So we come to the final day of Premier League season with all matches starting at 4pm.

The last relegation place is yet to be decided with Luton and Forest trying to survive for another season.

Forest are in the best position being out of the relegation places & 3 points ahead of Luton with a much superior goal difference, (12 goals), so Forest are in prime position to survive.

But we all know that football is a funny game and the least likely scenario sometimes does happen.

What we do know is Luton need to win and Forest need to lose, for Luton to have any chance at all of saving themselves. Then goal difference comes into play.

Could we see a massive shock of momentus proportions?

So Forest survive for another season.

Forest beat Burnley 2:1 & Luton lost to Fulham 2:4.

Forest survive by six points, would have been 10 if no point deductions.

Forest staying in the PL is good for Notts. Forest prices keep going up and up & Notts can cash in & get the floating supporter, who may become a commited Notts supporter.

14 hours ago, Robbie said:

Forest staying in the PL is good for Notts. Forest prices keep going up and up & Notts can cash in & get the floating supporter, who may become a commited Notts supporter.

I agree but Notts need to get back to playing their attractive football scoring lots of goals and most of all winning games, floating supporters of Forest aren’t going to come to Notts to watch us lose, they might end up at Mansfield, it’s imperative we keep our best players and have a good season.

I'm still around, kind of. I've just had a bout of German relegation battle panic to deal with (thankfully averted), plus an upcoming job change and other stress. There are one or two things I want to post though! 

Always really quiet this month on here until the summer signings start to come in, only Chesterfield appear to be moving in the market at the moment.

Yes, it's never quite the same when Notts aren't playing but I've got a few topics I think I'll post over the summer that'll entice a few replies (or drive them further away as I try to just about connect them to Notts!)

Yes I watched the interview on EMTV and he really sounded as if he wanted to stay so let’s hope he gets his wish and we get ours that’d be a real bonus.

I've just read that article, thanks for posting it @Robbie!

The bit about LW leaving really stands out though, he speaks about him like he was some sort of super-human and how he was "heartbroken"! I can only assume he wasn't the only player who felt that way given he says the mood of players was horrible. That clearly affected the form more than we realised.

And I know it's harsh, but I'm imagining if I was a player hearing the next gaffer is coming from Wealdstone I wouldn't initially be excited. Now I'm not saying a "big-name" was someone we should've gone for but I'd imagine it would've lifted the spirits quicker, whereas SM probably had to prove himself on the training pitch and needed time to bond with the players to get them back on track - which by the end of the season (FGR excluded) he did.

Very interesting though, just hoping we offer him a new contract over the summer or early at the start of next season like we did with Macca!

Part of Tyson's press conference after the fight.

Happy birthday @Chris Have a great day.

Happy birthday @Chris if your 40 years younger than @super_ram I reckon that makes you around 60. 

Have a great day mate don’t eat too much cake. ???? 

I assume pushed because Tom Weal says he’s looking for his next adventure or words to that effect that doesn’t suggest he has something lined up.

Given most their work goes unseen I can’t really comment on how well they’ve done but they’ve been part of team that’s been on an upward trajectory over the past few seasons. The team was definitely fit enough to carry out LW rigorous pressing and I know Tom Weal got a lot of credit for the penalty shoot-out that eventually got us promoted. In terms of coaching staff, only Joao Alves remains from the promotion season so you can’t accuse Notts of being too sentimental now…

They’d have been on short(ish) contracts just like the players, I guess the club thinks a change would be beneficial. Always sad when people move on though and it's a lovely message that Tom has posted. I hope he and Ian Hutton find new clubs for next season.

Tom's a good coach, I am sure he will find something.

I don't want to speculate on if he decided to leave or if the club pushed him out of the door, we don't know if it was mutual or that the club has just decided to change the direction. I will say, I think we've been lucky to have him as our coach. Watching him train and warm up with the keepers before every game, you can appreciate his efforts and to boot he's a really nice person.

Good luck to him as he moves on with his career, I wish him all the best.

Lots of clubs have been very busy in the transfer market already. Looks like Notts are taking their time.

I think that Notts have given the players a few weeks off so we won't know much about longer contracts and possible transfers, until they all come back.

I want to see Jodi commit himself to a longer contract at Notts too.

