Chris

Hello and welcome to episode 27 of the Pride of Nottingham PONcast, hosted by the East Midlands' very own Ant and Dec (but with more facial hair - much more) Chris and JJ. In this week's episode, we analyse Notts County's humbling 3-1 defeat at Mansfield Town in the Nottinghamshire derby - both on and off the pitch - before going on to review what has been an otherwise impressive September for the Magpies We also look ahead to October's first League Two fixture, a home clash with bottom side Forest Green Rovers which, despite seeming straightforward on paper, will prove a tough mental test in terms of keeping complacency at bay for Kevin Nolan. Other topics covered include the speculation linking Liam Noble to a potential departure from FGR, attacking legend Les Bradd's 50-year anniversary of his Notts debut, and plenty more. All this and more only in episode 27 of the Pride of Nottingham PONcast! Share your thoughts about this week's PONcast by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County saw their six-game winning streak come to an abrupt halt with a 3-1 defeat at local rivals Mansfield Town. The in-form Danny Rose grabbed a second-half brace before a Richard Duffy own goal killed off the game for the Magpies. Carl Dickinson, meanwhile, grabbed a consolation for County two minutes into added time with a superb 25-yard free-kick. Despite the loss, Notts remain top of the table and will have a week to prepare for a home encounter with struggling Forest Green Rovers. Pride of Nottingham was at Field Mill to watch Notts take on Mansfield and took photographs of fans. See if you've made it in this weekend's Faces of PON! Share your thoughts about this week's Faces of PON on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Heading into the Nottinghamshire derby yesterday, I had a sense of uncertainty about the game. I always knew it would be a tight match, one which may be physical and difficult for us to get hold of. The starting line-up on paper actually seemed very good, minus the odd changes which I would have personally made myself - mentioned already within the Pride of Nottingham scouting report and more recently the tactical talk piece I write. Yet it was clear even from the kick off that we seemed quite unsure how to deal with Mansfield, despite having a few spells where we looked alright. At the back we simply didn’t, I counted at least four chances which the Stags wasted within the first half and a part from Shaun Brisley everyone in defence seemed to be napping. It was like all the talk leading into the game actually meant nothing, and I refuse to believe that Mansfield controlled the game that well that they stopped us playing – for me it just like we arrived thinking it would be easier than it was. It’s disappointing because many of the players spoke about being ready and keen to do well in the local derby, however this wasn’t the case. Yes, it’s a bad day in the office and we were beaten by a fairly decent Mansfield – yet they were not special. They didn’t impress me much at all, in fact I was annoyed throughout the game for how easily they went down or just plain dived. Even the referee was frustrating, yet even a different match official wouldn’t have made much difference. Simply yesterday Notts reverted back to the opening game of the season against Coventry City. I feel now pretty much the same as I did when I wrote my article about how Notts got it wrong against the Sky Blues – however I wasn’t that disappointed because in my heart I knew it was the first game of the season and we were up against a tough side. We invited Mansfield to play us, we allowed them to hit us and defensively we were just very poorly organised. It’s very difficult to win a game when your defenders simply cannot cope with doing the basics, and I feel massively let down by each one of them – as we arrived top of the table and in good stead to turn the recent fortunes that we have had at Field Mill. Any defeat I can accept, and as I told fans who asked me for my thoughts, I am confident that we can bounce back. But there’s a big but: if this Notts County squad wants to achieve something special this season, we must go into these types of games at least trying to avoid giving the game away. Yes, we are bound to lose, and there was always that nagging feeling that it would be Mansfield to end our undefeated run but we shouldn’t just lay back and take it. I’m sorry, there was little to no fight yesterday! That’s the most disappointing thing for me, as the warning signs all came within the first half and despite the decent chances Mansfield had – they wasted sitters! A good side would have sunk them, not missed. I personally think Kevin Nolan should have made a change at half time, yet we clearly missed Dan Jones because Carl Dickinson was terrible but second to Richard Duffy who was asleep for all three goals – just like he was at the Ricoh Arena. These types of games are the ones you want to see the fight, and we know we can do it! Scunthorpe United, Wycombe Wanderers are games which highlights this, Mansfield invited us to play them after scoring their third and we looked fairly capable of scoring from there on. Had we have scored a little earlier, some pride might have been restored but hearing the