@True Magpie I could not open the file.

The record shows Howard left our club and did a good job at Sheffield United. 

Is overall record as a player and manager speaks for itself. The vast majority of football fans like myself will remember him in a positive way.

Only a very tiny minority will feel differently.

"3 essentials for a pre-season tour... A football pitch, a pub, and a brothel Tony Cottee on pre-season tour with Howard Kendall."

@True Magpie A helpful hint allegedly

On 18/01/2025 at 13:52, True Magpie said:

The 1990s was a strange time to be a Notts fan. The ground was being modernised, and managers were coming and going. Neil Warnock brought back some pride, but he was sacked after rejecting Chelsea. Howard Kendall, the manager, was targeted by fans with chants about his drinking habits. There was no sympathy or well-wishing, which was disappointing. The sketch by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner is funny even today, but it still seems harsh to mock someone struggling.

To see Notts in what is now the Championship would be like a dream come true, and we had that in the 1990s. I wonder if we ever took a moment to appreciate it.

It was very much a different world, with "lad culture" very much prevelant and drinking till your head spins an accepted form of team bonding. That culture did a lot of harm to many people in football, and Howard Kendall was tragically one of them.

The Championship was also a very different beast - a crowd of 6,000 in the second tier was still pretty normal. It was a long way away from the miniature Premier League we know now.

I'm from the old school. I think that recognising your best players then playing a settled side is a recipe for success. Clough, Paisley & Ferguson did it with great success & they were the best.

Good players that play regularly together get to know their fellow players very well & as the team gels, performance improves.

As far as I'm concerned I don't think Cedwyn was going to succeed at this level. He was never going to be the first choice striker. He was never going to displace Macca, Jatta & Didzy.

Stuart tried him in a withdrawn role & sometimes on the wing but it just didn't suit him.

I am astonished with the assertion that Stuart is out of his depth.You can count the games on a few fingers where Stuart's tactics didn't work or the opposing managers tactics were superior on the day. That will happen sometimes.

Just look how he's turned the team around since the beginning of the season. He's helped choose replacements, he's moulded them into a team that is winning matches, just 3 points behind 2nd place.

Notts record this season speaks for itself. Ten clean sheets already,  2nd highest scorers in the Division, sixth best defence, only two teams have less defeats than Notts.

And this record has been achieved with up to eight of their best players out over the last 3 months. Let's give Stuart the praise he deserves.

While we're being nit-picky, I've never understood the point of inverted wingers and, like @Chris, I'd have liked to see more of Scott up front rather than in midfield or on the wing. However, in cases like his and Gordon's I tend to cut the manager a bit of slack as he sees an awful lot in training that we don't.

I can imagine what Sir Jimmy & Brian Clough would say about inverted wingers

I liked him in Game of Thrones.

In this day and age, contracts have clauses which lower a player's salary in the case of relegation and other aspects, such as agreements upon a release clause for a set transfer fee is a bit of a double-sided coin.

I am all for football to have a regulator, but it needs to be completely independent.

The Premier League, along with clubs who experience a yo-yo like existence - bouncing from division to the other will not want to see their finances being limited in any sort of way. The parachute payments will be difficult to remove from the game, although most of the time it seems clubs use the money to sign players to improve their squad - rather than it being to protect wages etc. 

Why pizza can be bad for your heart

Saturated fat

Cheese and meat toppings like pepperoni, salami, and bacon are high in saturated fat, which can raise your cholesterol levels. 

Sodium

Pizza can be high in sodium, which can increase your risk of heart disease. 

Calories

Pizza can be high in calories, especially if it's deep-dish or stuffed crust. 

Sugar

Some pizzas have added sugar in the crust, sauces, and toppings. 

Quoted from Google 

@Robbie pizza is like any other food it’s bad for you if you eat a lot, in moderation it’s fine, it also depends what toppings you have on your pizza of course.

10 reasons why pizza can actually be good for you

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Pizza often tops the list as peoples' favorite junk food but turns out that it can actually be pretty healthy for you. Here's why.

Isn’t it funny how two different google searches can come up with totally opposing viewpoints. 

The fact is. Most people are lazy and will buy a Pizza already prepared from a supermarket or takeaway, that will be full of ingredients that are unhealthy for them.

