I thought Josh Andrews did well, although he did show some poor finishing. I put that down to him rushing due to the opportunity decreasing with how our players would quickly get into position with what chances he did get. His goal, an excellent showcase of his ability to know where the goal is.

Shaun Whalley is a good player but unfortunately, well past his best now.

At 36-years-old, I would be surprised if he didn't retire with them now. Andrews is only 21, on loan from Birmingham and is highly rated amongst their setup. He just needs to work on his shooting, but as we have seen strikers enjoy plenty of good chances and at Notts, he would get them. I said to @super_pie, that he would make a great option to come on from off the bench or just when we need someone to hold the ball up. With his towering height, he would be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to receiving our accurate crosses, transforming into a true target man.

I agree with @Chris; Josh Andrews looked like a lively threat, and he’s still young enough to improve. Birmingham will probably get rid of him at the end of this season or after the next campaign.

all were average imo, they had a lot of height but little direction or creativity on goal. at the moment, i dont consider notts to be one of the best defences and whilst i do believe they are a good squad. a better team would have made it harder for us.

i dont even rate josh andrews. i thought he was pretty shocking with how poor he was on goal.

but this is one game, they may perform better in others but i am basing my comment on our recent game against them.

The results:

Middlesbrough 0-2 QPR
Plymouth Argyle 3-0 Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Derby County
Northampton Town 0-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Morecambe 1-0 Salford City
Newport County 2-2 AFC Wimbledon
Maidenhead United 0-0 Woking
Rochdale 0-1 Halifax Town

---

We had a few surprising results and points were few and far between this round. Congrats to our highest scorer, @4everapie!

@4everapie - 7
@ARLukomski, @Chris - 6
@DangerousSausage, @Joshua, @KB1862, @KingWilliams, @liampie - 4
@cheeky~k8, @Fan of Big Tone, @gtownjohnno, @jimbob, @thommo - 3
@AmericanPie, @Dan, @DonnyNotts, @nottsnutter - 2
@allardyces tash, @magpiejue, @OoooooTommy, @super_ram, @TheSkipper, @upthepies, @william1984 - 1
@Canadian, @CliftonMagpie, @JIMBO, @Megan_Elizax, @Nocturnal-Magpie, @NottsCountyKev - nul points!

---

The top three are unchanged, but @ARLukomski is now within a point of @Joshua at the top. And look who's in a "play-off spot"

Joshua - 37
ARLukomski - 36
magpiejue - 31
4everapie - 30
liampie - 30
nottsnutter - 29
DangerousSausage - 28
KingWilliams - 28
cheeky~k8 - 28
gtownjohnno - 28
TheSkipper - 26
william1984 - 26
Fan of Big Tone - 25
thommo - 24
DonnyNotts - 24
allardyces tash - 24
super_ram - 22
upthepies - 22
Megan_Elizax - 21
NottsCountyKev - 21
Chris - 20
OoooooTommy - 20
JIMBO - 20
KB1862 - 18
jimbob - 18
AmericanPie - 18
Dan - 18
CliftonMagpie - 17
Nocturnal-Magpie - 15
George L - 6
Canadian - 4

---

The next round will be this coming Saturday, 9 September, and the fixtures will be up on Wednesday. Thanks for playing and hope to see you all then!

Thank you Bolton and Wycombe. Two clubs I've never liked but I appreciate you for giving me all my points.

Me @Chris

Getting all of our points from 1 league

well done @Joshua and @ARLukomski.

keep going @cheeky~k8, @Chris and @super_ram. i think super needs help some spiritual support from granny pie, as his form this season has not been good.

I like the idea of the live discussions. I think, judging by the comments, it’s something that should continue. As for other topics, I think when they are promoted, it will be a positive thing for the community.

I have just upgraded the site, which should fix the issues with the rebranding of Twitter. Embeds should work as intended.

@Fan of Big Tone

Test

it works, thanks @Chris you are a star as a reward you can listen to this miserable sod explain why Accrington lost.  

