That's quite a quiet year by recent standards. There are 10 expirations in 2027 for example, before we add any loanees.

Of those 7, 4 are no-brainer contract offers IMO. The other 3 are interesting - I'd say Bennetts, Kouhyar and maybe controversially Norburn have to prove their worth more during this run-in. We got an assist from Kouhyar at Walsall and a goal from Bennetts at Accy. More of that, please. Norburn is 33 and his last game was Chesterfield....we need to see a return to only positive contributions from here on in, I'd say

I think many decisions will be made on whether Notts get promoted or not. McDonald & Norburn are both 33. Norburn has experience in the Championship & League 1, McDonald has League 1 experience.

McDonald is arguably our best defender, & Norburn has demonstrated his value. I think with their experience, they could both be useful in League 1 if Notts were promoted.

With Nick Tsaroulla there is an option for another year on his present contract. Other players like Keanan Bennetts & Maziar Kouhyar, who has an option to extend his contract for another year, we will have to see what happens.

As far as Matty Platt he has an injury to deal with. Hopefully, he can recover during the summer off season. I think that he has earned a contract extension with his performances. He's good enough for League 1.

If I were Notts I'd put in an offer for Tom Iorpenda if Notts get promoted, or even if they didn't. He's a very good player who suits the Notts style perfectly & would do well in League 1.

I would be happy to see any lof those players sign on again for next season to be honest, with a few caveats. Matty Platt's contract should be renewed, but for a minimum of two years as he'll probably miss a fair chunk of next season. Kouhyar and Bennetts have contributed and Bennetts in particular has real potential, but I can see the club looking elsewhere for someone who would be an automatic starter. Norburn and McDonald have the quality (if not the brains in the case of the former), but their age might count against them. And as for Harry Tangen, I don't think we've seen the best of him yet but MP clearly rates him - let's see what he can do in the final weeks of the season.

I like your summing up @theAnticlough

The Norburn sending off did seem to make a difference to how the match unfolded. Him going off actually emboldened Notts for about 30 minutes, until we ran out of steam.

Just a thought, Martin Paterson intended to field a back four, but in some ways the defence & central midfielders were just so used to playing a 3:4:2:1 that Tsaroulla just found himself going forward & Norburn was just trying to cover him.

So the intended formation that Martin had planned didn't happen in practice especially after the sending off.

I guess that's possible @Robbie but Tsaroulla would've been so wildly wrong in his positioning in that case....

If you watch, he's always a good 10-20 yards forward of Platt. I wonder if those 'average positioning' maps are still done. Regardless of whatever MP wanted, Platt was RCB and Tsaroulla RM or RWB

[ a back 4, if you wanted RodMac and Platt together, would've needed a radical shift to something like 4-2-3-1 no more Wing-backs, or 4-4-2 no more No. 10s]

Defensive team changes has been a lifelong pet hate of mine as a fan. That pair though take the biscuit in terms of impact, if Platt and Norburn weren't out of their natural roles.....

The best way to promotion now is the Accy formula IMO. Pick a positive team and concentrate on accurate passing and movement, hard running, final third execution. Trust in a full season's training ground work by better footballers to take us all the way.

I thought Tangen looked really bright first half, best we've seen from him so far. But for me I thought Jones and Grant were the two stand-outs. I've been pretty critical of Grant but he had one of his best matches last night, so I voted for him. Can he finally finish the season in that kind of form?

Everyone played their part. Those who scored and those with assists, deserve special mention. However, I have gone for Matt Palmer. While he did nothing spectacular, he just makes the team tick. He gives those in front of him the platform to do what they do best. We have missed him in recent games.

The Poll has now closed. Thanks to all who voted. I am absolutely delighted that Conor Grant has been voted the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match v Accrington. Well done Conor.

I don't allow bags or luggage out of my sight and I always have my hand on them. It's easier said than done though, because it's easy to be distracted and being without your passport sounds quite a daunting task to deal with. I watch a lot of YouTube, from things like the Honest Tour Guide to other scam-related issues. It's good to know there are active people out there trying to do something but why don't the country authorities do better?