Finally a team with a backbone. I doubt it will go through though according to reports pretty much all of the "big 6" clubs all are in favour of keeping it so no doubt they'll bow to that. Also factor in the owners of the clubs, they see the PL as a project rather than a football league so if they have their way, it will remain next season onwards. I really hope though that clubs listen to their fans and realise that VAR needs to be scrapped.

The only downside to scrapping VAR that I can see is that with the situation with Mike Dean not calling a decision to protect his mate could happen more often and be deemed as missed by the naked eye in real time thus meaning human error and it'll be accepted. 

Football is a game. Football is not a science,

A Football match has always been controlled by a Referee & assistant Referees using their own senses to make judgements.

Those judgements may not be 100% perfect but that is how the game has always been.

Even with VAR, the VAR officials rely on their own judgement. That's why VAR should be discontinued.

Football is just not the same with VAR.

If you scrap VAR fans (and managers) will still moan about the decisions the refs get wrong, I'd predict they'd be quite lenient for a few months but once the novelty of no VAR has worn off and big decisions go against them they'll want some sort of way of looking at these scenarios...

Every other sport manages to implement some sort of technology without it having a major impact on the flow of the game. I think it just needs to be used a lot more sparingly, some form of VAR-Light! Stop checking goals/fouls for 3 minutes, stop drawing lines for offsides - if you can't tell with the eye just go with the on field decision. Just add a bit of common sense into the whole thing really.

You could even have a system where managers/head coaches get a limited number of challenges like in tennis or cricket for example. VAR should be treated as a fall-back system, not something it seems refs are totally reliant on now. I'd totally understand why you'd scrap it in it's current form but I think getting rid of it creates another set of problems.

How about Macca to Peterborough for £1m plus Tshimanga? 

Now that would be an interesting offer and dilemma! I know his last few seasons haven’t been great since his big injury at Chesterfield. Assuming there are not any lasting effects I’d be very tempted as we'd effectively get a replacement and a lot of money. He just scored 7 goals in 16 games in a struggling Boreham Wood team, I think in our team given the chances we create he would do pretty well.

Peterborough sold Mason-Clark to Coventry for £4.25 Mil so they would be one of the few L1 clubs that could realistically afford him…

He had 40 appearances for 3 clubs last season although only managed more than 45 mins in one game with Fleetwood. With Jatta, Scott and McGoldrick, I'd think it might be a gamble worth taking for a 26 year old. Manage him well and get him firing, but only as a big cash plus deal with Macca. If we can keep Macca, we don't need another striker.

An Unforgettable day that will live long in the memory of our famous old Club.

Thank you to the class of 2022/23.

You did us all proud with your thrilling attractive,football, the determination & resolve you showed to win, & the Club records that you made along the way.

How did  the Old Trafford Ground pass it's safety certificate with a large  amount of water falling on seats from a height like that?

professional foul all day long, i dont know how anyone could just get a yellow for that. regardless of the area, its blatant hand ball and he did it solely to stop the attack. i fear without strong punishment others could replicate this stupid behaviour.

any form of cheating needs to stamped out severely, but hand balls like this is an easy red for me.

@liampie ????

On 11/05/2024 at 15:42, liampie said:

any form of cheating needs to stamped out severely, but hand balls like this is an easy red for me.

exactly this for it to be a red card. 

But this is the whole problem with the way the richer clubs are allowed to sustain much larger losses than clubs that don't have a rich benefactor.

That's down to the current FFP rules and if proposed changes to these rules are implemented, it will give richer clubs even more of an advantage.

This again shows the unfairness throughout the football pyramid right from the top.Just look at all the teams at the very top of each league.

It's no surprise that the top four in league 2 are four of the richest in the league.

We know very well that Wrexham for definite and maybe Stockport too, will be challenging for promotion from League 1 next season, and Mansfield will be up their too with arguably, the best Manager.

One silver lining though for Notts. With the right recruitment, Notts should be up there near the top next season, with these four of the  richest clubs gone.

You know, in the grand cinema of sports, success is like that blockbuster hit you get from investing in a killer script, a visionary director, and a cast that brings it all to life. It's not just about any club; it's about making those smart, savvy moves that turn a good story into a legend. Spending wisely to gain promotion is the important factor in trying to gain promotion, notjust throwing money at it and hoping for a hit? That's like expecting a standing ovation for a film you shot on your phone. Ipswich's climb up to the Championship is a solid win, a real testament to the team's hard work and strategy. And Luton Town's step into the Premier League? It's a significant moment, marking a return to the top flight after a long time. It's these kinds of achievements that add depth to the game's narrative, quietly reminding us why we love it.