I went with @super_pie, it's the only Premier League ground at the time the club were in the Premiership that he's been too. Very early on, the crowd was groaning and getting down spirited, myself and a few others nearby started chanting. I actually posted on social media via the PON pages that we needed to lift the boys, more fans started singing even though we were losing. Then it was as if, the 12th man effect was true, and we came into the game.

Mark Fotheringham showed more grit, Callum McGregor just became magic and the game was back on before we knew it.

The Liverpool supporters were absolutely amazing! One gave Jake a Liverpool scarf and others would make a fuss of him. At the time, Jake lived and died in a Spider-Man hat, which some of their fans took to singing the theme song. Jake instantly became very nervous but it was awesome. Anfield is one of the best grounds I have been in for the atmosphere; there's very few like it that I have been too. When Liverpool fans took to chanting "You'll never walk alone". I got goosebumps, it was electric. I miss those days, because it was something that felt special.

@KB1862 You should've been there mate, it was surreal.

@KB1862 @Chris i wished i went, i can remember watching the game and commenting on here, it was a great cup draw and game. i hope we can get back into having decent cup runs soon, being draw to championship and premier league teams are a nice difference.

liverpool really showed their class, sterling was brilliant but at least we made a game of it.

The line ups:

https://www.skysports.com/football/liverpool-vs-notts-county/teams/300169

Grandson George went with his mum and Dad to see Les Miserables in London for his birthday treat, he wasn’t miserable after hearing of Notts win. 

i am going to my mums tomorrow, i will be fetching her shopping first [she will be with me] and then its sunday dinner. i will probably be back home by 5:30-6pm ish. if i get chance there is a few things i want to pick up.

today i went to meadow lane to watch notts go top of the league by beating accrington stanley.

i went in the club shop pre game and regretted in, its always way too hot in there but the service was the thing which left more to be desired. i bought some things for my home, so that notts was always around me and spend a good amount of money to be made to wait whilst others chatting got served before me.

A literary Sunday for me, at the Queens Park Book Festival in London

Nicky Hunt is a legend. There is no one nicer than him, at least for those who had a short season with Notts.

Does anyone remember Leam Richardson? He had spells with us and Accrington Stanley.

23 hours ago, NottsLoyal said:

Does anyone remember Leam Richardson? He had spells with us and Accrington Stanley.

I think you missed my first post @NottsLoyal 

We will need cover in the forward positions that’s for sure, hopefully Morias can step up but if not maybe a loan for a few months.

I sincerely hope that he is alright, as the injury appeared to be quite severe. Scott could barely walk off the field. He has been an exceptional team player and his absence will be felt, but I am confident that the team will persevere.

I wish Cedwyn Scott a speedy recovery. I hope he manages to have some downtime as this is the best thing for him right now. It was saddening to see him going off due to injury.

Hello, @George L. It's good to be welcoming you and I hope you like the site.

Hello, @George L, welcome to the Pride of Nottingham.

It's nice to see a grandfather and grandson duo on here, don't be shy about talking about Notts. If you see something just add your comment. Nobody will dismiss or be rude to you, everyone here are super friendly and I can only praise it.

Come on George, there's plenty of young Notts fans on here. Come join in and share your thoughts on the club.

Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham!

the transfer deadline is fast approaching now, its going to be interesting to see if notts gets their man or not. we might have other targets as mentioned, so we will see. i personally did not think we would but with the rumour of keeley i think the board do want to strengthen the defence.

If notts do bring anyone in it will take the manager until Feb to get them on the pitch so they will probably stick with what they have.

I have the feeling that Notts won’t be able to bring anyone in. So far, there have been few signs, and I notice that the club has put out training videos. I think fans will be combing through the footage to see if anyone unknown is among the squad, but I really don’t see anything transpiring now.

2 hours ago, Dripsey3 said:

Drogheda are in a relegation battle and are an average side at best. Conor Keeley is their best defender and has potential. He won't be at Drogheda next season but they will want to keep him for the rest of the season. If he leaves, Drogheda are in big trouble. 