It amazes me the level of pick pockets in countries like Spain, France, Netherlands etc.

Oh and I know it happens in the United Kingdom too, many years ago someone tried to pick pocket me at Skegness and they walked off with a sprained hand. It's a shame people still target 'trust' because it just fuels the decay of it.

A few years ago I went on holiday to Greece, it was a really early flight and I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the airport. So once I finally arrived even though it was mid-afternoon I was feeling super tired and just wanted to get to the hotel to have a nap.

I can remember exiting the airport to find the bus to take us to the hotel. When I found it stood right at the side was a guy in a smart white shirt looking at people’s bookings, telling them to get on and leave their luggage with him as he'll load it for us.

Once I was on the bus and we were on the move I got this horrible thought of what I'd possibly just done. And then I just knew, looking at the driver and the rep in their proper uniforms... I'd handed my suitcase to a total stranger and surprise, surprise they had no idea of a man in a white shirt who worked for them.

I felt so stupid, I’m always super cautious and careful when it comes to getting scammed but because I was so tired I just wasn’t thinking properly. Luckily, all my important stuff was in my hand luggage and because I’m paranoid about the luggage being lost I’d split my clothes with my brother (who was on another bus) so I didn’t lose everything.

Now I'm like a hawk if I have to load my bag onto a bus, I'll wait to be the last person so I can see the undercarriage shut with my case in it!

As the Spencer Kelly story was in Barcelona, I'll share an experience I had in that city.

I was staying in a Hostal/Pension a few blocks away from Las Ramblas. I got talking to another traveller there and we decided to spend the day exploring the Funicular train and the views to the north. Normal enough day and chat with this man, about the same age as I was then.

Following day, early evening I was walking down the Ramblas on the west side. I looked across and at the same level as me going up on the east side was this guy. So about 30m across. I saw him glancing over at me with his head half turned. I would've been the same but as we were walking in opposite directions, the distance increased quickly. A few steps on....something wasn't right....he was going back in the direction of the Hostal. I turned around and went back up on the East side, pretty quickly

When I got back to the Hostal I asked for my key. The reception turned around and confirmed what I could see for myself - it wasn't there. They were just saying they had given the key to someone else, but I was already flying up the stairs. When I got up to the top (maybe 4 floors) I pushed opened my door, and lo and behold there he was searching the room. 'Trust your instincts' was confirmed for me thru this experience and I don't hesitate in following them.

Terrible news.

What bad luck for him and for us. Hoping for a full and speedy recovery.

We're relying a lot on Rod McDonald now, but if he can play the next 9 games like the dozen before he was injured we'll be fine.

Ness is good and Browne looked handy at Accy.

(Two emergency CBs? It'd be interesting to see Iorpenda there, and maybe even Jatta!)

Gutted for him. It felt like he was doing more twist and turns against Chesterfield than he had all season, I know it could’ve happened at anytime but it's incredibly unfortunate it happened the one time he played out his usual position.

That’s 4 ACL’s in 3 years for us now. Luker’s injury wasn’t disclosed, he had to have surgery on his knee as well, it was probably similar to an ACL but not quite as severe. He’s basically missed the whole season too.

Very bad news, particularly for him! Hope he recovers well and quickly. The injury didn’t occur because he was being played out of position, it happened when he was trying to recover from pushing forward and losing possession. He chased back and tried to challenge for the ball and fell awkwardly. Unfortunate, but a genuine, accidental incident.

From the squad perspective it’s a blow but we still have 4 quality defenders at this level - so, hopefully they will stay fit for the rest of the season (and beyond).

I've listened to the interview. Joe Palmer always gives a good interview. He's always optimistic and positive & that's a good thing.

I think that Notts should be very proud of the new training facilities that they have developed in partnership with Nottingham University.

I can understand that the training facilities which the Club possesses can help to attract some of the best players at this level & even higher.

