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Who's your Man of the Match v Chesterfield?
I think McDonald takes it for me too, he barely put a foot wrong all match.
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Match Discussion: League Two - Chesterfield (A)
And breath! I believe that is the definition of doing a job of a team (with an added slice of good fortune after their missed penalty). First half we looked dangerous, we pressed pretty well and caused them to play their way into trouble. Not going to lie it was nervous watch second half, seeing as most of the time the ball was in our own half but we managed it well in the end. A very strong start for the Ollie Norburn redemption arc, he was super calm by his standards. When I saw him and Robbo as the starting CMs I did think there’s a potential red card in waiting… But I needn’t have worried, it was Tsaroulla who walked the tight-rope after his yellow, I was so sure he was going to get a second yellow when he just grabbed that Chesterfield player. Yeah, it made me laugh how Paul Cook was getting so worked up over the smallest things, how is actually able to think properly when he’s so enraged all the time? Martin Paterson just looked super calm all night, I loved it!
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Play off penalty takers
This is a tough one, especially as we’ve only seen Dennis and Jodi (I think) take penalties for us. I’d imagine in training Conor Grant probably takes a great penalty, but you could just feel the nervous energy of inevitability if was walking up to take one. Jatta did a challenge video with McGoldrick last year for one of these youtube channels, I seem to remember one being penalties and he was absolutely terrible. Tsaroulla doesn’t seem to always strike the ball well either when he cuts inside and he’s had quite a number of decent shooting opportunities this season. I can see him hitting a pen that the keeper saves if he goes the right way. So for me just based on a vibes and who I think is pretty good technically when it comes to striking a ball my 5 would be: Jones, Dennis, Luker, Norburn and Robertson. I actually really struggled to pick the last one, that was harder than it should’ve been. Thanks for refreshing my nerves @theAnticlough! If it went to penalties, I wouldn’t feel confident about our chances.
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The Summer Transfer Business: Who stays, who goes, and who comes in?
Now is the time clubs start to announce who is leaving and which players they have re-offered contracts too. The latter is usually a good sign, I expect we'll be in for a few players in this situation. I would go for Mark Helm 100%, a really good attacking midfielder who is more than accustomed to the hustle and bustle of League 2 football. Fleetwood are skint, losing tons of money and he only has 1 year left on his contract, so if we can offer a decent fee it might well be worth it before the out of contract scramble. I wonder if we’ll be back in for Charlie McCann, he’s a player we’ve tried to sign before and I always thought he could be the potential successor to Palmer. He could be cursed though because every time he plays in League 2 he gets relegated. Jordan Thomas who I really rate will be leaving Cheltenham, but he’s a winger and unless we are planning on changing formation I can't see how he fits in here.
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Early thoughts on Chesterfield
If we do get past Chesterfield I think I’m going to be in meltdown if it’s us v Salford at Wembley! I’m in a kind of hopeful phase, I think it’ll be close over the two legs, I can see it being decided by a goal. I think we played ok against them even though we lost twice, the home match was more impressive when you consider we played with 10 for nearly 75 and had them worried. We can potentially surprise them a bit, we are pretty healthy in terms of attackers and midfielders now but I just hope Browne isn’t injured because if we are going into the play-offs with just the three fit defenders it’s tight-rope walking stuff. For the players who haven’t played against Dobra before, they will now be fully aware of his antics, he wants a reaction and in the last match we gave it to him. He totally did Norburn. The players have to just ignore him, no matter how much he irritates them, just leave him to be his whinging baby self.
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Attendance 16, 274
I’m probably in a very small minority of fans who share my opinion but I actually think our stadium is too big, or you could say equally it’s arranged badly. For the majority of the season, it’s basically a 3 stand stadium, so we never get that cauldron of noise or atmosphere like you do at smaller grounds when it’s close to a sell-out. We get a handful of teams that bring 1,500-2000 fans but the majority of the time the Jimmy Sirrel Stand is basically empty. Yesterday the turnout was impressive but it was more of a one-of, I think our average attendance has hovered around 10,000 (which is great) but it also means we’ve still got 7000/8000 empty seats most weeks.
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Ryley Reynolds returns to Kidderminster
He also won Kidderminster's Players Player of the Season award! This is from their official site: While all players relish and enjoy the adulation of supporters, there’s something to be said about having the respect of your peers. In that respect, massive kudos and congratulations go to Ryley Reynolds, who was voted by the Harriers squad as Players Player of the Season. What a fantastic second season in Red for Ryley. So much energy and heart from midfield, and 12 goals to boot! Congratulations to Ryley, and thank you so much for your contributions during your stay here.