This was my original thinking as to why the bids were turned down. His value to the side is probably of more value than a transfer fee. 
I did ask the question on Twitter if he has any pace and the reply I’ve had is that he isn’t very quick, more of a solid defensive unit. I’m not sure exactly how that fits our style of play as we need a tall, solid, but mobile CB.

but if the money that comes in for him, could be used by the club to play some additional players wages, split into two signings or even one marquee signing their struggles could be narrowed down.

i would guess notts are offering between 20-40k for his services.

that could be used to strengthen their side, rather than losing a player for free. its a very notts approach to business. with wootton and rodrigues leaving on frees, despite clubs have been interested and speculated to have had offers made for them during a season.

He'd be a fantastic signing.  I've been aware of him since he was at Ballymena.  He's obviously a big strong centre half but very comfortable on the ball and a huge threat going forward too.  Also capable of goals like this..

Madness, 6 games in, I know they've invested quite a bit in their squad but things take time to click.

Yeah, I agree with @Chris Eastleigh makes more sense to me given he's London based. Enzio and McDonnell there too, a bit of a reunion maybe?

York City? Average team, they are always going to struggle with competing in the National League without some much-needed investment into the club.

york city have a lot to do to regain their football league status, how long have they been out of the league? i remember them in fifa 17 i think. the clubs just not looked a team that can compete with the bigger teams falling down. i am not surprised to see their manager go but i think clubs should give more time.

Hello, @Steveyward. Welcome!

Welcome to PON @Steveyward

It's a good site, PON. Welcome and hello @Steveyward.

The standard is higher than the NL.. Even the teams (and excluding Sutton here) that play more direct, can pass it around too. You can see the technical ability of the players, in general, is higher. That's not to say some of the teams were anymore effective than some we've played in the NL, but they certainly have the potential to be. Sutton gave us a thrashing, but they were far and away the worst technical side of the bunch we've played thus far and are very NL... hit it long, run the channels, big, physical, but can't string 10 passes together. 

Donny had something like 10 players out. If we had 10 players out, we'd be struggling to field a starting 11, let alone a bench. Morecambe, who we failed to beat, looked really very average. They then went and smashed Bradford 3-0.  Crawley, everybody's favourites for NL-hell next season, beat current league leaders MK Franchise. Just over a week later, they got smashed 6-0 by Swindon. Strange results like those are more of a common occurrence in L2 where the standard is much closer between teams than it was in the NL; ourselves and Wrexham were head and shoulders above most of the league last season, hence the point tally.  In 2020/21, we got to a playoff semi-final having given Jimmy Knowles 29 games that season. Mansfield wouldn't give him a game. That gives you an idea about the difference between NL play-off team and a mid-table, play-off pushing L2 side.

I've seen many a fan of our fellow League 2 sides who haven't started as well as they'd like, fall into the same logical trap; the table lies and isn't representative, but they've played sides that are in the top x in the table. You can't have both.

I do agree that the table lies in August. Donny won't finish bottom. Stockport won't finish in 19th. Wrexham won't finish in 16th. I think Grimsby were a better litmus test to where we are - they are probably a mid-table, upper-mid table, perhaps play-off push team. We beat them at home, albeit with a bit of a struggle. That's probably where we roughly are at the present moment. Any kind of decent test though, needs more than one run. I think Accrington on Saturday will give us another idea of where we're at. MK Dons the week after also. Get through those with 3 or 4 + points, and we can become more confident. Come away with 0-2 points, and it'll be a reality check. 

A long way of saying, 'not a scoobie'. 

Some interesting thoughts above, thanks!

To be honest I also haven't got a scooby. I feel reassured that we're going to deal with the league after the last four games, but it's too early to get carried away with our league position. Hopefully it'll give the team that bit of extra self-belief and help settle them down a bit, but otherwise it doesn't mean much at all this soon into the season.

