If Notts get promoted it will be through shear determination and hard work by the players and Martin and his team. They will have thoroughly deserved it in my opinion.

6 big games to go now, let’s hope they can stand firm and go from strength to strength while our rivals falter at the last hurdle, I’d love to go up automatically rather than the stressful playoffs which are fabulous if you win but not so good when you don’t.

I keep having to remind myself that MP is, by some distance, the youngest manager in the division. Also, I believe, the least experienced. Whether we get promotion or not, he's had an incredible first season in charge.

Also, by some distance the youngest of the four young head coaches the brothers have appointed. What he's got that they didn't have is proper experience as a serious footballer (at all levels).

I am not surprised, it's been speculated that they are amongst concerns about spending and they have spent money which is the concerning thing with the amount. With anything above 3million at this level, it could rapidly ruin a club. So, whilst I am not surprised I do share concerns about how they will get out of this.

No disrespect intended, but they are a small club and still reasemble a non-league team.

They have done well to achieve what they have over the years, but is it due to them playing risky? I hope not.

Given rumours of spiralling wage inflation in EFL1 and EFL2, I could imagine Tangen being one of our cheaper signings

It's nothing that we didn't already know, since the club had been open about the Reedtz having cleared the debts and it was always likely that the real loss would be smaller than most teams at our level, especially those competing for promotion. I wouldn't say a few bad signings is a major diaster because we can't always predict outcomes purely based on stats, ability and other infomation. It can come down to the footballer themselves, and whilst I do think the reported fee spent on Mai Traore could have been better spent.

I am less concerned about a loan signing with a certain wage than about a transfer fee where it's unlikely to see a return on the investment. Even with that said, I don't think our recruitment is subpar or unacceptable and I bet even the club would agree there's room for improvement.

Yet, there is always a much more positive stance with how we do go about recruiting and building a squad in a competitive way that doesn't put the clubs long term future at state.

The revenue figures could be so much enhanced if Notts reverted to selling Pukka Pies😉 Sorry #Notts, the current meat pies supplier is a "No" from me

Morning all. We’ve had a rough few days I had to take Mrs. T back to Scarborough A&E on Wednesday as her condition wasn’t getting any better they gave her some more medication, yesterday we decided to cut short our holiday and return home after another bad night. Then last night during the night she woke vomiting and shivering uncontrollably we had an awful night, we think it’s a side effect of the medication, she seems better at the moment and at least she’s in our own bed and familiar surroundings. There’s nothing worse than being away and feeling poorly.

She’ll be off to the docs if she has a recurrence today so we’ll see how things go.

Hope she can shake it off quickly@Fan of Big Tone now she's back home

Yes, I hope you feel better soon @Fan of Big Tone.

I haven't got much to say, other than I have fine tuned a few apps I made and now my attention does turn back to content during the day. Setting up my tasks for the next day at night, and finding some time to work on the various remaining items. It's been a bit cold the last two days, I haven't really felt like doing much. I have some blackberries to make Super his favourite type of crumble.

So, at some stage this weekend I will have a few things to do that are productive.

I have said this countless times on here, I think Shaun Derry would have done well in League Two had he been given the chance. The previous seasons we were always rolling dice, swapping gimmicks for pretense "football philosophy" in an effort to fool season ticket holders and general attending fans. It gave a false impression, but I do feel Derry could have improved at our current level. I think it would have given us a bit of stability at a time, Notts were clearly being poorly run.

Thank god, the Reedtz know how to pay and handle finances because the Trews and Hardy didn't.

Think Iorpenda was the only serious contender tbh. He persevered, gives you 90 mins of effort and there were glimpses of quality.

After the opening 25 mins or so few, if any others offered much (Palmer, maybe?) until Bennetts and Tangen appeared.

Collectively poor but too many blatant individual errors. Very bad night for Bedeau, Ness, Tsaroulla, Norburn and Jatta!

