Is it true that Mark Draper's brother played for Long Eaton United? Several fans over the years have told me this, I can't say, but those who have said that his brother was the better player, which is hard to imagine.

Great to see them reaching the playoffs, I wish them well in them.

@Chris I searched for a connection but only found this.

The search results indicate several connections between Draper &  Long Eaton United. Firstly, Mark Draper, a former professional footballer, was born in Long Eaton. He played for various clubs, including Leicester City, Aston Villa, and Southampton. Secondly, there's a reference to a Jamie Draper playing for Coventry Sphinx and playing against Long Eaton United. Thirdly, Danny Draper scored a goal for Wellingborough Town in a match against Long Eaton United.

Source Google.

Looks like there are only loose connection, but someone else may know different.

End of the third days play and a very productive one for Notts.

Warwickshire are 163 for 6. They trail Notts by 111 runs.

The fourth days play is delayed due to rain.

Update.

Update.

Update..

The bad light hasn't improved so the match has been called off & declared a draw.

What a fantastic match & a great advertisment for British Ice Hockey ends with a win for Panthers.

Sam Herr lifts the Playoff Championship trophy.

Scenes from the balcony.

He is risen.

Happy Easter Sunday to all.

Good morning, I hope everyone is well.

It’s Easter Sunday, I’m not religious so I won’t be celebrating or going to church, we’ll take some eggs round to the grandchildren this morning, we don’t buy ourselves eggs as neither of us are that keen on chocolate and even if we were I think Easter eggs are an expensive way to buy it, so we leave it to the kids.

Years ago we used to do an egg hunt for our two boys and put clues around the house for them to find leading to the final clue which was where their eggs were hidden. All good fun and they loved it.

So whatever you are doing today have a lovely day.

Cloudy and overcast morning here. Hopefully the cloud will break up this afternoon.

Let’s hope he gets his wish and we have a promotion party. 🥳 🎉

Love Matty Platt for what he has given to the Notts team this season.

I would like for Matty & the rest of the team to do their talking on the pitch for these last three games of the regular season & get Notts over the line whether it be promotion by league position or by the playoffs.

Blackburn Rovers v Millwall 2-1JOKER

Coventry City v West Bromwich Albion 2-2

Bolton Wanderers v Wycombe Wanderers 2-1

Stevenage v Blackpool 0-2

AFC Wimbledon v Chesterfield  2-0

Fleetwood Town v Barrow 3-1

Altrincham v Rochdale 0-1

Boston United v Wealdstone 2-0

I can't believe I forgot. If only the person running this had sent me a reminder. 

Friday's results:

Blackburn Rovers 4-1 Millwall
Coventry City 2-0 West Bromwich Albion
Bolton Wanderers 0-2 Wycombe Wanderers
Stevenage 1-3 Blackpool
AFC Wimbledon 0-0 Chesterfield
Fleetwood Town 0-0 Barrow
Altrincham 1-2 Rochdale
Boston United 2-0 Wealdstone

---

This round's winner is @Dan, congrats!

---

This is the picture overall, with @super_ram going 11 points clear of @ARLukomski at the top.

---

Thanks for playing everyone - Easter Monday's round is open now, get on over there and have a go!

Bury FC are about to get their first promotion since their demotion from the EFL.

They are 4:0 up needing a win the confirm promotion.

North West Counties Football League.

I'm not a big fan of the gold, but that looks pretty nice. Concept kits generally look better than what we actually end up with though!

Credit where credit is due, that was a big improvement last night. We probably deserved the 3 points. The only negative was a lack of composure in front of goal. Automatic promotion is unlikely at this stage but you never know in League 2. It's one of the most unpredictable leagues in the world. 4 points should be enough to secure a playoff place. 

Not going to lie I had pretty low expectations for the match so I was pleasantly surprised at how well we performed in the end.

I think a draw was a fair result, neither team was really able to open up the other team’s defence but there was no lack of effort or endeavour from anyone.

I think we looked slightly more assured at the back then them, midfield was solid but the attack just lacked a touch of cutting edge at times. Jatta has looked like a different player these past few games though, he’s seemingly lost all his physicality and balance. Have we just exhausted him or did someone switch places with him when he was on international duty with Gambia?

Need to win at home on Monday now, otherwise that point will have been in vein.

I think I'd have Abbott, Didzy and Bedeau as my top 3. Not much between them, except one did something extraordinary 🤨 🤩

Come on folks, in the words of Hughie Green (who remembers him?)