We've got tougher tests coming up, and I'm fascinated to see how we'll do. We won't have it all our own way, but that's all part of moving up a division. With the injuries to Scott and Bajrami and the disappearance of Morias and Randall, the squad also feels a bit thinner right now and one or two new faces probably wouldn't hurt. The transfer window makes life in L2 a bit less forgiving - we can't just sign a player when we need one, as we've done over the last few seasons. That said, if we can address our defensive weaknesses without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, this squad has real potential.

There's one thing for sure though - it's a lot more interesting than hitting our head on the NL glass ceiling season after season!

The difference between the National League and League Two isn’t that big. Some of the semi-pro teams in the National League perform better than your Walsall’s, Forest Greens, and Doncaster Rovers. The difference for me is the extra quality, but former NL teams that enjoyed a good season prior tend to do reasonably well in L2. It couldn’t be that much of a gulf if the standard was much higher. League One is where the gap is greater because there are many more teams who could be playing in the Championship. There are only a handful of teams in League Two that could adapt well to League One IMO.

The Queen song, “Another One Bites the Dust” comes to mind. He won’t be the last manager to go before we are 10 games in. Football isn’t known for giving managers time to turn things around. If they do, it can prove to be more costly. Look at us with Kevin Nolan, then the appointment of Harry Kewell. For me, Kewell is on par with Jamie Fullerton as being the worst manager we have had for decades.

I can understand the sacking. Real life is all about the pressure managers have to face and poor starts do make clubs fearful. It’s no longer easy for teams to bounce back after relegation and in the Non-League, it is all the more important to survive the drop. I don’t agree with clubs sacking their managers but I can see why the decision has been made.

Lee Bradbury will find another club that he should do better with. Eastleigh can be a good team but they are performing above my expectations of them. I always looked at their squad and thought they were lower mid-table.

The results:

Coventry City 0-0 Sunderland
Millwall 1-0 Stoke City
Exeter City 2-1 Reading
Lincoln City 3-0 Blackpool
Bradford City 1-0 Crewe Alexandra
Walsall 1-1 Grimsby Town
Boreham Wood 0-0 Oldham Athletic
Ebbsfleet United 3-0 Kidderminster Harriers

---

Congrats to this round's winner @KingWilliams! And me, because I'm ace.

@KingWilliams - 10
@ARLukomski, @DangerousSausage, @william1984 - 8
@gtownjohnno, @Joshua, @magpiejue - 7
@liampie, @TheSkipper - 6
@Nocturnal-Magpie, @NottsCountyKev, @nottsnutter, @OoooooTommy, @upthepies - 5
@Canadian, @DonnyNotts, @Fan of Big Tone, @thommo - 4
@4everapie, @allardyces tash, @cheeky~k8, @Dan, @JIMBO, @Megan_Elizax, @super_ram - 3
@Chris, @CliftonMagpie, @jimbob, @KB1862 - 2
@AmericanPie - 1

---

The table is just starting to settle down, with @Joshua being chased by our defending champion @ARLukomski and @magpiejue:

Joshua - 33
ARLukomski - 30
magpiejue - 30
nottsnutter - 27
liampie - 26
william1984 - 25
TheSkipper - 25
cheeky~k8 - 25
gtownjohnno - 25
KingWilliams - 24
DangerousSausage - 24
4everapie - 23
allardyces tash - 23
DonnyNotts - 22
Fan of Big Tone - 22
NottsCountyKev - 21
upthepies - 21
thommo - 21
Megan_Elizax - 21
super_ram - 21
JIMBO - 20
OoooooTommy - 19
CliftonMagpie - 17
Dan - 16
AmericanPie - 16
Nocturnal-Magpie - 15
jimbob - 15
Chris - 14
KB1862 - 14
George L - 6
Canadian - 4

---

The next round is on Saturday, so expect the fixtures to magically appear on Wednesday. Thanks for playing and see you all then!

