On this day five years ago, Notts County took on promotion-chasing Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Under a virtually cloudless sky, with the mercury at a nice level (much like this year now actually), we won 1-0 thanks to Joss Labadie's Roy of the Rovers style free kick.

Here it is in all its glory!

From Sky Sports News:

The FA, Premier League and EFL are close to agreement over the introduction of a winter break, Sky Sports News understands.

The FA council were being briefed on Wednesday on the progress of talks which were prompted by FA chief executive Martin Glenn almost two years ago.

Sky Sports News understands the majority of planned changes are agreed in principle - with the first break pencilled in for January and February in 2020.

If agreed, one round of Premier League matches would be played over two weeks, giving clubs a break from league action.

In return, the FA Cup fifth round will be played in midweek, with extra-time and penalties replacing replays.

Would you be happy with this, or should it remain as it is?

Hereford FC fan site Bull News has conducted an interview with Phil Stant, who had a stint at Notts County between 1989 and 1991, and also served in the Falklands in the SAS.

Although it's obviously more slanted towards Hereford, he also talks about his relationship with Neil Warnock at Meadow Lane, so if you fancy listening to the interview, here it is.

From The72 (original link here):

Notts County have had a decent season under Kevin Nolan and are chasing down an automatic promotion place to League One. Here are five players they should sign in the summer-

Jorge Grant, Nottingham Forest- The highly-rated midfielder has spent this season on loan at Notts County and has impressed for them. Kevin Nolan should try and sign him on loan again for the next campaign as he is a key player for this side.

Sam Mantom, Scunthorpe United- He has proven himself at League One level for Walsall but has fallen out of favour at Scunthorpe. He is currently on loan at Southend but could become available in the summer and would be a decent signing for Notts County.

Hope Akpan, Burton Albion- The former Everton, Hull City, Crawley Town, Blackburn Rovers and now Burton Albion midfielder is out of contract in the summer and would be a shrewd signing for Notts County, especially on a free transfer.

Tom Elliott, Milwall- If Notts County do get promoted to League One, then Elliott would be a decent signing for them. He has struggled for goals at Milwall this season in the Championship and could leave them this summer for the right price.

Harry Forrester, Rangers- The winger has spent this season on loan at AFC Wimbledon and Rangers are keen to offload him again in the summer. He would be a decent signing for Notts County as he is a decent player at League One/Two level.

Thoughts on these players? How well would they fit in the team (aside from Grant ofc), and are they realistic targets? Let's get your thoughts!

There are a few important matches going on in League Two right now: Accrington v Yeovil (Stanley are 2-0 up), Exeter v Chesterfield (Exeter 2-0 up) and Lincoln v Wycombe (0-0). If it stays that way Accrington will be officially promoted, Exeter will move three points ahead of us (and two behind Wycombe) and Wycombe will be five ahead of us.

If Wycombe don't win today and fail to beat Accrington at the weekend, we could potentially move within shooting distance with two games to play. It still feels like a long shot but stranger things have happened...

EDIT: Lincoln v Wycombe finished 0-0. So Lincoln miss their opportunity to catch up with us and the door to third remains slightly ajar.

I hope I don't offend anyone as this topic may be a bit controversial but here goes. Do we really have to have a minutes applause/silence every time anyone in football dies. For example Ray Wilkins died recently and at the Notts match there was a minutes applause, as far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong) he has no connection with the club whatsoever. I can understand paying respect when a former player, manager, chairman or director dies. Ray Wilkins was a great player and well loved in football and it's sad when anyone dies but where do we draw the line? There will be ex footballers dying all the time do we have a round of applause or minutes silence every time one of them dies?

Am I being insensitive? What are your views?

Stat gods Experimental 3-6-1 have drawn up all the various possible permutations in the PL and EFL.

Getting to the point, Notts County can finish anywhere from second to 12th in the table.

From the article:

Accrington and Luton are now mathematically guaranteed a play-off place at worst, although both look incredibly likely to go up automatically. Everybody down to 9th-placed Swindon could still secure automatic promotion and a whopping 16 teams in total are still technically able to be promoted this season. Two of these – Stevenage and Yeovil – are also still capable of being relegated, with the Glovers one of eight teams who could end up at the bottom of the pile.

