menzinho

The problem with the Munto season was that it was always going to attract those types of players. You get to drop down a league(s), play easier opposition (so yes you will look a better player) and you get paid more, quite a lot more as was the supposed case at Notts! In a way the whole Sol Campbell saga probably put a stop to anymore players just coming for the money. But I agree with @upthepies, it is funny how Sol got all the criticism because he was essentially the first one to figure out all was not as it seemed. I guess us as fans just didn’t want to hear it…

McGoldrick and Tsaroulla were the best for me. Didzy did a lot of good work and looked our most creative player. Tsaroulla had a couple of great runs where he dribbled past a few players and got a dangerous shot/cross off. And at times when he got forward there would be no-one within about 30 yards of him to support him!

No idea what that penalty was for, I didn’t even see it in the replay so I’ll have to watch it back. Is this all to make up for the fact we conceded a load of soft pens last season or are we on some sort of deal where we get 5 pens before the refs can award our opposition one this season? Not so much a grind that one because we played that like we were the team that was 1-0 up. There was just no urgency to get the ball forward. I’d like to know how many passes were played in our own half there (a lot). Why for so much of that match were both Palmer and Crowley playing just 5 yards ahead of our defence though, they were in a line of 5 at times and then it just made it impossible to pass forward. So frustrating to watch, I can see a good team here, but it was just way too cautious at times. In that second half in particular when Barrow stepped off us a bit we just played the safe ball far too often. We had moments in that game where we’d make a couple of passes across the back, get the ball to a player with open space to run into and they’d just pass it sideways, again! I think Crowley and Platt did drive with the ball into space once but there were so many opportunities there to do it. First half was poor but we just played into their hands by trying to pass to feet all the time when we were being pressed, it was crying out for a ball into space/some diagonal balls over the top (and someone to actually run into it). And we could’ve even been 1-0 down earlier too, Hinchy’s dodgy pass that resulted in McDonald having to rush back and pull over Newby(?) should’ve probably been a penalty for them. Feel for him as he’s young that he got hooked so early, he wasn’t playing well but to be honest at that point no-one was. But then after all that we get a draw! That’s us up to 3rd, no idea how at this moment, is it just a league with no real stand out teams this season?

I was woken up surprisingly early by the sound of a skip being dropped off just outside my flat this morning. It was for a bungalow across the road where a lady I would chat to every now and again lived. She sadly had a stroke earlier in the year and passed away. I chatted to one of her sons briefly to ask how he was doing, he said the bungalow had sold so they needed to sort through the house. I noticed he was chucking some rather decent stuff inside the skip. There was a small tv, he said he had no use for but still worked. Now, I didn't need a tv and it wasn't my intention to use this as a kind of side-street Argos but I couldn't help but notice there were some other perfectly good looking objects inside this skip, an ice-cream maker being one of them. I asked if it worked and he said he thought so but there were no instructions for it, he said I was welcome to have it if I liked and anything else for that matter... So long story short, I got myself an ice-cream maker (it does work), an easel for painting and a pair of stools that just needed a bit of sanding/re-painting. It's a bit sad to throw away things that still work, I guess maybe some people find it hard to go through their loved ones items and just want to move on but I'm glad I rescued (and still might rescue a few more things) from a landfill site.

Cardiff City 1-1 Portsmouth Leeds United 2-0 Watford ???? Bristol Rovers 1-0 Shrewsbury Town Peterborough United 1-1 Blackpool Fleetwood Town 2-1 Crewe Alexandra Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Grimsby Town Dagenham & Redbridge 2-1 Eastleigh Tamworth 1-0 Yeovil Town

I think I was a tad over critical with my comments against Wimbledon and I undervalued our ability to grind out a result. Plan A is to out-play teams and I know there are some very good teams in League 2 and this isn’t always going to happen. If we grind out another win against Barrow I won't complain! Their good form at the start of the season has tailed off a bit so it's as good a time as any to play them. They've lost 4 of their last 5 and are struggling for goals a tad, the first goal from us might just dent their confidence even more and should put us in strong position to get something from the match. If Macari is struggling a bit McDonald would seem the obvious choice, but he is left-footed so it might make things a bit harder for him to play the RCB role. You could move Platt across but he’s been so good I would be reluctant to do it. I think Cundy has looked awkward there, so Ness might be the best option if he's fit enough. Mad to think after last season we’ve now got a lot of defensive options both in defence and midfield but now we’re struggling in attack due to injuries. Think I’d start Brown, with Ceds out we kind of need to see something from him now. We overplayed McGoldrick last season so although I'd want him to start, bringing him off the bench would still be a great option if we needed him. And I’ve no idea who our best wingbacks are still, no-one's found any consistency there yet but I think Tsaroulla and Gordon are the sensible choices.

Bass for me too, he'll be the reason we get points this season and that was massively missing last season. Wimbledon must have been gutted that we came in for him, it was fantastic work from our recruitment team to get him.