I agree with others. I thought Tom Iorpenda was far above anyone else. Its concerning that our senior players failed to step up to the plate especially when Norburn was dismissed.

Thanks to all who took the time to vote. Much appreciated.

Tom Iorpenda has been voted the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match against Oldham. He well on his way to getting the most PON Mon of the Match Gongs this season.

Welcome from me too @ted beardsall I hope you enjoy being a member of our friendly community.

Welcome on board @ted beardsall may you enjoy the comradery and togetherness of the PON community. Believe in the Ferret. 🐾

Welcome from me too @Peter Craddock you’ll find we are a friendly community so dive right in and enjoy.

@Peter Craddock a jolly good welcome to our wonderful community of fanatical fans, from me and Freddie the Ferret. 🐾

"Younger fans seem to care less about the value of fan ownership and want the club to find deep-pocketed owners to join the EFL arms race."

"At a packed meeting with the club’s board in February, fans were given sobering numbers about Wimbledon’s future. Their annual losses are about £2million — £4million less than the League One average, and £16million less than the highest."

"A significant part of the English football pyramid is in a precarious position. Wage inflation — rising by about 80 per cent in two years in League One"

Maybe the Oldham result (and one or two others actually) suggest we should re-think our recruitment strategy. To get out of league two it seems you need strong physical players with pace. Then when promoted add the more technical players as you climb the leagues.

I think had we lost 3-0 with 11 players on the pitch I’d be more concerned. Their wasn't much between the sides first half, both teams had good spells. For me we clearly tried to make positive changes at half-time by bringing on Ndluvo, but we didn't get to see if it worked because after 2 minutes we were suddenly one midfielder short and had an excess of forwards.

In hindsight we should’ve subbed off Norburn at half-time, of course it’s very easy to say all this after and it doesn’t help we basically only have 3 natural CM’s now and all of them were already playing! Maybe in future matches if Norburn is on a yellow he will be subbed off because he can’t be trusted to not do something stupid.

The biggest issue for me was how both goals came from our set-pieces. Are we committing too many players forward? Do we need to leave another player back? Maybe against teams like Oldham we do because if we stop their counter attacks, we make them a lot less dangerous…

31 minutes ago, menzinho said:

In hindsight we should’ve subbed off Norburn at half-time, of course it’s very easy to say all this after and it doesn’t help we basically only have 3 natural CM’s now and all of them were already playing! Maybe in future matches if Norburn is on a yellow he will be subbed off because he can’t be trusted to not do something stupid.

I was posting to do this on the match thread 😎 @menzinho I saw it a mile off.

It would have occurred to MP too, he botched that one. Norburn wasn't playing well either and we weren't making an impact either, despite chasing the game from very early on. Two other reasons to make that particular change.

Palmer was superb against Accy and Cheltenham. Let him run the show and put a true box-to-box player next to him (we certainly have one)

That's a massive blow for Notts with Matty Platt already out for the rest of the season.

Macari, Platt, Bedeau, & McDonald had a great understanding together. I'm not sure if Macari, Bedeau & Ness have the same. And we now only have young Browne as cover for any other injury that might happen to one of those three senior defenders.

Losing Platt and now McDonald is going to make ending the season strongly that bit harder. Ness did have a little spell earlier in the season playing in the middle when both Platt and McDonald were out. It’s probably not a bad thing he messed up his back pass in a match that was already lost, I suspect that’ll stop him from doing it for the rest of the season now! Just got to hope he can step up (and not injure himself in doing so).

It’s also very quiet regarding Robertson, which makes me think it's not good news about him either.

It's a terrible blow. Ness is a decent footballer though - he needs confidence and to find the leader inside of him.

MP likes his extra insurance, but without Norburn for the next two games (could be a blessing) he has no other option but to copy what he did at Accy.

Palmer running the show, the threat of Iorpenda surging from deep, 2 dangerous WBs, 2 players around Jatta. Let's take it to the opposition starting at Harrogate.