offensive songs sung by their fans really rubbed salt into the wounds. It’s like we struggle to raise to expectations when we fans give a great amount of backing, yet we need to come good against Forest Green Rovers – this can’t be the end of the good times within the 2017-2018 League Two season. We have shown how good we can be as underdogs, and perhaps there’s been a bit of luck but as the favourites we really should do better. There are some good games coming up which might allow us to forget Mansfield, and as I say I do believe we can bounce back but we also have to strive to avoid losing like we did yesterday – as it could be the thing which haunts us at the end of the season. I really don’t want us to be punished by a poorer goal difference, so let’s get the defence looking good and we can build from there. Share your thoughts about this feature article on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County saw their six-game winning streak come to an abrupt halt with a 3-1 defeat at local rivals Mansfield Town. The in-form Danny Rose grabbed a second-half brace before a Richard Duffy own goal killed off the game for the Magpies. Carl Dickinson, meanwhile, grabbed a consolation for County two minutes into added time with a superb 25-yard free-kick. Here is Chris's analysis of the game at the One Call Stadium. Was the result fair? I can’t disagree, though I think the score line is flattering because I don’t think either side played really well at all – but Mansfield were clearly the better side of the two competing at Field Mill yesterday. How did Notts play? Notts played like a side that wasn’t aware of how to play, they looked unfamiliar with each other and they failed to get grip of the game. It’s difficult, as I did think we played alright in spells in the first half. Second was just awful, and I’d have made changes before it had even kicked off. The fault for me was at the back, there was little to no organisation and we failed to deal promptly with the Stags. How did Mansfield Town play? They played well, with some good football being expressed by their players but I honestly wasn’t very impressed overall – I don’t think this was due to Notts being extremely poor, its more related to their negative tactics and repeated efforts to fool what was a very poor referee. Did our tactics work out? No, not at all. It was Coventry City all over again but on a worse level this time a round. Before the match the line-up looked as if Kevin Nolan was spot on with his selection, with many fans saying ‘he’s going for it isn’t he’ and it would have appeared to be the case. However, Carl Dickinson was a weak link at the back and Richard Duffy I felt was extremely poor. I would have risked playing Shola Ameobi from the start, and I hate to say it perhaps against Mansfield we shouldn’t have tried to force the passing football so much. But from the back, we were very ineffective – the midfield did try but seemed sluggish and unprepared. Our striker force stood no chance at all for these reasons. How did the referee perform? I didn’t rate him, I felt he gave an unfair home advantage and missed several blatant dives. He also tended to award every little issue that Mansfield players complained about, which sort of ruined the flow of the game. He wasn’t very quick to award anything to Notts at all, and there were times where he clearly missed incidents – but I doubt a better referee would have changed much. Who do we play next? Forest Green Rovers! Pardon the pun but we literally have to slaughter these. I fully expect Notts to be able to bounce back, but we have to go into the game being more prepared and more able to compete if things don’t go our way. How should we play them? We have to be cautious at the back, I would hate for us to play poorly against these and totally underestimate them. It’s clear on paper that Forest Green can leak goals, they have a decent midfield but they haven’t strengthened wisely for life within League Two. Notts must play higher up, we need to force them back in my opinion. This would allow more ground to be found within the middle of their pitch, and would allow us to play a better passing game. We missed pace against Mansfield, so for me Dan Jones needs to return if he is fit after suffering a hamstring injury against Lincoln City. I’d like to see Lewis Alessandra and Terry Hawkridge occupy the flanks and Robert Milsom and Ryan Yates in the centre. Mansfield fan comments (from Stagsnet) Yaxhamstag: Cracking atmosphere, match day experience is so much better than it has been in the past, so congratulations to all concerned at the club. Danny Rose was awesome, I thought the defence was solid, my one disappointment was our midfield (MacDonald excepted) as I thought given our purchases they would show a bit more quality on the ball....hopefully that will come. As for Hemmings, I thought he worked really hard and is just unlucky at the moment. He could/should have been credited with the second goal and would have had a tap-in if the third hadn't been an OG. Pleased he got a good reception when he came off and we should continue to back him. Once he gets one, he'll be fine. I also thought the one minute's applause was brilliant and moving. Top stuff all round. Chip63: Absolutely a great result