Attracting some of the best players at this level & above is possible & I'm sure they would revel working in those training facilities, however attracting the best players cost money, in transfer fees & salaries.

Getting promoted to League 1 will cost the club financially & it will mean the owners having to dip into their pockets much more or alternatively looking for a third party financier to put more money into the club.

It will be fascinating to see how the owners deal with possible promotion at the season's end. Will some players be sold on, & will we see some big name signings or not. Will season ticket prices have to go up or will the price rises be kept to a minimum?

5 hours ago, Fan of Big Tone said:

@Chris i think what he said was we want to be the best team in league two and if we go up we want to be the best team in league one.

I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Every football team wants to be the best that it can be, but do we have the money to realistically be that? Start of the season Martin Paterson didn't even want to acknowledge promotion, especially during the poor start but now we are 4th with less than two hand fulls of games we are talking about League One? Whilst I wouldn't knock the ambition as I said, I do think there's one thing talking and another doing it.

I still haven't had a chance to listen to it, so it might be a perfectly fine interview but I still think we need to reflect on where we are now.

The way I read it is that being “the best that we can be” is within the constrains we have as a club, that’s not necessarily saying the best club in league two but the best that we can be. Also I don’t think he was talking about definitely getting promoted but of course that is the aim whether this year or in the future, I need to listen again too just to remember what he said, in fairness most of it was about the facilities at the university and how it helps the club attract better player, how it was good for the club and the university.

I think it could be worth Martin Paterson considering a similar team to the one that played at Accrington in one or more of the final games. I think Accrington were confused about who to mark because there wasn't a recognised target man.

It is something that Martin can keep in his locker just in case. I am sure that other teams will have been watching & studying a video of that match & as a result will be much more prepared to deal with that eventuality.

Notts just need to play their strongest team available as their best players become available. Playing a recognised striker, if available, from the start, has to be the better call. Whether Jatta is fit enough to start on Saturday will be a big factor.

I think it'd be fair to describe it as 3-2-5-0.

I saw Grant as a No.10 rather than filling in for the striker. Whatever it was, Accy couldn't live with it and they went to pieces.

As you say@Robbie, an interesting option rather than something to repeat in any of the 9 Cup Finals we have left.

One thing I would like to see kept though is the Palmer-Iorpenda CM partnership. What do you and others think?

Norburn's red card let others players in, they took the chance, looked great, and now he has to take a seat on the bench.

I'd like to see Grant and Bennetts given another go v Cheltenham. With Iorpenda next to Palmer again. I thought Palmer sprayed it around at Accy in a way Norburn can't.

I think I tend to agree that the Palmer/ Iorpenda partnership is a good one, the Robertson/ Iorpenda twosome is good too. I like Norburn & he gives some extra physicality to the centre of midfield but his petulance is a downer.

I think Palmer/ Iorpenda should be given another go. I think Tangen played his best match for Notts so a Tangen/ Grant partnership upfront is worth another go. Bennetts is close to a selection. I think Ndlovu should have served his 3 match ban so he should be back on Saturday.

@theAnticlough, it was good to see Rod McDonald back in the starting XI against Chesterfield, but I don't think Matty Platt supported Nick Tsaroulla. I would like to see this given more time, because it could work, but I do think we missed Lewis Macari, especially in the first half. I know he came on, but his impact could have been larger. There's still time for players to pick up and impress, such as Jodi Jones for example who hasn't been bad but just not consistent enough for me so far.

@theAnticlough Once the season ends I will publish the full PON list. Your list does marry up somewhat with the PON list so far.

I think that the PON results so far reflect how important Iorpenda, Platt, Robertson, Tsaroulla, Jatta, McDonald & Palmer are to Notts. That fact that some of those players have missed a fair number of games again puts pressure on the rest of the squad, & may I say, contributes to the inconsistencies in performance that we have witnessed on occasions.

I do think the standout player has been Iorpenda. When he's in central midfield with Robertson or Norburn Notts tend to be solid in that area.