@Chris, you are only half the points behind the top end. two to three good rounds and you can make up for it.

i cant believe im 5th! @Joshua you are doing very well mate.

On 28/08/2023 at 21:12, liampie said:

@Chris, you are only half the points behind the top end. two to three good rounds and you can make up for it.

The gap from top to bottom is just 29 points. With 41 rounds remaining, that's nothing!

I'll post the next round in a few minutes.

7 hours ago, cheeky~k8 said:

Most are quite good and look good but i have found a few that don't match the detail that an actual picture would, like my pirate ship one.

@cheeky~k8 Mrs. T is a cat lover (well we both are) she is doing this one at the moment which is a good likeness of our cat Tilly although some of the colours are a bit odd.

I had a good Bank Holiday weekend. Went to the royal concert hall on Friday night with @ARLukomski to watch Rocky Horror and after met a few friends for a 'few' drinks. 

Saturday I went to meadow Lane. 

I was back at work on Sunday, then after went for drinks and a good night out with work. Then work all of Bank Holiday Monday. 

@Fan of Big Tone that does look good. Very detailed and colourful too.

I felt very lethargic today so we didn’t do much, we had our usual little local walk, then I did a bit more of my jigsaw which has a lot of sky and a lot of sea so it’s particularly hard.

At tea time watched Match of the Day from last night and later we watched another couple of episodes of the Spy Amongst Friends series about Kim Philby who defected to Russia in the 60s.

On 11/08/2023 at 13:10, Ohh Tommy Johnson said:

I was hoping to go camping in Edale this weekend... but my youngest has made plans with friends all week, so that has gone by the by. It's Folk Week here in Broadstairs, so I may get a couple of gigs in instead... or I'll clear the loft!!

 

I'll be keeping up to date with the game via various websites and message boards!

Did you get to any gigs @Ohh Tommy Johnson?I used to go to Ripley folk club in the  late 60's to early 80's and camping in same era.

On 29/08/2023 at 12:48, super_ram said:

Did you get to any gigs @Ohh Tommy Johnson?I used to go to Ripley folk club in the  late 60's to early 80's and camping in same era.

We got to see The Home Service who were very good, albeit they were missing John Tams. They had a replacement in but it was the first time he had played with the band, not that it was obvious except they seemed slightly out of tune (figuratively speaking) with each other , They hadn't even rehearsed all together!  and you could only be impressed with their musicianship.  

My daughter is now stuck in Italy since her flight was cancelled.  EasyJet just spent the last couple of days lying about having booked them on another flight, before finally admitting they hadn't done it.  Now one of her friends parents is driving down to Basel to meet them!  So, after 2 weeks holiday, I need a break!

I took the train to Leicester. The terrace streets around Filbert Street and we had to queue single file along the street to enter the ground through the turnstiles.

It was Larry Lloyd's 1st game in charge, our 3rd season in the top flight, and we had signed Martin O'Neill from Norwich for £40k

Notts team: 1. Seamus McDonagh 2. Aki Lahtinen 3. Nigel Worthington 4. Mark Goodwin 5. Brian Kilcline 6. David Hunt 7. John Chiedozie * 8. Justin Fashanu 9. Trevor Christie 10. Rachid Harkouk 11. Martin O'Neill Sub: Ian McParland *

Leicester City: 1. Mark Grew 2. Paul Ramsey 3. Bobby Smith 4. Kevin McDonald 5. Ian Banks 6. John O'Neill 7. Steve Lynex 8. Gary Lineker 9. Alan Smith 10. Robert Jones 11. Ian Wilson

Lineker and Alan Smith (later at Arsenal) their stand out players

O'Neill opened the scoring but it was a Trevor Christie hat trick , that meant Notts sat on top of the Division 1 table (Premier League equivalent) that evening!