today. Well done all you have made my day. Don't take the pish too much on the way out. Top of the league your having a laugh. Woodclanger1: Great result without even having to move up a gear by bringing Mellis on. They looked well drilled but very ordinary and limited to hoof it. We were no great shakes especially the first half in midfield but Butcher certainly stepped it up in the second half. Mirfin and Pearce solid again and the hard running of Rose and Sterling up front made them look very cumbersome at the back. Great day to be a Stags fan. Share your thoughts about this tactical analysis piece on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County are on the brink of a perfect September, navigating through their six games so far with a 100% record, scoring 12 goals and conceding just one en route to the top of the table. But now comes the sternest test of all - arguably our fiercest local derby, against Mansfield Town, away from home. Here is Chris's scouting report for the Nottinghamshire derby. History Notts County and Mansfield Town have met 49 times over the years. The first fixture between the two was in October 1937, a 2-0 win for the Magpies in Division Three (South). Notts only just have the upper hand with 18 wins, 17 defeats, and 14 draws. Between 1989 and 2001, the two sides met six times – and Notts won each time. County's record over the last 10 meetings, however, is poor, standing at two wins, four defeats, and four draws. This record is embellished by the fact Notts have beaten Mansfield twice in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in the last two years. In reality, the Magpies haven't got a league win over the Stags since August 2005. Run-down of their last six features Saturday 2nd September – Carlisle United 1 Mansfield Town 1 Saturday 9th September – Mansfield Town 4 Grimsby Town 1 Tuesday 12th September – Mansfield Town 0 Wycombe Wanderers 0 Saturday 16th September – Lincoln City 0 Mansfield Town 1 Saturday 23rd September – Mansfield Town 2 Cambridge United 2 Tuesday 26th September – Cheltenham Town 3 Mansfield Town 0 The Players – Fact Sheet Highest Goal Scorers; Danny Rose 4, Lee Angol 4, Alfie Potter 1 and David Mirfin 1. Persistent Foulers; Jacob Mellis 4 yellow cards, Calum Butcher 3 yellow cards, Joel Byrom 2 yellow cards and Danny Rose 2 yellow cards. The Key Players The once promising Chelsea academy product and England Under-19’s midfielder Jacob Mellis is a quick minded player, who can play box-to-box and turn the opposition inside out with clever play – he is a great asset for Mansfield and his no-nonsense approach to physical tackles will be something to be aware of. Paul Anderson is also a very experienced winger, who likes to run directly at times and can unlock sides with a defend cross or well placed through ball. Mansfield’s star player for me appears to be the 23-year-old striker Danny Rose, who is comfortable in possession and waiting for the perfect opportunity to get a strike on goal. His positioning is generally quite tricky to track and as a result allows him to find space in keys areas. Style of Play, Strengths, and Weaknesses In games when allowed to play, Mansfield Town start off very direct and take to attacking with sheer pace. They mix their breaks from all across the park, but in my opinion they look more dangerous when they take to using the flank as a way to cut back in. They appear to be a very capable side, and quite well organised in terms of their positioning. Going forward they do have limitations, and their midfield seems to play to far up the field – with their defence weirdly quite deep. This tends to create a lot of space in the centre of the park, but forces teams to drop back themselves. However, better sides seem very able to hit Mansfield on the break and as a result they then start to appear just like an average League Two team. Defensively, they look very chaotic when hit and possession is held by the opposition team. Leading to panic and confusion within their defence. Overall Notts should just look to make use of the wing themselves, as aerial threats appear to be one strong weakness. It’s a game that Shola Ameobi would literally love, as he would be able to calm the place down and allow for more pacier players to be the direct threats. Free kicks will most likely be won in favour of Notts, as the Stags like to use this to break down the play. But really, quick movement and clever positioning would work to great effect against Mansfield. If Notts can build positively, control the game in key areas such as the midfield and force them to be more defensive – team should be on the Magpies’ side when it comes to creating decent chances. Share your thoughts about this scouting report on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