Jatta has been the number one striker this season when he's played, & Notts miss him when he's absent from the team.

Platt & McDonald have stood out in defence & Bedeau is not far behind in my estimation. With Belshaw between the sticks I think we have close to the best defensive unit in League 2.

I agree with much of what has already been said, I’d have Bedeau 1^st and Iorpenda 2^nd, I think they are the clear standouts for me this season. I’ll be amazed if one of them doesn’t win the clubs player of the season.

I’d have Dennis 3^rd, just purely because his goals have been vital for us this season, he’s basically replaced Didzy which is no mean feat.

Macari 4^th, very close between him and Dennis, he’s been super reliable and really solid in defence this season.

Then I’m torn between 3, Jatta, Platt & Tsaroulla. But I think I'll say Tsaroulla 5^th for me. He’s played pretty much the whole season in a position that isn’t his natural one and he’s top of the charts when it comes to assists and chances created this season. I still don't like the inverted wingbacks being a thing, it’s the one hangover from last season I want to see kicked to the curb. But I get given we’ve been so limited with right-footed wingbacks, we’ve pretty much had no choice but to play him there.

Agree @Robbie 

Maybe it was simply a case of forgetting, but if we've reached a point where we can't ask about a key player like Robbo and his prognosis then the 'communications management' has gone too far IMO

Yeah, I get impression and I could be completely wrong here that Martin doesn't particularly enjoy the pre-match chats. I don't always watch them because he doesn't tend to give much away. I wonder if thinks the opposition listen and is therefore extra careful to give them almost zero insight!

I actually think hearing from Andy and Sam, in pre-match build up would make it more interesting from time to time. They don't have the final say on the starting 11 so they probably could talk a tad more freely.

6 hours ago, menzinho said:

I actually think hearing from Andy and Sam, in pre-match build up would make it more interesting from time to time. They don't have the final say on the starting 11 so they probably could talk a tad more freely.

Ryan Harley did quite a few (and invented the cure for insomnia). Before that Doyle did a lot. Mo Ross and Alex Rae are two others I remember, although the club didn't provide an interpreter.

We know Slocs like to talk - he could filibuster 10mins no problem, and MP gets a rest to keep it fresh

The massive issue with Grant is that because we only play 1 centre forward the attacking midfielders need score goals. He’s got got 2 goals and 2 assists and in a team like ours he should be doing better. Look at Charlie Whitaker playing in a side that is so much worse than ours yet he’s scored 9 goals... Talking about keeping Didzy maybe we should've tried just as hard to keep Whitaker.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Grant's work-rate and commitment to close down but for me he’s just a useful squad player to have. When Ruben played as a No.10 he scored goals and set them up, as did Scott, then Crowley and Didzy. I thought Hall was on the way to doing it but after he got sent off against Bristol he’s just looked off the pace.

@menzinho

Whitaker may be scoring goals for Tranmere but Tranmere have conceded 65 goals & are still not safe from relegation. Grant is a much stronger all round player than Whittaker, & he's the type of player that Patto prefers, hard working, a team player & stronger defensively.

6 hours ago, menzinho said:

The massive issue with Grant is that because we only play 1 centre forward the attacking midfielders need to score goals. He’s got got 2 goals and 2 assists and in a team like ours he should be doing better.

Absolutely correct. Getting goals and assists from your No.10s in this formation is a non-negotiable 'must have'

MP has dropped Grant multiple times now - he gets back in because nobody else can claim the shirt.

The position has been a tremendous let down, verging on a disaster. We shouldn't speak about 'best' options there, but 'least worst'

Having said that, where are we now?

Hall's form has collapsed completely. It may be too late for Luker to come back. Kouhyar was given starts there and was terrible. Iorpenda should be playing deeper. Dennis and Ndlovu are suspended. It's not looking good with Tangan (did Montague mess up or has MP botched it - our only attempt to solve our biggest issue in the window?)