It's the only way now, we don't want to invite teams on to us.

Our lack of discipline is going to cost us an automatic promotion place. With the injuries starting to pile up too, it's a big headache for Martin Paterson.

I think Norburn might have a two game ban instead of just the one game due to his 2nd red card of the season.

Notts have been accused of not being physical enough which has cost us in recent seasons, but lack of discipline is different to showing physicality in games. It's just a self inflicted wound.

Notts are in fourth place in the League 2 Poor discipline league.

English League Two Discipline Stats, 2025-26 Season - ESPN (UK) https://share.google/nu5d07BUpk8me2n8W

There is mitigation in some cases @YoopEyes, Ndlovu's red was debatable and you're always going to pick up yellows due to the nature of this league. If you're not "up for the fight", you won't even be in the running.

Norburn's combative nature has done us good, but he's let us down twice now when every point counts. I've seen a few games now when he's been a red card waiting to happen - it's his responsibility not to be an idiot, but it's also down to MP to take him off when it's clear to everyone what's going to happen.

I mentioned that Ndlovu’s red card was ludicrous. We are a bit beyond the “unlucky” stage tho’.

The crazy element to me is that we are usually provoked or, at least, involved in mutually combative exchanges - the thuggery and dark arts that opponents utilise appears to go unpunished, for the most part. That is a result of both “cheating” and inadequate officiating in my view.

League 2 Table after the Oldham defeat.

some valid analysis from @ARLukomski

Who's been coaching who? Are we coaching them, or are they coaching us? 😂

Quality! Love the way the commentator just went ahead and gave it her best GOOOOOLLLLLLLL anyway!

@Chris I think that there is still room for someone to claim that number 10 role for Notts during the promotion run in.

I think that Jayden will give Martin more options on the bench. Martin does rate Jayden a lot, so I'm sure he's going to feature during the last 8 games & possibly the 3 playoff games if it is to be the playoffs.

To be fair, he can play out wide so there's options, and I think having someone else in those wider attacking positions will be help but I do look at our squad and wonder how he will get game time.

It's a question for Martin Paterson not me, and naturally Jayden Luker needs to take whatever chances come his way.

I already accepted that the No10 conundrum, if it's going to be solved at all, will be solved by committee, and he's one more for the committee!

Step by step I guess. As Chris says game time may be limited so he will have to try to shine in sub appearances and take it from there. We absolutely can't take chances or allow someone to rebuild their game in these 8 cup finals we have left .... Autos is one or two slip ups out of our grasp, and play-offs is 75% failure

Iorpenda, hat tip to Palmer too

i wished conor grant had shown the spark he did against accrington but i think he was pretty quiet, most of the players did very well and i think my choice would be between jodi jones and tom iorpenda but i have gone with who i felt played brilliantly throughout.

The poll has now closed. Thank you to all who voted. I'm pleased to announce that Tom Iorpenda, by an overwhelming majority, has been voted the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match v Cheltenham. Well done Tom.

Charlton Athletic 1-2 Norwich City

Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Portsmouth

Stevenage 0-2 Reading

Wigan Athletic 1-0 Exeter City 🃏

Accrington Stanley 1-3 Chesterfield

Shrewsbury Town 1-1 Crewe Alexandra

Altrincham 0-2 Southend United

Yeovil Town 1-1 Morecambe

No Freddie the Ferret again as he is still boating in this beautiful weather.

Charlton Athletic 1 v 2 Norwich City

QPR 1 v 1 Portsmouth

Stevenage 2 v 1 Reading

Wigan Athletic 3 v 0 Exeter City

Accrington Stanley 2 v 2 Chesterfield

Shrewsbury Town1 v 0 Crewe Alexandra

Altrincham 0 v 0 Southend United

Yeovil Town 3 v 1 Morecambe

With or without Freddie we do the business. 😁

The results:

Charlton Athletic 0-1 Norwich City
QPR 6-1 Portsmouth
Stevenage 1-0 Reading
Wigan Athletic 2-0 Exeter City
Accrington Stanley 0-1 Chesterfield
Shrewsbury Town 0-4 Crewe Alexandra
Altrincham 1-0 Southend United
Yeovil Town 3-2 Morecambe

@super_ram claims the (imaginary) prize this week!