It just gets better and better for Notts, who sit proudly atop the League Two table following impressive wins over Lincoln City and Exeter City. But now, arguably the biggest clash of the season for the Magpies, a trip to the One Call Stadium to face Mansfield Town this Saturday. Pride of Nottingham spoke to well-known photographer, Billy Davies 'nemesis' and Stags fan Dan Westwell to get the lowdown on his beloved team. Background: 43 years old, first Stags game 1986. Lots of favourite players over the years, George Foster, Paul Holland, Ian Bowling, Chris Greenacre, Michael Boulding, Bobby Hassell to name a few. What do you make of current owner John Radford? I love him. I can’t thank him enough for rescuing us 7 years ago. He’s put a lot of money into the club to get us out of that hellhole we were in for 5 years. I really hope we go up and even if it’s for just one season, I’d love it for us to get to the Championship to fulfil his dream & reward him for everything he has done for us. You were tipped as promotion contenders at the start of the season - what do you make of that tag? I think it was the bookies' ignorance. They looked at Steve Evans record of 9 promotions and the fact that we got our business done straightaway & it just made them stick us up as favourites. I think Luton, Exeter, Coventry, Swindon, Wycombe, Cambridge, Carlisle, Crewe, Port Vale should all have been above us in the odds table but the bookies aren’t usually wrong, let’s hope they’re right again in May. Steve Evans is a very Marmite manager - are you impressed with him as your manager? When he was appointed I kept pinching myself as i couldn’t believe how lucky we were. I still think we’re lucky although some of his antics are getting a bit embarrassing at the moment, but that’s Steve Evans. Marmite is a brilliant description of him. I would say more people hate him than like him, but i would also say that most clubs in L1 & L2 would love to have him as their Manager, as he’s been there and done it. His experience could be the difference between going up and not going up. He did well by getting all of our signings sorted in June/July, but that made a lot of ignorant people say “Mansfield are spending millions” and “Steve Evans is going to bankrupt Mansfield” but what they didn’t see is that he released 11 players and signed 11 players more or less in the same couple of weeks. Matt Green was on a big wage as were a couple of others, so getting rid of them made us able to sign proper quality players from League One. I don’t think we needed all the players we signed as we had the 4th best defensive record out of all 92 clubs last season, then he goes and signs 3 defenders, but he knows what he’s doing so we have to trust him. There are several East Midlands derbies in League Two this season - which is the biggest for you? The biggest derby for all Stags fans is Ch*sterfield. There is pure hatred there. I know there’s a few Notts fans who hate Stags but I’m afraid the feeling isn’t mutual with most of us. I always call our game ‘the friendly derby’ because that’s how we look at Notts. Don’t get me wrong we love to beat Notts the same as Ch*sterfield, but if you gave us a choice of who to take 6 points from, it would be the woolly ones every time. Lincoln is another derby game that’s tasty, on a par with Notts. There’s always a few idiots from all 3 clubs who like to cause trouble, as we’ve seen over the years. To back up my ‘friendly derby’ comment, we bring more fans to Notts than we get for home games, because people enjoy the trip to Nottingham, a few beers at the waterfront, Hooters, it’s easy to get to by train and of course with us not having electricity or water over in Mansfield it’s a big treat to visit a big city! Who are your squad's danger men? It’s hard to predict our danger men because on paper we’ve got a lot but on the pitch we’ve not really shown much danger apart from a brilliant 80 minutes against Luton. There’s a few who if they show their true potential will be a great asset. Paul Anderson, Jacob Mellis, Will Atkinson, Alex MacDonald, Calum Butcher & Alfie Potter all have got the potential to be match winners on their day and have got experience in the Championship/L1. We’ve also got former Notts defender Krystian Pearce who was player of the season last year. He scored twice against Grimsby recently so I’m sure he would like to grab a goal against his old club. What do you think the score/scorers will be? Predicting the game is impossible. My heart says we’ll win 2-0, my head says we’ll lose 0-2. I’d take a point if it was offered now, so I’ll go for a 0-0 draw and get splinters. May the best team win and hopefully it’s football that we’re talking about after the game. Share your thoughts about this Opposition View piece on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County have cemented their hold on top spot in League Two with a clinical performance to beat second-placed Exeter City 3-0 at St James Park on Tuesday night. Lewis Alessandra set the Magpies on their way with an opportunistic lob after just two minutes before substitute Jorge Grant added a further two goals in the second half. The result, a sixth successive league victory for Kevin Nolan's men, sees them three points clear at the top of the table. Here is an in-depth analysis of the game from Chris. Was the result fair? I take a lot of joy from saying this, Notts County wholeheartedly deserved to win at Exeter yesterday! The home side simply failed to take their chances in the first half, and a superb second half performance sealed the victory for the Magpies – there’s no luck involved at all, the better team went home happy. How did Notts play? Notts played very well, the first half had patches but at the back Richard Duffy