The Belgian equivalent of Match of the Day must have been good last night. 3 Europa Cup games contained 23 goals!

Anderlecht 6-1 Mainz 05

KAA Gent 3-5 Schaktar Donetsk

Athletic Bilbao 5-3 KRC Genk

Anyone else here (or went depending when you read this). It should be a great night for Nottingham as a city, but I hope Notts gets a fair mention.

Lower division football is in danger from the near-extinction of 'home advantage'.

This season in the 4th division there have been more away wins than home wins. This is not a good thing for attendances. Overall only 35% of games this season in the 4th have been home wins, so one way of looking at this is that only on 1 out of every 3 matches do the home fans go home happy. Not enough occasions for attendances to grow.

It's slightly better higher up, but not much: in the 3rd division 40% of games have been home wins, in the 2nd - 46% and in the top division 41%.

I haven't looked at previous seasons but my gut feeling is that it used to be higher than this - certainly one didn't see more aways than homes in an entire division...

Home 62

Away 64 W 54 D

I've been saying for more months than I care to remember that we have to avoid relying on Jon Stead, obviously keeping him in form is the main aim and injuries do happen but really this could be a setback for the club.

We have seen Adam Campbell take his chance whilst at Portsmouth which is a good thing, we do have Collins and Forte but neither seem to be the 'answer' (watch them now prove me wrong). However, this will be a period whereby it will enable other fringe players to step up and for us to truly rate what this Notts squad is all about.

If we can get other players scoring, Stead's return will be like having a new signing but if we struggle it may take him time to step back up to his a game.

Ideally I would like to keep fighting for a play-off space but its not the end of the world provided we are moving forward as a club, anywhere above last seasons finished will be a bonus but I am wonder what folks here think?

As the sexuality of footballers is again in the press and the apparant surveys etc of those narrow minded few who say they won't go to games if their team had an openly gay player.

I thought why don't we as supporters of Notts County and therefore Justin Fashanu put a far more positive and progressive stance and celebrate hand in hand his time with us and his sexuality?

If this only made one supporter / player / member of society feel welcome and accepted then i'm sure we would all feel better in the knowledge that they feel this at a forward thinking and progressive club like ours can and should be.

http://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/notts-county-youth-cup-fa-youth-cup-3375658.aspx

Support the young Pies

The return of the greatest cup competition in the world this weekend. Those of you who've been taking part for the last couple of years will know that we use a different site to run a prediction league for the FA Cup. If you havent already signed up you'll need to log onto the website and join the PON FA Cup Prediction League 16/17. 

You will need to enter the pin number of 992678 to join the league

Once your in just lock in your predictions as normal. The website sends an email to remind you to enter your predictions

The link is here: https://facup.predictthefootball.com/minileague/join

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/24/julian-nagelsmann-hoffenheim-prodigy-thomas-tuchel-rejected-bayern-munich?CMP=share_btn_tw

If anybody fancies reading an interview with Jamie Fullarton about his struggles with management at Notts County, well, here you go.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37838678

HE'S BACK FROM THE MANAGERIAL GRAVE AND HE'S COMING FOR NOTTS COUNTY!!!!

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Not really. Just thought we'd try and scare you all!

Happy Halloween folks!!

Saturday's Fixtures:
Brighton & Hove Albion v Norwich City
Preston North End v Newcastle United
Rochdale v Oldham Athletic
Walsall v Coventry City
Barnet v Hartlepool United
Yeovil Town v Grimsby Town

Collin - 5.5 more assured, still with odd lapse on decision making 

Laing - 6 - Good tackle early on, comfortable on the ball

Duffy - 5.5 - Still slow at times and occasionally caught out of position 
Hollis - 7.5 nice to be able to give good marks to Haydn MoM
Dickinson - 5.5 - An OK performance 

Rodman - 5.5 - Only appeared with confidence late on. Still unsure if he is any good

Richards - 6 - Slowly goes about his work and gives defence protection 

Milsom -6 - Solid in midfield 

Forte - 7 - Got stronger as game went on. 

Campbell - 5 - All effort no creativity nor end result 
Collins - 5.5 - Missed a good chance,  and  header cleared off the line.

Oliver - 7 Still was unsure of his confidence on the penalty. Just don't think he is a natural goal scorer 

O'Connor - 5.5  I am still waiting to see what the fuss is about. Hot and cold performance.

A play-off clash, if you can call it that this early in the season. 

Alan Sheehan returns, and had a few nice words to say about his time with us:

It's nice that he won't celebrate if he scores, though I'd rather you do us another favour Sheez and don't score at all, unless it's in your own net. 
 

It's a bit quiet here. It's a bit difficult to moan about things when you're sixth. I think a massive punch-up in the fans' forum initiated by John Sheridan would provide a few talking points.

Anyway ... see thread title. What do you all do for a living?

I'm a translator for German to English, doing everything from technical manuals to adverts and books.

JS - “You don’t have to play great, but if you go out there on the front foot and show some desire you get a buzz around the supporters.."

Fingers crossed that's what we see tomorrow. COYP
 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/27/bury-gigg-lane-winding-up-order-league-one?CMP=share_btn_tw

Be careful what you wish for...borrowing against the assets of the club

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37551803

The announcement of Cardiff parting company with their manager

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/live-updates-cardiff-city-boss-11975415

Just proves the fact that throwing money at a football club, if not spent wisely, can result in disaster.

Michael Johnson and **** Bate are on Cardiff's backroom staff.

For Notts, I mentioned on another thread about the importance of the scouting network... I often wonder if it was an unsung scouting hero that spotted Grealish and McGregor. Is that scout still at Notts? @erindoors

Stan Collymore's tweet:

Man City. 52 scouts worldwide. Villa. 5. And 4 are analysts. Infrastructure. Infrastructure. Infrastructure.  

We are sixth in November! Where did you expect us to be at this time of the year?

As I won't be able to go to the lifeline meet the manager nor am I a hack for a media outlet I would like someone to ask our manager why Alex Rodman keeps getting a game before either Aaron Collins or Genaro Snijders or even the tea lady to be compeltely frank as we are always playing with ten men in the games I have attended this season. 

For me the management team get so much right but why he gets a game is beyond me

This new book from Paul Mace sounds quite interesting ... Martin Allen made a motivational video on the banks of the Trent at 5am on the morning of the F*rest match. Dragging a club employee along to shoot it. It was cold apparently.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/former-notts-county-manager-martin-allen-waded-into-the-river-trent-at-5am-to-motive-teaam/story-29839689-detail/story.html

I wonder if that video is still lurking in a cupboard at Meadow Lane?

The scorer of the greatest team goal in world cup history has passed after a heart attack aged 72.

Was part of the best team the world had to offer at that stage, says an awful lot about his quality.

Will never forget that goal

Saturday's Fixtures:
Aston Villa v Fulham
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leeds United
Bradford City v Sheffield United
Gillingham v Charlton Athletic
Exeter City v Cambridge United
Newport County v Plymouth Argyle

Game 14 - Pompey (A)

Team: Portsmouth

Date: 22/10/16

Where: Fratton Park

What line-up should John Sheridan 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.

Boreham Wood away , first round for the pies , thoughts , let's hope for better than last year .