Thoughts?

Who was your man of the match for Notts County at Colchester United?

I hope I don't offend anyone as this topic may be a bit controversial but here goes. Do we really have to have a minutes applause/silence every time anyone in football dies. For example Ray Wilkins died recently and at the Notts match there was a minutes applause, as far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong) he has no connection with the club whatsoever. I can understand paying respect when a former player, manager, chairman or director dies. Ray Wilkins was a great player and well loved in football and it's sad when anyone dies but where do we draw the line? There will be ex footballers dying all the time do we have a round of applause or minutes silence every time one of them dies?

Am I being insensitive? What are your views?

An interesting item on the radio this morning, a university is doing a study into the rise of cheap hand car wash outlets and whether the foreign workers are being treated properly, are they getting a fair wage? what conditions are they living in? Are they protected by proper health and safety at work? Do they get days off and proper breaks? What hours do they work?

I must admit I have never used one but they do seem to be very cheap and I wonder how they can operate so cheaply.

Something to think about next time you take the car or van to have it washed?

Thoughts?

Game 43 - The Us (A)

Team: Colchester United

Date: 14/04/18

Where: Colchester Community Stadium

What line-up should Kevin Nolan 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.

Was just commenting in the other thread when I realised everyone was ASSUMING we'd make the play-offs. What a difference from last week, when I'd have put our chances at 50-50 at best. Now we turned up and got the result we needed against Coventry, which gives us a cushion of 4 points from 8th place (I'm assuming that either Mansfield or Swindon will win their game in hand). That's not a bad position to be in, as it means three wins from our last four will guarantee us a play-off spot. Plus none of the teams outside the top seven look like catching us - Swindon have got three points from their last four games and Mansfield have lost four in a row. Our form isn't great either but at least we've got points on the board.

On a personal note, with Waldhof in the running as well, I have the possibility of two play-off finals in different countries on two days! I might end up having to do a Roy Carroll

Just for fun, here's a prediction calculator on a Grimsby fan site. See what you end up with. Here's Dangerous "The Oracle" Sausage's final table. We will secure a play-off spot with wins against Yeovil and Grimsby and will face Lincoln City...

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-prod/docs/ALAlmSXwsSb1xLG0HjpEZPQisqYMO9fNFzQScbt-BCQ/application-pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIAJ3QFAETUCQNXQ52A&Expires=1523357271&Signature=FqDP1xglEEG6%2FvO10O38eG2Clnc%3D&x-amz-security-token=FQoDYXdzEOj%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaDBg%2FhX9P%2BWjr4Dsb6yK3A13ZkEbVVHavbeaRlQ9U5GjKc26rTDKu%2FMAYPTpkKcsboWIDIB6bWMf8RlL%2F5ieZrUICXm%2BmTDn5SnjZnKABys9MNLSoBSUrR7AodtzLzWREyzmQcurNocS2YGphRuaOKa7HeG8be0YwXErzTgiLmnxTa3sIBgK19BF8WypWuUNHcTZUa1HYbcEkJXZ2YhTK1n4qwcRDykCqbOolkFisRmmoqyRVZ0uf%2FhrhboJpX%2BxqKcPoq7v1fmZvOptoO29kvuM87qyQ7Ofoey3BYSZm3ktXpEEnK1ziH0FqdE%2BTLogcpPEfoMYCOIwuR2a7xZwwodJncdlolGe3eWI5etFdYBbHwC9JgV4zDvgArzojFDcgC96qZJtThvmBOuLSlibNRHZyhxX%2B6t7aTRHpNnC%2FRoppZLR4gqVWdzo7wTTWXvImsGZvq28i1Un4bihsFwEiQ0NCpzRmKMgg0YioZByFFGnMGI%2Bkp1H6UsGYvrc6tqYP9IocErGhebDyJinJf5C5Nr4DjBF8kd8buaSiTB5%2Fw2CVu%2F%2BxyFR9UibpeOztDqBnGRxkKJfMdY1Fk8dv5qshNB18bAIv5iEo37ax1gU%3D

£1.554m losses for the last financial year

Game 42 - Sky Blues (H)

Team: Coventry City

Date: 07/04/18

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Kevin Nolan 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.