Mark Goodwin had an excellent game too, returning to his old club

I seem to recall we had police protection for the Notts supporters walking back to the station

This is awful, I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember this match at all, I doubt I would have travelled because I would remember it but I’m sure I would have been aware of it at the time and probably listened on the radio to uncle Colin. I can only think that 40 years ago I was deeply embroiled in family life with two very young children (5 and 2), we had very little money to spend on food let alone football so that’s my excuse. I do however remember the team @Piethagoram quoted some great players in that team.

On 27/08/2023 at 21:32, Chris said:

I can't put my finger on who Mark Grew reminds me off, but he's a name that I don't recall ever hearing.

 

With the right beard he looks a lot like a young Billy Connolly, @Chris

Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham, you should find it to be a lot of fun here. Hello from me, @NorthPie.

Hello, welcome to PON @NorthPie.

Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham @NorthPie! We’re so glad you’ve decided to join us. Our community is a vibrant and welcoming place, @Andrew Edwards.

Welcome to Pon!

Hello, welcome to the PON site @Bryn Roberts.

Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham! We’re so glad you’ve decided to join us. @Bryn Roberts Our community is a vibrant and welcoming place.

It's good to have you here, so hello and welcome to PON @Sir Magpie.

Welcome to the Pride of Nottingham, @Sir Magpie.I like your username!

Hello, welcome to PON @Sir Magpie.

It was end-to-end at the start, but Notts had the best of chances. Tranmere tried to huff and puff, but they didn’t get anywhere. Cedwyn’s injury turned the game on its head. It gave Tranmere the surge to believe they could get something; it shows the real quality that our 11 has and how defiant we are in protecting leads when going down to 10 men. It’s much easier to hold leads than to come back from disadvantages when teams have goals and you have fewer players on the pitch. Excellent win, long may it continue.

@nightOWL Thank you, we appreciate your kind words. It’s nice to see a fan of a different team wishing us well. There used to be quite a group of them on here at one point.

The performance was top-notch, from start to finish. I always felt confident that a good result would come. There was a spell when Tranmere wanted to take advantage of us being down to 10 men, but it was superb to see us tighten up and defend. If anything, it made the game more entertaining. I think they will eventually start to do better. They are a good side going forward and I hope they would be inclined to agree that we are one of the best attacking teams in this league.

I want to be mindful when saying this, but there’s no need for taking the knee to be happening in football. Georgios Katidis was rightly punished for making a political gesture which isn’t acceptable. I won’t say what, as most should know. The same happened to three Switzerland players, Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri. There have been others connected to religious beliefs and groups like the IRA. The Black Lives Matter movement is a political movement, all these examples are not about spreading awareness and are various levels of political statements. None of which are needed in the game, however, I wouldn’t boo anyone for taking the knee. I do wish it’s phased out of sports. Everyone should try harder to get along and be kinder to anyone regardless of their backgrounds.

Taking the knee doesn’t exactly show support. I fail to see how it’s a sign of support or respect; nobody is being knighted. There are far better ways to promote equality. The issue is, it’s not about that. It’s about being angry.

It’s high time that everyone moves on from this issue, as there are numerous causes and initiatives that are productive and can bring about positive change. If anything, taking the knee has become a political gesture, which has sparked more controversy than it has promoted equality. It would be best to leave it to organisations such as Kick it Out to address these issues.

Not good times for their fans like other of other clubs in the past few years. It happens though and i'm sure they've known about it for awhile, just depends if the owners actually cared.

Good luck to Southend; it’s not an easy situation, but I do hope it can be overcome. With the right owner, they should be able to kick on, but it’s finding that person.

I wish Southend all the best in their difficult situation. Good luck to them.

I'm sure Jodi is happy its been credited to him, same goes for grimsby too... i don't think they want an own goal on record.

I was under the impression that Jodi Jones would find the back of the net again today. Their goalkeeper, however, made an impressive save to deny him. Regrettably, we didn’t manage to convert the opportunity, but it did result in quite a scramble.

I have seen closer efforts denied, but hey, it benefits us and Jodi Jones. The EFL made a very intriguing decision, mind.