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Who's your Man of the Match v Bristol R?
I’m not sure Palmer was 100% hence why he didn’t start, maybe it was a bit of test to see how he was before the play-offs but I thought he looked like he wasn’t able to really run properly. I wonder if he's got a big of muscle irritation or something? Iorpenda claimed all the awards at the start of the match but then he went on to have a really average performance for his standards, I thought Norburn played a lot better then him. Jones was great first half, pretty much all our attacks came down that side, he was just knackered by about the 60th minute, which is a tad worrying. Still think he had the biggest influence so I went for him.
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Match Discussion: League Two - Bristol Rovers (A)
I was kind of relieved at the end when I saw Cambridge drew, had Crewe got a surprise goal I think we'd have gone into overdrive analysing if Bedeau was offside or not! I agree first half was really good, second half we didn't quite get to grips with Bristol's changes but I thought when we bought Robbo and Palmer on we regained that control. It just then all went a bit wild and disjointed for the last 20 as we tried to get the winning goal. I might be in the minority again here but I thought the ref was actually pretty good. Although I thought the yellow for Tsaroulla was harsh, it just looked like a coming together but not a dive. But all 3 of the penalty shouts (2 for us, 1 for them) were all really soft, I think he got them all right. Last time we played Chesterfield it was with 10 men for 75 minutes and we did pretty well on the whole, I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to the play-offs but I think if we perform like we can, we can get the better of Chesterfield over the two legs.
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Automatic Promotion: Is it still possible?
Just a marker on Bristol's winning run, they haven't played anyone in the top-half since the start of their run. The fixtures fell rather nicely, Fleetwood in 15th were their highest opponents so I'm half hoping they'll be suffering from a touch of overconfidence when they play us. Expecting Crewe, a team who have nothing to play for, to beat Cambridge is asking a lot. I think at worst Cambridge get a draw. I think Salford have enough quality to beat Crawley too, but that match has two sides with something to play for, it could go either way. Knowing us we’ll probably miss out on automatics by goal difference because that is the most excruciating way to miss out!
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The Summer Transfer Business: Who stays, who goes, and who comes in?
Milai Perott (the young goalkeeper) and Nick Tsaroulla are also out of contract (according to transfermarkt) and then we've got the option to sign Tangen. For me it'll depend on what League we are in next season, if we make it to League 1 I think we'd need a big summer of solid recruitment to make sure we don't come straight back down so I'd only really be looking to re-sign one or two, Tsaroulla being the main one, and probably Platt too. If we are in League 2, I think the overall team is solid, for me the focus would be on adding a couple of good attacking midfielders. So I'd keep McDonald and probably Norburn because I think he's proved, red cards aside, if he keeps his head he's a good option at this level. I'd try and get Luker because I think we haven't seen the best of him. Tangen was starting to look good before his injury, but I feel like I haven't seen enough of him to properly judge him though.
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Lewis Macari
I was in two minds at the end of the match because on the one hand we kept a very slim chance of automatic promotion alive, but we’ve lost just as much with the injury sustained by Lewis. It looked bad and the reactions of the players told a story, he's clearly going to be out for a while, however long it takes I'm sure he'll back playing for us in the future.
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Who's your Man of the Match v Colchester.?
I thought overall everyone played well, in terms of stand outs Iorpenda was everywhere as per usual and so good at bursting into space on the attack as well as pressing. I was impressed with Luker in the attacking midfield role, he’s actually able to hold opposition off and has the skill to turn away from them. If his shooting was a bit sharper he could’ve had a goal too. But I’ve gone for Bedeau. I thought did really well dealing with Tovide, who usually is a nightmare for us because he is incredibly strong and quick, but they had little threat down that side all match.
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Automatic Promotion: Is it still possible?
Well after the weekend result for us, if Cambridge win their game in hand tonight against Grimsby I'd say the dream of automatic is over. I'd still back Cambridge to finish 3rd, I think GD is always a good way at looking at how good a team is. There's is +31 and they've only conceded 31 goals up until now, the likeliness of them losing their last 3 matches is very slim.
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Loving this....
Who’s Noris Counry? Why are there two dead flowers on top of a rugby ball? And what were they doing in 1942? AI has a long way to go yet… I’d say I’m probably not one of those fans, maybe that’s because even when we win I can come away from watching a match thinking we were lucky and I don’t have the same feeling of joy when we’ve been deserving of a win shall we say. I’m a kind of sun covered by cloud fan! I totally get why fans feel like this though, it’s an emotional sport for us, we are all desperate to see Notts do well and it pains us when they don’t.