If Notts County get into the playoffs, should we give the opposition team less tickets for the Meadow Lane leg?

Mark Beal on Twitter has put the question to Alan Hardy, who replied by saying it would be a "commercially naive and suicidal" decision.

Thoughts?

Saturday's Fixtures:
Leeds United v Sunderland
Millwall v Bristol City
Bristol Rovers v Charlton Athletic
Plymouth Argyle v Peterborough United
Barnet v Foret Green Rovers
Grimsby Town v Chesterfield
 

I'm sorry for the consistent problematic sound issues in my vlogs. You will have noticed this in the Crewe vlog when Husin scores, the Stevenage vlog when Grant scores and todays vlog when Forte scores.

It really really annoys me and it makes me disappointed in myself and the content I'm putting out.

I want to, and try, to put out the best content and vlogs possible but it's just a constant issue. 

I am so sorry 

Who was your man of the match for Notts County against Coventry City?

Haven't done this for a while, but here are my thoughts:

Collin 6 - Had surprisingly little to do in the way of saves, but generally looked assured.
Tootle 6.5 - Most of their attacks were on the other side, but played his part in a sound defence.
Duffy 8.5* - Excellent, led like a captain should and didn't put a foot wrong. Held us together at the back.
Brisley 7 - As usual kept things simple, good in our box and good in theirs.
Jones 5.5 - The one weak link in the side. Far too hesitant and struggled to contain the threat they offered on our left.
Virtue 7 - Nothing spectacular, but worked hard and got into some excellent forward positions that we didn't really utilise.
Hewitt 7 - Did what he's there to do, gave us that crucial physical presence in midfield.
Noble 6 - Not a lot worked for him today but got stuck in.
Grant 6 - Poor in the first half, but stuck at it and played his part even though his best bits were defensively.
Forte 7.5 - The Forte we want to see. Looked up for it and made the most of his chances. Just keep it going.
Ameobi 6.5 - Made sure their defenders didn't have an easy afternoon, should have done better with the chance he had.

O'Connor - no rating, but great to see him back. No time to make a big impression, but a really good bit of keeping possession late on just when we needed it. It's a big ask, but I think he might still play a part this season.
Hall n/a, but a good substitution when they were throwing high balls into the box.

Absolutely buzzing tonight. This was the sort of game that could have gone either way but we were back to the Notts we saw in the first half of the season where guts, effort and desire (a massive plus in a tight League 2) meant that we won more games of this type than we lost. Just keep it going lads, if we make the playoffs you will have done yourselves credit as a team.

Watching the very good Team Talk programme on Notts TV the other night they had Craig Westcarr as a guest and he was described as one of only 6 players that had played for all three Nottinghamshire teams.

I can think of another two, can anyone name all five?

Monday's Fixtures:
Ipswich Town v Millwall
Sunderland v Sheffield Wednesday
Peterborough United v Northampton Town
Southend United v Gillingham
Crewe Alexandra v Port Vale
Stevenage v Barnet

Ronaldo's goal against Juve was featured on the German news today. It was very nice but you can go overboard. I saw a better one than that a few years back in Mannheim... can anyone top this?

(For the anoraks out there, this match also happened to be Emre Can's senior debut.)

New figures released by the FA show that Notts County are paid the fourth-highest amount of money in agent fees over the last year, the total standing at £76,426.

Indeed, four Midlands clubs make up the top four - Coventry City top (£113,620), Mansfield Town second (£85,940), Chesterfield third (£80,477) and then Notts.

What do you make of this news?

With the season coming to an end, the EFL have announced most of their yearly award nominations, as well as naming their teams of the season.

Unfortunately, Notts County haven't got one player in the League Two team of the season, nor have any players been nominated for the player of the season award.

Here is the League Two POTS shortlist:

Adebayo Akinfenwa (Wycombe), Mohamed Eisa (Cheltenham), Billy Kee (Accrington Stanley)

And this is the team of the season:

Do you buy/receive Easter eggs? We only buy for our grandchildren one large one each and some small ones for an Easter egg hunt. We don’t buy our grown up son one and we don’t receive any.

Our daughter in laws family always buy the adults Easter eggs too, she buys one for her mother and her grown up brother and receives one from each of them.

What’s the tradition in your family?