I would class Aaron as a winger rather than a midfielder. He has been expected to play as a wingback on the right hand side, but his defending is the weakest part of his game, just like it is with Jodi Jones.

I believe, just like Jodi, he is worth his place in the side just as a winger, but we need good quality defenders behind both of them.

Hello - sorry to bump this up but I've been doing some research on football club foundations, mainly because some clubs (Stoke/Palace) are trying to claim a much older history than is warranted.

It got me looking into County's foundation, and I found something interesting.  The 28 November 1862 newspaper article mentioned on the club's website is not about Notts at all.  It's about a Sheffield club, Milton, formed out of a cricket club.  There's no chance of a typo - the Sheffield Daily Telegraph carries an advert about the match the previous Saturday.

The confusion seems to be that it was held at Cremorne Gardens, but not the road in Nottingham as the Nottm Guardian claims; it was an area later called the Orphanage and Milton played there through the 1860s.  Sheff Weds also played there in 1867.

I'm guessing that someone saw the claimed 1862 date, looked back in the newspapers for that year, found that football match, and assumed it involved County.  But the minutes from 7 December 1864 (as reported in 1925) state definitively that the Notts Foot Ball Club is being formed then and there, and it did not exist in 1862.

No idea where the 1862 date comes from other than there are claims for 1860, 1862, 1863, and 1864 in the various yearbooks...

At least the 1864 date does not affect the oldest professional club record (Stoke's claim is rubbish and Palace's does not even get THAT high) but it does add a slight twist.

So does anyone have any better evidence for there being a club - rather than occasional kickabouts - for the players who would eventually form the Notts club?

Hi @R H and welcome.

Quoted from the Notts County website.

"Notts County Football Club, now universally recognised as the world's oldest Football League club, was formed in 1862.

Official formation followed two years later as the 'Notts. Foot Ball Club'

".

Hi, Robbie, and thanks.  The concern I have is that some of this might be retconning because the 1862 date was accepted but the club's own papers said 1864, so there was an attempt to reconcile the two by saying the club existed unofficially before its proper formation.  But the more likely thing is that it was ACTUALLY formed in 1864 and that 1862 is an oft-repeated mistake.

Hence I wonder if there is something from before December 1864.  If there was anything beforehand they would have been playing between themselves, the nearest opponents would have been in Sheffield or Lincoln.  And newspaper reports were mostly drawn up by club secretaries who would send them in.  So the odd kickabout would not be something anyone would formally report.

But footballs were expensive.  The equivalent today of £50.  That's a lot to lay out for a kickabout - plus they would not be available locally.  That would be quite a commitment.

Maybe any memoirs?  Someone saying they had been playing for a couple of years before finding out there were like-minded souls up the road and deciding to form a club?

I can't see the 777 takeover going ahead. There's something not sitting right with the whole thing. I feel like the inevitable will happen and Everton will enter administration.

You'd have thought that a club like Everton would have a queue of buyers lining up to take them out of this mess. 

On 03/05/2024 at 20:18, DangerousSausage said:

The mismanagement must be pretty epic to be threatened with administration despite all the money PL clubs get. If they really are delaying going into administration to avoid a points penalty, isn't that a bit problematic? Delaying insolvency proceedings is a criminal offence in some countries.

All the same, if they do go into admin, they'll certainly get bought by someone. They're a huge club with a brand new stadium ready to move into. Perfect for a glorious new era.

Timing of this scenario is a real issue to me. A further points deduction this season could see them relegated but delaying it to next season, they then just hope to remain in the PL and make up the lost points

Doncaster winning at Crewe 1:0 at half time in the first leg of the league 2 semi final.

Doncaster are well in control of this playoff semi final after the first leg.

Crewe made a remarkable comeback tonight and they won 2:0 on the night to make it 2:2 after normal time 

The match went to extra time but it remained 2:2 after the extra time.

So we had the drama of the penalty shootout and Crewe won it 4:3 to book themselves a trip to Wembley where they will play Crawley of MK Dons.

Fascinating stuff, a Premiership pitch, all we need now is the players to match, we’ll done to the owners for investing in our club.

Very interesting clip. The new pitch must be a big investment.