There's little change overall, with @william1984 still leading the way...

The next round is on Saturday, so keep your eyes peeled here for the fixtures on Wednesday. Thanks for playing, see you all then

The issue for me with how Cheltenham played was always about if they could maintain their start, as they did seem very well organised. I think they were better in spells, collectively as a team but never overall in the first half. It was a good first half, against two attacking minded teams but they fell apart due to themselves. Their goals were well-made, but from a Notts view, they were very frustrating.

Second half, Notts did show a lot more of themselves, and even without the red card we would have won. It might have made them a bit more competitive but they were always looking like their energy levels were dropping.

Steve Cotterill is a bit of a moron; there's some valid points but he's that typical 90s whining manager.

There's a lot of credit to be given to how Cheltenham started, but at the same time you are wearing tinted glasses if you cannot accept that Notts were the better team. If you have to look for excuses, and justify them, then as a manager you know you aren't being completely honest. Referees may give advantage at times to teams, but the sending off was coming at a time where Cheltenham were just throwing silly challenges.

If you defend by trying to take out the opposition like that, then you have to blame yourself and expect what might come. You can't pin it down to the official, nor can you gloss over how good the opposition team played when things clicked. We are a very good team when that happens, even at our worst we are. We are fully capable of dismentling teams, so it would be like me avoiding credit to them just because how easy we made the second half look.

cheltenhams second goal, their player had all the time in the world and both of their goals were poor marking decisons. some fans made comments about james belshaw not reacting but what could he have done? Maybe he could have done something with the second goal but the first happened quickly. he made some very good instinctive decisions to claim loose balls i thought he did well despite them coming back into the game.

notts always looks better in the second half, there was calmness about the play and it was very entertaining to see us attack.

On 25/01/2026 at 20:21, liampie said:

i am not adding this to be negative but i thought straight away, here is the new junior morias.

Definitely, in the sense that it's insurance for the second half of a promotion bid.

Say we keep Jatta, but he got injured....we absolutely have to have a physical presence at both ends of the pitch. I wouldn't like to see us in play-off semis against Salford or Cambridge say, and we get bullied and wimp out like last season.

Apart from that there's not much similarity, different style, age, length of contract. He's got a season and a half to prove himself and make a contribution.. He may only get about 6 goals across that time and still be popular and a good signing.

On 27/01/2026 at 10:16, Mapperley Pie said:

Agree @McPie . Just listened to his interview and he comes across very well. Very clear of his role and how he would fit in. An old fashioned Division 4 forward 🤔.

Yeah, I think the new signings and his signing in particular will be a boost and I really fancy us to win well today.

He seems very positive and the way he spoke about Notts County made us sound like the place to be. Would all the players watch that interview? His enthusiasm about joining County could give an extra boost to the positivity and pride in wearing the shirt.

On 31/01/2026 at 05:28, theAnticlough said:

Definitely, in the sense that it's insurance for the second half of a promotion bid.

Say we keep Jatta, but he got injured....we absolutely have to have a physical presence at both ends of the pitch. I wouldn't like to see us in play-off semis against Salford or Cambridge say, and we get bullied and wimp out like last season.

Apart from that there's not much similarity, different style, age, length of contract. He's got a season and a half to prove himself and make a contribution.. He may only get about 6 goals across that time and still be popular and a good signing.

i think my concerns have been addressed, as he looks fully capable and i think if he was here at the start of the season he would be fighting matt dennis to be our highest goal scorer and jatta of course.