So we'll have to get behind Conor Grant tonight and hope he does well. But he should know that getting a No.10 pick for a promotion-aspiring club does mean that goals and assists are expected and that's the main thing you'll be judged on.

5 hours ago, Robbie said:

I get your point @Chris

I voted for Jodi because he produced two moments of high quality that led to the Notts goals.

I thought that the other players I mentioned did well too.

You didn't have to justify your comment, Robbie. Your vote is your vote but for the conversation purpose I just wanted to add that he wasn't all that good in my opinion.

McDonald - without a shadow of doubt once Platt went off. He didn’t put a foot wrong all game, commanding, assured and physically strong enough to keep their strikers quiet. Not directly at fault for any of the goals.

I like Iorpenda, a lot, and he was his usual busy self but I simply don’t get how he could be MOTM yesterday. He started brightly and showed a few glimpses of quality on the ball in the second half, great ball across the box - but that was it. Not a telling pass, nothing creative or imaginative just a genuine, hard working display. I thought he, together with Tsaroulla and Bedeau were the pick of the rest but McD (& Platt) was head and shoulders above them for composure, quality and effectiveness.

The poll has now closed. Thanks to all who voted. I'm pleased to announce that by a small majority, Tom Iorpenda has been voted the Pride of Nottingham's Man of the Match v Chesterfield. Well done Tom.

3 minutes ago, YoopEyes said:

I’d say that going down to 10, Cook out thinking Patto, Platt going off and putting Jatta & Hall on were the main contributory factors today.

Tactically, we got caught out by the cheating, skulduggery and deviousness of Cook and his bunch of uninspiring but annoyingly effective yobs.

We just tend to struggle against these kind of tactics all the time we are pitched against it. It happened under Williams & Maynard. We are much more physical under Patto but we still get beaten more than we win under these circumstances.

We have a team in Bromley who are much more direct than Notts, but have been very effective in dealing with different tactics which their opponents employ against them, & have only lost a handful all season.

Notts need to get their physical players back, because as we come to the last ten games, teams in the top half of the league are going to cheat, play dirty, waste time, practice skullduggery, be very physical & will fight & scrap their way to try to win a playoff place or even better. Notts have to compete with those tactics.

There's two ways to look at the key decision, but ultimately the referee made the correct decision based on the written laws of the game. However, I will defend Ollie Norburn somewhat because Armando Dobra wasn't going to get up, he was trying to get the game delayed for him to put on his boot. I heard Norburn tell him to just get up, and Dobra was acting like he had his foot taken off him but knew full well Notts had emerged on the break.

I felt at the time the referee hadn't seen it, I haven't watched the video back but I believe he became aware only once Notts had two players on the ground having been poorly fouled by Chesterfield players, and a handful of players complaining to him about what Norburn had done.

You shouldn't touch other players boots, but I did laugh and so did many others who later moaned about it from the stands.

Until that decision, Notts and Chesterfield looked quite evenly matched, and neither side looked all that much of a threat. It was quite end to end, with both teams being guilty of poor play at times.

Chesterfield's scoring, defensively, was poor and I hold no blame to James Belshaw. Although I think he wasn't at his best and had quite a poor game, the two other goals I question his positioning and relex, as he dived slow for the second and looked almost like we had Kelle Roos back in goal.

Matty Platt offered little support to Nick Tsaroulla, and this was always going to make it hard to break down the right side.

This doesn't mean I don't think he defended okay, and I understand it was all about height and having ball winners in the back three places but ultimately in key stages Notts just were incredibly poor. Chesterfield should never have found it so easy to run through, and Dilan Markanday for Chesterfield was superb throughout his performance. He was by far, for me, Chesterfield's best player.

Norburn's sending off forced us to try to play better as a team, and the goals Notts scored was a result of persistant but it's a shame we lacked that when it came to keeping Chesterfield at bay. It's fine, because they deserved the win and I won't pretend differently. It annoys me how we fail to grasp what works, when it's so clear as day, but then when we try to force things due to pressure to almost being route one.

