don't want to go back to the days of panic-signing a keeper when our first choice gets injured. He may have wanted to leave though.

I'm disappointed about Austin, like Jones he was out for a long time this season and was clearly rusty when he came back. But then the fact that we were relying on him also tells a story. As we found out to our cost last season, we can't be sentimental when we need to improve the squad. I hope they all find new clubs, the promotion squad are all club heroes in my eyes.

Just an observation

Notts announced their retained list. Did Stuart Maynard have input in that decision before he left Notts?

Surely it would have been better to wait until the new Head Coach had been appointed first.

Contracts weren't up in most cases until end of June. The decision could have waited a little longer.

9 times of of 10 96 points in any other league gets you promoted, so I totally feel for all the York fans right now.

I think the 2 relegation spots in League 2 give teams a false sense of security at times, but the reality is if you get relegated into the NL it is so much harder to come straight back up - as we know all to well! 3 up and 3 down will actually make it easier to get back into the EFL if you do get relegated.

I think had we not gone up in our season where we got 107 points, it would've sparked some sort of action. But because we won the play-offs, everyone got to say the right outcome happened, so in the end it didn't really matter. I can see this topic and debate dragging for a long while yet.

It's long overdue. Once upon a time, losing your league place was like being cast into oblivion with little chance of ever regaining it. Luckily those days are gone and there's a bit of movement between the leagues - 17 of the 23 teams in League Two have played in non-league - but not enough. Teams getting 90+ points and not going up is ridiculous.

I'm sure the NL would love another promotion spot, it's the Football League that needs to move. In a way it's like the turkeys voting for Christmas, but as @menzinho says it would make it easier to come back up. After all, while you're in L2 you're only ever one bad season away from the void.

Vastly underused by us, at a point where he would have got us goals and did when he started playing. Much like Jonathan Forte, so I am pleased to see Kristian Dennis extending his style with Tranmere Rovers.

In our opening game, he took quite a lot of banter and just smiled.

That's something about ex-players I really respect, not taking it the wrong way or allowing it to become more hostile.

He’s one of a few ex Notts players I keep an eye on, I’m pleased he’s been offered a new contract.