It was a much-needed win and it’s big in the sense of we’ve beaten a team that will likely finish top 10 and stopped the mini 0-1 home run. And I am happy with the result it but wasn’t quite the performance I was hoping for. Maybe I have high standards after being spoiled with our attacking displays but the first half was really poor, probably the worst we’ve played all season yet we actually went into the break not 1-0 down for once! I just wanted us to look like we had more of an idea about against teams who are happy for us to have the ball, but we didn’t. We were really slow and almost awkward on the ball. We still struggled to create any real decent chances in that game, especially before the goal, Jatta had the best chance right before it actually. That was a grind it out type of result and whilst those type of performances are needed, I was hoping off the back of two similar games in Gillingham and Port Vale we’d have adapted and improved a touch more. It’s funny cos over the run of those three home games, in my opinion, no team truly deserved a win so 3 points from all three is actually a fair reflection. We are a lot better defensively and Bass is fantastic in goal, so those are massive positives. We did see the game out well once we’d scored and that was good see. We look more comfortable and capable when we have to defend now. Just need a bit more spark in our attack, if that clicks again, we should be on for a really good season.

Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Swansea City ???? QPR 1-0 Portsmouth Blackpool 1-1 Barnsley Lincoln City 1-2 Birmingham City Bradford City 1-0 Gillingham Port Vale 2-2 Fleetwood Town Maidenhead United 2-0 Hartlepool United Sutton United 3-2 Oldham Athletic

I'd love us to do something like this! I can remember watching a few games one season, not at Notts, but at half-time a few fans got a chance to win a car. Presumably a local car-dealership was sponsoring them. Anyway this car would be backed into one corner of the stadium, in between the stands, and the boot would be opened. From the halfway line the fans then had to hit the ball into the boot of the car to win it! Unsurprisingly no-one won it!

Really sad to hear, I just hope he gets the answers he’s looking for and that time out to just reassess everything in his life. When you have a season out and then come back but keep picking up injuries, it must be very frustrating. And he’s watched two players he was very close to in Ruben and Macca move on and into the Championship. At 25 he’s still young and capable of achieving a lot in football, I really hope he comes back refreshed, in a good place and able to have a good second half of the season with us.

You could post some comments/replies, log out for the day and then the next day log in to be greeted with a list of notifications all with “your comment has been down voted”. It probably would put you off posting. I know most wouldn’t take it to heart, but some would and it would be sad to think they are either upsetting people or not posting good points. I think the way we can quote certain parts of a post is good enough if you want to disagree and reply to a comment.

So Wimbledon in their first 4 away games haven't really done much. They've scored 1 goal and that was in the only game they won. They've draw one and lost the other 2. I can't see it being a big scoring match, I'll be pleasantly surprised if we score 3+ because I think Wimbledon are going to follow the approach of both Gillingham and Port Vale. I'll be dreading it if they take the lead because then they really will just sit back, cos even a 1-1 would be a good result for them. We've got to show some signs we know how to deal with teams that are just going to sit deep, consider Gillingham and Port Vale the practice matches now, this one is quite a big game in a way. I like @Robbie's team but I'd go slightly more attacking and put Austin in for Robertson. Didzy and Jatta as a pairing, with Crowley and Austin slightly ahead of Palmer in flexible 3-5-2 formation, just have Palmer sit and stop any counters through the middle.

Yeah good draw that, given the proximity Alfreton will be able to easily bring a good number of fans. We seem to usually get the better of them in friendlies, but this will be a totally different type of game, I'm looking forward to it!

It’s interesting in international football all the players have to be from that country (obviously) but there are no rules regarding the head coach/manager. I guess for England it's not a big deal now because we've already had non-nationals manage us but some countries do make a big deal about the head coach being from that nation. The likes of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Spain have always had managers from that country and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. (*OK Herrera wasn’t born/raised in Spain – but his parents were Spanish, he could speak it fluently so it’s pretty much the next best thing!) It’s also a bit of a poor reflection on the English game if we can’t produce one coach for the job, given we can produce so many talented players surely we should be able to do the same with the coaches. I agree with @liampie as well, I really don’t think Lee Carsley would be that bad of a choice, he’s won a European Championship with the U21’s, winning any kind of international tournament isn’t easy but for some reason that seems to not be valued.

We will be ball number 34! There are 80 teams in the round, 32 of the teams are from Non-League, 48 from the EFL so the odds will tip slightly in favour of drawing another EFL side… I’m hoping we’ll avoid a team in our league as we play them twice already. And any trip to top league 1 side will be tough. Big no’s to Wrexham and Shrewsbury for me, I’m fed up of losing to them!

Scott played well in the National League playing in an attacking midfield role and he still scored a good number of goals. I think he's still capable of playing that role for us along with playing as forward too (good luck getting in a head of Jatta and Didzy there though). But the injury has been a massive setback, even over pre-season he didn't score and he looked like a player that hadn't played for a year. And then in his competitive return he's not looked quite on it but that is to be expected with all the football he's missed. I think he just needs a bit more playing time and with our injuries to Jodi, Grant and Edwards he's got more of chance than ever now. I don't think it matters too much where he plays, he's played enough in the attacking midfield role he knows what to do, he's just got to take his chance when he gets it.