VOTE VOTE VOTE BECAUSE YOUR VOTE COUNTS!

Poll has closed.

David McGoldrick has been voted the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match against Bradford.

Didn't want to post the current scores because it's just a bit unfair and dodgy. I know it's tongue-in-cheek 😂 

Not sure I can really count scores from the second half @ARLukomski. But if there's an outcry I might give you your one point back 😁

I'll post the scores tomorrow if I get the time. The next round is coming in the next few minutes...

The results:

Cardiff City 0-1 Stoke City
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Oxford United
Barnsley 4-1 Bolton Wanderers
Bristol Rovers 1-2 Exeter City
Accrington Stanley 3-3 Tranmere Rovers
Morecambe 0-2 Carlisle United
Dagenham & Redbridge 1-1 Hartlepool United
Tamworth 4-2 Braintree Town

---

This round's glorious winner is @4everapie! But points were at a premium for most...

---

That doesn't change the table much, with @super_ram staying top for now.

---

Tomorrow (Good Friday) we've got another round on, and the fixtures are online already. So if you're not at Valley Parade right now (and why not?), have a go! Good luck  

I wasn't aware he was in management or coaching to the level he could be appointed as one, so it's pleasing to see. Rotherham United have had a disappointing campaign, and I don't know the ins and outs, but at one point I thought all their good work in recent years might be undone.

Am I the only one who wouldn't recognise him now, though? He looks very different.

@Chris No, you are not the only one who didn't recognise him. I actually assumed that article was bad journalism as the picture appeared to show a man in his late 50s! I genuinely couldn’t believe it until I googled Matt Hamshaw - he's only 43! He's younger than Stuart Maynard! 😮

Apologies, I did scroll down the forum and couldnt see it had already been posted. Off to Specsavers for me now

Match report👇

Let's hear from the Manager, Adam Dunleavy, on the Sunday afternoon win.

Well done ladies. 

Just the result Notts needed.

I watched the last 20 minutes of this match, neither team looked that good for the portion I saw, N’Mai the Salford player that tormented Notts wasn’t playing, I learned later he’d been substituted on 50 minutes and their centre back Tilt who had a superb game against Notts keeping Jatta quiet was sent off in the dying minutes so he’ll miss the next game.

I would feel happier if Salford City missed out completely with the playoffs. I think they would be a real threat to us - even if they do waste time. They have us sussed to the point we look useless against them. A draw is about the right result, although despite my nerves about Salford, I think even if they had won it would be a stretch to compete with Colchester United, Chesterfield, plus us and those in the playoffs already.

Winning Bradford City would be a big boost for us, but looking at the form of all 24 teams this season has been very hit and miss for all involved with promotion hopes.

@Piethagoram I merged your topic with @Robbie's which he'd posted earlier. 👍

How embarrassing is the MK Don's social media post, that's not what you write when you have had two managers already this season and sacked the replacement. Yes, Carlisle United wanted Mike Williamson, but even that was an embarrassing appointment (even though I hoped it would work out for Carlisle). Paul Warne, I think will start to turn things around, and I can see MK Dons being better, but I do wonder if "better" will be good enough for a plastic club like Franchise FC?

Imagine if their media team used "We've got our man" every time they hire a new manager, or sign a player from a club more successful than them.

I can't express how silly it is in words.🤣

I'd love to see Jodi swinging his shirt around his head on the last day of the season as he scores the goal that secures Notts promotion to League One. 

I am sure it will be a big boost when Jodi is back to full fitness, and whilst I love his drive, Notts does need to be careful (as does Jodi). He's a great player, and I would hope any frustration from not playing or feeling like he could have changed our season, doesn't push him too far or too quickly. It's not that I want to see him doing the talking on the pitch, I think Jodi's drive can be infectious, but I do feel there's a risk since he's suffered setbacks twice this season.

The emphasis on pursuing automatic promotions reveals an underlying push within our ranks, which I do wonder if some players have doubts or feel they could have done better at times. The pressure needs to be forgotten at the end of the day, as does the frustration. If the players focus and work as a team, they will be just fine regardless.

I agree @Chris that Notts need to be careful with Jodi. Of course there will be pressure to play Jodi, but I don't think that it is feasible that he will be fully match fit this season.

Notts can still use him from the bench half way through the second half if they need inputus or need to change things.

But I do think it's important to ensure that Jodi doesn't break down again. A fully match fit Jodi at the start of next season needs to be the goal.