We have zero effort from Alassana Jatta to make any sort of run, or attempts to do anything. Matthew Dennis, who did try, but kept allowing his frustration to result in many half-arsed attempts to do anything.

I wanted Martin Paterson to make the change so Dennis had support, but I wished we had overloaded the midfield and left Nick Tsaroulla on.

Jodi Jones frustrated me with how he goes about himself at times, he gets the ball in a good area for a cross but decides to show to much of the ball, after trying to make a run into an area he really didn't need to be to make a cross. He loses the ball, then starts waddling around the pitch, at first almost making it seem like he had a niggle but his frustration grew, and when he went off it was clear even more.

The team tried, did well in spells and credit has to be given to coming back but the praises can easily be out done with the negatives. That's the essence of football, especially in intense rivalry matches such as this one. Nothing which happened today will be held against any players in the next match, but if I were Paterson I would be telling them I expected better.

There's no harm losing when you have 10 men on a pitch, and a referee who doesn't give you many fouls almost making Chesterfield seem to have 12. Yet even then, we just weren't good enough.

Important point from Adam Hassell about Matt Dennis being suspended for the Accrington match due to accumulated 10 yellow cards.

Nice one @Robbie  a good watch

Looks like we could see the biggest attendance of the season at Meadow Lane for this eagerly awaited clash with our local rivals Chesterfield..

1 hour ago, Robbie said:

Looks like we could see the biggest attendance of the season at Meadow Lane for this eagerly awaited clash with our local rivals Chesterfield..

Well call me an arm chair supporter if you like but I’m stopping home to watch on the telly for a few reasons.

1. It’s a nightmare parking when it’s a big attendance.

2. I don’t particularly like large crowds

3. it’s really hard getting Chloe out of bed for an early kick off and causes upsets all round.

Yesterday, I had a very good coding session at my dad's

Kate made us cheese, ham and onion cobs, which I took and it was nice to see Super enjoy them. I absolutely love crispy onions paired with diced regular onions. I used to strongly dislike onions, but I do like them on burgers from time to time, which led to me trying them inside cobs.

I had a blood test earlier in the week. My GP doesn't tend to take action but insists on further blood tests. It's like a loop, but as I came home. Kate told me that my results had come in online, and that they wanted to do yet another blood test. I have done physio for three years, the most consistent amount of support I have been given and in my last appointment with them they put a request in to send me for scans and to Rheumatology for further support in the pain I exprience (amongst other issues). My blood results were mostly normal, but there were some concerns with my liver and some other markers they checked.

Result, requesting me to have another blood test. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I had a telephone appointment following up with the appointment I had previously with the GP, not the nurse and some small progress has been made. I explained that I didn't need to have another blood test, as their concerns were invalid as I hadn't eaten in 15 hours. I do this whenever I have blood taken, I also drink plenty of water so that the results give a real insight as to what is going on.

The GP agreed, and said that they will put me in touch with the Rheumatology department but it could take months to be seen.

I will have a general health check and a visit to the dietion, which I am happy with. I suspect more bloods will be taken but they will just show the same concerns because I know that it's important to fast before these types of appointments.

Going back to spending time with Super, it was lovely and I hope to be able to go back soon. The plus was I didn't feel pain walking, aside from my back and feeling tired (sluggish). I do feel a lot better, but I am concerned that my health could be improved and good times like now can be few and far between. I accept the pain and other things, I just want to keep walking, I want to be able to spend quality time with my family without feeling forced to rest in bed just because I were active once or twice previously.

Nice article to mark International Women's Day. Of course appointing a woman is a first and raises eyebrows for that reason alone, but she'd risen through the ranks like any other coach and is respected by the players. Ingolstadt are an unglamorous and poorly supported club, but punch above their weight thanks to the sponsorship of Audi.

I think the poor fanbase has helped Wittmann as she has been under less scrutiny and pressure than she would have been at Dresden or 1860. But she's well regarded in Liga 3 and appears to be doing a good job.