Yes. It is true that if you make a home made Pizza and choose your ingredients carefully then the Pizza can have less harmful ingredients.

But the majority of people don't make their own unfortunately.

Appalling behaviour but a sign of the times!

The depths some fans stoop to is unbelievable.

Tragedy chanting is another example.

Sorry @Robbie, I totally stand by my assessment. The mistakes were bad but appreciate his offensive work was good

I wasn't at the game, but I listened to BBC Radio Nottingham's coverage and have since seen the extended highlights, which sways my vote towards David McGoldrick.

The poll is now closed. Thanks to all of you who voted.

I am pleased to announce that PON members have voted for David McGoldrick to be the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match for his outstanding performance against Accrington.

 Notts were excellent. Accrington were awful but a lot of that was down to Notts not allowing them to settle. Accrington are relegation candidates and are one of those clubs that if they do get relegated, they won't be back for a while. 

A very assured performance against a poor team. Abbott has visibly grown in confidence, and his goals just underline that. Good to get a look at some of the new boys and returnees in the second half. In particular, I think Whitaker was very conspicuous (might have just been the hair though) and he looked very sharp on and off the ball.

Let’s face we all want the best for our family and kids and who wouldn’t move jobs if they were offered considerably more money?

The thing that narks me is his comments in various interviews, he’s barely mentioned Notts, as far as I know he hadn’t put any statement out thanking the club, his former colleagues, owners, manager or the fans for the support we’ve given him. It would have sat better with the fans if he’d done that consequently I don’t think he’ll get a good reception when he returns playing for MK Dons. I’d love to know the thoughts of the Notts players.

It's not so much the money, it's the way it's been conducted and how little respect he's shown the club. He's a journeyman as @Robbie said, so there's no validation in his comments about 'exciting project' because he said it was arriving at us.

His ego is coming through, which is my biggest problem.

I’ve got to agree he’s been a brilliant signing, the clean sheets record speaks for itself however a goalie is the last line of defence, he’s got some great players in front of him who should also be commended on the clean sheets.

Alex was simply one of the best signings of last summer. To have a good defence a team has to have a good goalkeeper who can command his area & has the confidence of his fellow teammates.

Alex Bass has all of that. Ten clean sheets so far this season is a testament to how Alex has played his part in improving the Notts defence.

His comments really haven’t helped his cause in trying to convince people that in reality, he isn’t a very nice person. He’ll go to MK and within 12 months he will be looking for another exit because he isn’t getting everything his way, the man is showing precisely why he has the journeyman tag above his head.
I look forward to hearing the very warm welcome Notts fans will give him in April, he’ll have a stinker…

Good analysis from @ARLukomski

On re- viewing the Abbott goal, the only Accrington defender to spot the danger was Rawson

@Chris You Don't Mean You Think @super_ram Is A Robot from the Future Do You ?  Destined to Bring the Glory Days Back to Derby? Promotion to the Championship being his First Step?????

@Wheelbarrow repair man I have to say, I have my suspious.  

Frightening.

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China has unveiled Tiangong, a full-sized, open-source humanoid robot that’s...

Thanks @Piethagoram.Could have done with him today.

Is Steve Bloomer, the player you have a book on @super_ram? About him being Football's first superstar?? This exact book here - 

Steve Bloomer: The Story of Football's First Superstar by Peter J. Seddon (Hardcover, 1999) for sale online | eBay

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Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Steve Bloomer: The Story of Football's First Superstar by Peter J. Seddon (Hardcover, 1999) at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for...

14 hours ago, Chris said:

Is Steve Bloomer, the player you have a book on @super_ram? About him being Football's first superstar?? This exact book here - 

Steve Bloomer: The Story of Football's First Superstar by Peter J. Seddon (Hardcover, 1999) for sale online | eBay

WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

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Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Steve Bloomer: The Story of Football's First Superstar by Peter J. Seddon (Hardcover, 1999) at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for...

 

Yes , @Chris,it should be somewhere on my shelves.A very good read.

Barrow are certainly underachieving this season. It was almost a foregone conclusion that Barrow would be looking for another manager, sooner rather than later, so this news s not surprising.

They will certainly have to up their game considerably if they are going to have any chance of sneaking into the playoffs this season.

Frankly, I think it will be very hard for them, but we saw with Doncaster last season that a team can go on a good run.