I get why we play with just the one forward and two behind is because it gives you a “box midfield” which can effectively result in 4 central midfielders (2 CAMs 2CMs) so it’s much easier to control games as you can really outnumber the opposition’s midfield. That said I think a Didzy and Jatta paring is a good shout, especially against teams that do sit back and defend deep. We wouldn’t need to really take control of a game because the opposition have almost forfeited that battle by letting us have so much of the ball. I think a front two can still be very flexible too because like any forward pairing one can drop in to help with the build-up play. I’m expecting Wimbledon to play a similar style of sit back and look to counter and given our recent struggles to break these teams down I think it would be a perfect time to play them both.

I’d say we had lots of solid performances but no-one stood out for me. I liked Austin today, off the ball he was full of running and generally tidy on the ball too maybe need to see a bit more threat on the ball from him. Gordon had he played the whole match I might have given it to him, Mandeville had a bit of nightmare against him (but he is an attacking midfielder so more questions on the manager about why he played him there). But given Abbott was playing in a RWB role for the first time I think I'll give it to him. If I was being really critical he wasn't enough of a threat going forward, but he did get through at lot of running, supported the play well and defended pretty well.

Feel like there was a slice of lucky at the end there, it was a close game but I think had Chesterfield won it I wouldn’t have felt that aggrieved. Those penalties are ones I don't like to see given, not sure what he’s supposed to do with his arm when it’s booted at him from 3 yards but there you go. We had zero luck when it came to pens last season so maybe this season we are making up for it! Just didn’t really deal with some the big moments in that game, especially their 2nd goal. We looked so comfortable again at times but we didn’t create that much, especially in the second half, their keeper didn’t have a save to make until we scored the penalty. At times we seem to over-do the passing, especially short balls to feet. I liked seeing Crowley higher up the pitch, just didn’t have a good game today. Probably held on to the ball for too long at times and I didn’t like him screaming at Tsaroulla at the end for making a run in behind. That was actually a good run, we don’t need to constantly pass it short and to feet all the time! Hope he gave him a bit of stick back… A good point though, think Chesterfield will be in around the play-offs at the end of the season. Some interesting results today too, Port Vale with another 1-0 away win, Gillingham and Barrow lost to the bottom two at the start of play in Accrington and Morecambe and our next opponents Wimbledon smashed Carlisle 4-0!

Fingers crossed @Robbie I'd take that! We've defended well away from home this season (Bromley first 5 mins excluded!)

Does feel a touch death by midfielders looking at that side! I know Austin will likely play LWB or RWB, but Abbott, Palmer and Robertson... I know given the injuries we are a touch light in attack but I just hope Jatta doesn't become too isolated.

Crawley Town 2-1 Shrewsbury Town Peterborough United 2-2 Rotherham United Barrow 2-0 Morecambe ???? Cheltenham Town 1-0 Swindon Town Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Crewe Alexandra Harrogate Town 1-1 Newport County Salford City 1-1 Grimsby Town Tranmere Rovers 0-0 Bradford City

In a weird way this competition is turning out to be quite handy, I'm not fussed about winning it but given our injuries it means we can get players back playing proper minutes. Training is a necessity but there's nothing quite the same as a competitive match against opposition. It will allow the players who haven't really featured to get more of understanding of each other and those connections in our patterns of play.

It is very early doors but there are definitely some encouraging signs. Defensively we are a lot better and that has been helped by the recruitment and Stuart has had more time to really drill into what he wants his team to do off the ball. We couldn't go in the same vein as last season, I'd never thought I'd say this because I'm a 4-3 over a 1-0 type of guy but even for me it was just too attack minded. The balance seems better now. We seem to be able to deal with the weaker teams, we've got enough quality for them and they are more likely to make mistakes/open up at the back. So right now the biggest issue seems to be breaking down teams that sit back and are good, especially at home. Our next home game will be Wimbledon and I'd stick them in the bracket of good and I'm fully expecting them to play like that. That will be intriguing because we do need to adapt a slightly different approach, another 1-0 loss or similar won't be good. And a big factor on determining where we finish will be how we do against these better teams. Last season our record against the top 10 in League 2 was bad; P20 W5 D4 L11. It'll need to improve this season but we're not off to the best start there... We've only beaten 1 team in the top 10 this season, it's hard to say where everyone will end up but Gillingham, Port Vale and Fleetwood who we lost/drew to are likely to finish top 10. We did beat Grimsby but I think they're more likely to be out the top 10 come the end of the season. I guess if we finish this season higher than 14th and with more the 61 points, we've progressed. I'm confident we'll do that but I'm hopeful we can exceed it and stay in and around the play-offs.