Some of us can remember buying black jacks at 4 for a penny. An old penny mind, where there were 240d to a pound.

Black jacks were small square aniseed flavoured chews.

You can buy black jacks online 400 at a time, at a cost of £13:99. That's 3.47p per black jack. That's a massive price hike.

Just to add a bit of more info about why the price of chocolate has increased, I recently finished working for a chocolate processing company last year and there’s been a big downturn in cacao bean production since 2023 from West Africa, which is the largest producer by far. They’ve been badly affected due to the change in rain patterns (they’ve had none basically) and increase in temperature. Then they’ve had issues with diseases spreading amongst the remaining crops, sometimes to the extent that the ground can’t be re-used for next seasons crops. That’s why the price has risen drastically and sadly it’s not going to be any better in 2025…

No idea if it’s a short-term issue, but cacao trees are really tricky to grow to regardless as they need a lot of attention and very specific moisture levels. I’d say in 10 years or so I’d fully expect a non-cacao chocolate to be widely available. From what I can recall there’s a company in Germany doing this right now and I know companies in the UK are trailing similar methods too.

This is very much a long-term trend - Wispas definitely used to be larger than they are now (and they're half air anyway). On the other hand, I can't remember Creme Eggs ever being more than 34g!

One of the sneakiest things is that products are being sold at less than their advertisied weight. The box of grass seed I bought the other week was the lightest 2kg ever.

Thanks for the insight @menzinho, as chocolate is highly processed it's easy to forget that it's originally a crop and can be affected by crop failures. For the last couple of years I've been buying nicer chocolate (the fewer ingredients the better) but less of it.

Thankfully our owners are not as trigger happy and more level headed than some of our fans, I trust them to do the right thing, whether that is to replace Maynard in the summer or keep him. 

There’s still plenty to play for this season, the league is so unpredictable, keep the faith and support the club.

I think Maynard will stay whether Notts are promoted or not. Progress has been made since Williams left.

On 12/04/2025 at 11:39, gtownjohnno said:

Forgive me please for i have sinned.....couldnt have been further from my prediction....a nightmare performance from the whole team.....NO EXCEPTIONS

 

I think we can all agree that this result was solely down to @gtownjohnno angering the football gods.

But seriously, the wheels coming off after us losing our star loanee midfielder is a touch Nolanesque. But incredibly, we're not quite out of it yet as nobody else seems to fancy League One much either. 

On 13/04/2025 at 18:39, Piethagoram said:

 

Absolute shambles. But who's surprised 🤔 

We've signed some new and current academy players to scholarship deals for next season.

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2025/april/14/update--youth-players/

And it's as if they've read my previous comments, cos they've even added little bios for each player! A really insightful touch.

Great to see Kameron signed up, the club clearly have high hopes for him. I think that evening out in Burton where he and the other youth players made their debuts is something the club needs to continue to do. I’d be 100% for using the trophy as a way of giving our young players an introduction to first-team football.

And Luca Fletcher is the son of Darren Fletcher the sports commentator who used to be involved at Notts a few years ago. Luca used to be at Forest and is a very good footballer too from what I’ve heard.

28 minutes ago, menzinho said:

We've signed some new and current academy players to scholarship deals for next season.

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/2025/april/14/update--youth-players/

And it's as if they've read my previous comments, cos they've even added little bios for each player! A really insightful touch.

Great to see Kameron signed up, the club clearly have high hopes for him. I think that evening out in Burton where he and the other youth players made their debuts is something the club needs to continue to do. I’d be 100% for using the trophy as a way of giving our young players an introduction to first-team football.

And Luca Fletcher is the son of Darren Fletcher the sports commentator who used to be involved at Notts a few years ago. Luca used to be at Forest and is a very good footballer too from what I’ve heard.

Great news.

Rest in Peace, Kevin Campbell.

His passing was a sad loss to football.

It's not just the Saudi's 

Manchester City is owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment group linked to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the UAE royal family and current Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. 

(Source Google)

There's lots of rumours that City will get away with any harsh punishment if found guilty for the alleged 115 charges it has been facing for the last few years. Wonder if the UAE connection will be a decisive factor when it comes to delivering a verdict?

Notts all out for 385 after lunch

Essex need 366 to win from 52 overs.

Tea has been taken.

The captains shake hands & the match ends in a draw with Essex 106 for 1 with no chance of a win for either team.