They basically lost the best thing they had when Pete Wild left them. I suspect they might look at coaches/managers from the National League again, they aren't afraid of going for a younger up coming coach over a older 'been there done it' type so I'll be interested to see who ends up in the hot-seat.

Another American President, Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated for his second term in office tomorrow, has links to the Island of Lewis in Scotland.

 His mother was born in 1912 in Tong, about three miles from Stornoway, the main town on the isle of Lewis.

Donald Trump still has three cousins on Lewis, including two who live in the ancestral home, which has been rebuilt since Mary Anne MacLeod's time.

Donald Trump's mother: From a Scottish island to New York's elite

WWW.BBC.COM

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Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the Hebridean island of Lewis.

Agree with many on here that he wasn't up to it. He just didn't click at Notts & unfortunately, that often happens with players.

He never really seemed to get started, but I hope he's found a club where he can make a difference.

These days, all sites commonly use email and a password, so I am fine with that. I have been guilty of forgetting my username on other sites, especially in the past. That's why I joined PON as BromPie; I threw two things together and it's stuck. Thanks for providing these updates. I do agree with everyone that it would be nice to know what's going on when the site is offline.

I'm happy for my email to be added to the list, and I'll add both emails to my contact list. The update and the change to the site login method sound like positive steps forward. I agree that communication is important, and people just need to be engaged.

A simple and secure Google form has been created to enable me to gather emails.

Important: Potential Downtime Notifications

FORMS.GLE

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We hope this message finds you well. We are reaching out to inform you about potential downtime or issues that may affect our services. To ensure you are promptly notified, we kindly request you to add the...

Please don't confuse this with newsletters; that will be a separate thing and this is solely to let you know of issues. Primarily concerning downtime, site complications, or equally significant matters.

Guy Branston was a rock in my Notts team on Football Manager. He captained the team to promotion and was one of the first names on the team sheet.

So I was thrilled when we signed him in real life. Finally the no-nonsense defender we needed. He spent 45 minutes losing his man and kicking the ball into the air, got subbed off at half time and spent the rest of his loan "injured", thus going down in Notts folklore in a different way.

He was a decent player in his prime though, who made hundreds of League appearances and played in the Championship. We've had many other players who played far more games for us but were never close to League standard.

I’ll never forget that 45 minutes Branston played what a disaster. As @Robbie says to compare him to a donkey is unkind to donkeys.

Tough one, sadly there lots of candidates to pick from. 2004-2008 the League 1 relegation season and the League 2 relegation season are peak times for really bad players for me. I’ll go for Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, felt like he got sent off almost every time he played and in his few, winless, appearances.

Great video! The break from the back around the 3 minute and 9-second mark is a joy to see from an above angle. I do think we, as a team, need to be more aware of how the space is opening up. To the left, it was clear to me just how much space had become available to play into. It might be harder to see at ground level, but that's where drilling in to glance around the pitch helps.

Very good, I guess they were going to show it before the Grimsby game on Sky. I think they film some training sessions in house as well now, just so they can review it and see how to improve. I'm sure they've mentioned they use the drone for this too.

There's also a training video on the club website from earlier this week too, a chance to look at some of the new signings in action. I noticed Jevani Brown was missing from it though 🤔

@menzinho i think notts records all training sessions as part of their data analysis.

notts did this exact type of video last season when we struggled, when stuart maynard first arrived. probably not as good as sky, but it is a good video.

I don't think you offer contracts like this if you believe you will face demotion or other penalties that could affect your income. 

I think he is aiming to become the world's highest transfer because players like him want to win leagues. Seeing a club fall into chaos is usually the first step that makes them want to leave. 

Could it be that Man City hopes a huge transfer fee will help them recover some of their overspending? It's a huge contract, and I'm not entirely sure if it's good for football.

I have no insider knowledge but given how they are currently trying to sign a load of new players as well it suggests to me something like a possible transfer ban and fine as the more likely worst case scenario from the current case. Their lawyers will know the most likely outcome and will have been advising them. No way they tie Haaland down if they think they are playing in the National League next season… I just can’t see them getting kicked out of the league anyway, City would fight the verdict, it would go back to court the whole thing would just drag on for years.

could man city be mocking the fa with this? a pr statement to say they dont care about their investigation and that they can do things like this.

imagine if more clubs signed players for almost 10 years in one go.