In this Country we had Hannah Dingley who was appointed caretaker manager of League 2 Forest Green Rovers in July 2023 for 13 days. This move made Dingley the first woman to take charge of a men's senior English professional football team.

"Fallen giants" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there for a club whose most successful era ended in 1930. By the same token, you could call Notts a fallen giant as we were part of the furniture at the top level until the mid-1920s. And playing at the "top level" pre-Bundesliga isn't much a boast as the top level was divided into eight regional divisions then. There are village clubs who can legitimately call themselves former top-flight clubs...

Since then, Holstein Kiel have spent much of their existance knocking about in semi-professional football until their rise in the last 10-15 years. They were in the Bundesliga for the first time ever last season but are fighting relegation to the third division this season. All the same, and despite their relatively modest crowds, these plans are unambitious - the revamp will see a capacity of 22,000 (7,000 more than now), including 12,000 seats. Kiel is a big city and the club pretty much has Schleswig-Holstein to itself, so I think it could do better.

Oh dear, what a calamity. You’ve got to feel for the poor bloke.

A positive for Spurs is that once he was substituted Spurs actually drew the rest of the match 2-2. Spurs do have a slight chance of making a comeback in the 2nd leg due to the away goals rule, so a 3:0 win would take them through.

I didn't see it (Champions League football on TV is way too expensive), but it's never a good sign when people send your goalkeeper "messages of support"...

There was a lot of pressure going into the game for him, a few Walsall fans spoke to me before the game and they mentioned how clueless their manager was. It sounded like with every press conference and post match presser he was doing the typical "save my job" comments.

I mean he claimed Walsall played well against Notts, they really didn't.

Only marginally were they any better than us, and attacking wise was their own blessing but still not pretty. A manager can't defend a performance conceding the goals in the manner he did against us, so late in the game. To me it would have suggested that the players just wasn't buying into his vision, and have zero confidence in moving forward under him which does tend to force the deicison to pull the trigger.

Kevin Nolan is out of work…just saying. 🙄

Genuinely disappointed by this. It's a sad day for nominative determinism.

It'll be interesting to see whether they now kick on (as their board are clearly hoping) or it spells the end of their season.

What I took from the presser today, and MP leaves you guessing, is that when he spoke about "being fair' and 'honest' is that the released list has already started.

Maybe MP concluded that he'd go to Hall, Tangen or Bennetts in CM (if the other 4 are injured) before he'd go to Hinchy. Hinchy has to play and put himself in the shop window for his next cotract because his time at Notts is over. That's how I read it, anyway.

I agree with @theAnticlough even when he was recalled from his first loan spell after Palmer's injury and then Robertson's if felt like that was the most obvious pathway for him to get into the team but it didn't happen. I can't see him being here next season but I hope he does well at Wealdstone.

I agree with @menzinho - if Hinchy could hardly get a game during an injury crisis, when exactly is he going to play? Especially with the arrival of Tangen, who has spent much of his career playing in his position. Hinchy needs to play regularly to improve, but just isn't good enough to hold down a place ahead of Plamer, Robertson and Norburn. Catch 22. Hope he does well at Wealdstone but I think this is the end of him at Notts.

Definitely, it's not like our players aren't used to playing in front of big crowds and whenever they get asked pre/post-match they seem to relish getting to play in front of so many.

The bigger attended matches do tend to be against the better teams though, which makes it harder but we've been pretty good this season at home so I'm hoping we get a really good performance and result on Saturday!

It's been a bit disappointing to be honest to see this season's attendance, I understand the start but when things picked up I do think the gates could have been better. I think it's partly the club's fault for increasing the pricing ahead of this campaign, paying what £24 on a match day just won't appeal to floating and casual football fans. I understand that it brings us in line with others, but I do think affordable football is the better business model.

This is coming from someone who prefers gates around 8k, due to anxiety, but it is nice to see them higher.