ensured that Adam Collin was well protected. From the off, Notts looked bright and eager to prove to League Two that they’re a serious outfit meaning to do the business this campaign. A very strong, spirited second half saw the Magpies play some good stuff. How did Exeter play? I wouldn’t suggest they played badly, however their hyping up of the game really didn’t help them. It gave The Grecians the pressure, especially being on home turf and despite some good chances in the first half – they just simply weren’t able to tuck of their opportunities a way. Did our tactics work out? The five changes meant that Notts had several pairs of fresh legs playing, a decision which in all fairness could have backfired – however with this Notts squad we all know that players are more likely to respond positively. From the off, Lewis Alessandra proved this point and it shows just how universal the team tactics are right now. Kevin Nolan did his homework by injecting height into the squad, so tactically we were spot on. How did the referee perform? The referee did alright, and for once I find myself thinking that we actually had a sensible referee. Due to this the game played out quite smoothly, and although some decisions may have been missed – I think it worked in favour of both teams rather than any decisions to favour a single team. Who do we play next? Next up is six fingers, seven toes and no thumbs – aka Mansfield Town. This game has more momentum behind it than the Exeter City game, thus making it far more important and no doubt a tricky local derby. How should we play them? Notts have been building nicely from the back in recent games, it’s important that we play with the right balance against Mansfield – as I feel they will try to press us more and ultimately attempt to close us down. It’s important that we keep the play simple, passing short and avoiding anything fancy. When Notts assumes control by passing around the centre of the park, spreading the ball out wide – it creates so much space that opposition sides don’t know whether to drop deeper or push up tighter. This is a vital aspect, as will allowing Jon Stead to gather players to make him tightly – in all fairness it would be useful to have Shola Ameobi back as his holding up of the ball and clever flicks would had a lot to our game plan. However, we just have to be sensible within our play and use the creativity that players like Rob Milsom and Jorge Grant have to offer. Exeter fan views (from Exeweb) grecian-near-hell: Personally I didn't rate Notts County that highly, I thought they were slow and ponderous with too many wayward passes for a table topping team, and will be found out (like ourselves) shortly. That said we were worse. I didn't think we had any shape about us, the defence could so easily have been ripped apart with a far worse scoreline than 3-0 had NC had speedy wingers/forwards.Regrettably I think TAH has had his day he's got the turning circle of a juggernaut and last night neither of the Troy's appeared to have any understanding of what the other was doing. Like NC too many wayward passes from defence and midfield to runners who weren't there. Jayden Stockley really needs to contact David Wheeler to find out how he seemed to float so long after he jumped for the ball, too often last night Stockley had jumped too soon and was on the way down before the ball got to him either from kick offs or crossing and on a couple of occassions this could have bought us a goal - he really does need to parctice his heading and jumping, but that's the (alleged) £400k difference I suppose. The midfield also had a nightmare, as mentioned too many passes going astray Lee Holmes not weaving his magic. The match although billed as top of the table did not live up to expectations which was a shame bearing in mind the good sized crowd for a midweek match.Oh well live and learn and we move on matches like last night emphasised why we are a fourth division side with players to match. DanceMagnet: A simple question, Mr Tisdale. When you're up against two slow defenders in Nicky Hunt and Richard Duffy, why do you start with no pace up front? Instead you play Stockley and Reid together when it was blatantly obvious at Coventry that partnership wasn't working and would likely suit there central defenders more than somebody capable of running at them. It was also pretty obvious from the start that the midfield needed strengthening. Why that did not happen at half time (at the latest) I'll never know. Boating should have been on then. Instead, we have to wait until we go two down until we make a substitution - too bleeding late, mate. Mr Jan Yeo: We were punished for some sloppy play, but I didn't feel we were far away from that being a completely different result. Seen us play a lot worse and still get something from the game. County were good and played us off the park for long periods. We seemed to struggle initially to break them down but definitely had a few decent spells that would've seen the game completely change if the ball had fallen right. We can't win them all and aren't the best in the league, so I'm not too surprised. We'll bounce back soon enough. Share your thoughts about this tactical analysis piece on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.