Meadow Lane deserves to be attracting good figures and I hope when we can reach League One, they are continuing to be at the higher end of 10k. The Championship might bring more, but for a club like us we need the revenue to fuel us despite the recruitment.

Interesting point. My first thought was that the bigger crowds correlate with more difficult opposition, but that isn't quite the case - we beat Cambridge, yet dropped points against Harrogate and Accrington.

I don't know if it's the added pressure or a coincidence, but well-attended matches have a tendency to be damp squibs for us. It really needs to be different on Saturday as we could lose touch with the top three very quickly if we don't keep winning.

It's a real mark of progress that we're still talking about our eighth crowd above 10,000 now that the euphoria of promotion from the NL has ebbed. We used to get those once a season if at all. Like @Chris I think that 24 pounds on the day is too much, but the club would point at its attendance figures.

You get officials like yesterday and players that dramatically throw themselves down making a squealing noise that con said officials, we don't stand a cat in hells chance. Perhaps one of our training sessions should be conducted at theatre school. 🎭

As I get older, I do understand more why some fans seem more 'half full' than 'half empty', I feel quite rational when it comes to what I observe and I try to keep things in mind when times are tough. I wouldn't class myself 'happy clapper', though isn't that what a fan should do when times are tough? I mean, I try to put this out there that during previous regimes we wanted a squad that wanted to win, love the club and respected the fans.

The Reedtz family has instituted this with every managerial appointment: players come in to give it their best shot. Some aren't good, but very few do not care or don't apply themselves.

I felt very worried about relegation out of the Football League, but like many other teams it's done us more good than any previous reset attempts. That's a big reminder that there's always something to remain optimisitic about.

Look, I am one of those fans who support the club, but I will support the players too in their efforts. They come and go, but we remain and if that means we don't hit the expectations I can accept it. Seasons always have their ups and downs, so when you have what we do now we really need to stay humble. Trust the process, try to encourage and so far we haven't had a bad season really since Alan Hardy left.

And there's nothing wrong with ambition, but I can't allow that cause problems for long term success and so I think there's always a balance.

I'd consider myself to be a cautiously optimistic fan but right now I feel pretty positive because I think at this point we have over-achieved this season.

We had an indifferent start not helped by Jatta missing the first month of the season (and now he’s been out for over a month), Palmer has been out for close to 3 ½ months and Roberston can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to being injury free. We also had a goalkeeper for half a season who was terrified of stepping out from under his crossbar and we've had no No.10 with the quality of Crowley or Didzy. Yet here we are 1 point off an automatic place!

I’m pretty amazed to be honest, in terms of finishing the season now it's a bit of a basic response but we've just got to keep doing what we've been doing. We've got much more resilience to us this season and that gives us a good chance of getting over the line.

I think that Maynard has shown that he is a good leader & Head Coach. York City are challenging for automatic promotion in the NL. They are on course to exceed 100 points this season with already accumulating 86 points with 9 matches remaining.

They have the best goal scoring record 97, than any team in the NL & the 2nd best defensive record conceding less than a goal a game. To say that Maynard can't organise and Motivate a team isn't correct in my opinion. Stuart is possibly on the way to exceeding Luke's points and goalscoring totals & we thought Luke was a legend here at Notts.

On 09/03/2026 at 22:49, YoopEyes said:

The key is that Paterson can organise and motivate a team - I don’t think Maynard could do that, certainly not convincingly anyway. He didn’t seem to get the best out of players, either individually or collectively.

It might be the step-up, and the fact he had reinvented himself as an EFL head coach.

He clearly has something about himself; he's doing really well with York City. It would be shame if they were not to go up, but there are levels of pressure, and sometimes we put ourselves under it. It's possible, he just works better with more involvment in the recruitment process.

Maynard couldn’t organise & motivate here, he was extremely 1 dimensional too. Tactically naive.

Until he’s proved himself at league level, I wouldn’t get too excited about him tbh. Nice bloke but still learning his trade.

I’d take Paterson over him every day of the week.