DangerousSausage

It may be the international break, but I think I've managed to cobble together a prediction league round regardless. The rules are the same, please post your predictions by kick-off time (Saturday 3pm) and you get one joker each. Good luck! Exeter City v Leyton Orient Stevenage v Carlisle United Accrington Stanley v Mansfield Town Colchester United v Tranmere Rovers Forest Green Rovers v Crewe Alexandra AFC Fylde v Aldershot Bromley v Maidenhead United Woking v Solihull Moors

I remember him, he'd long since passed his best as a player by the time he joined us, but in the greater scheme of things that's irrelevant. This is tragic news, and 55 is no age at all. RIP

Good luck to the bloke. I think York have just been taken over, so they'll surely be aiming for bigger and better things?

Supporting Notts is a ride. Let's liven this up! (Replace Tokyo with Accrington or whatever, obviously) (Notts are the Japanese girl, the killer robots are Wrexham and the giant worm that eats them at 2.11 represents the playoffs. It's a metaphor of course)

Unless you happen to be Luke Williams or one of the players, there's no point in not getting carried away. Life is short, enjoy the moment. Who'd have thought we'd be sitting here after that awful first day??? WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!

The results: Middlesbrough 0-2 QPR Plymouth Argyle 3-0 Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Derby County Northampton Town 0-1 Wycombe Wanderers Morecambe 1-0 Salford City Newport County 2-2 AFC Wimbledon Maidenhead United 0-0 Woking Rochdale 0-1 Halifax Town --- We had a few surprising results and points were few and far between this round. Congrats to our highest scorer, @4everapie! @4everapie - 7 @ARLukomski, @Chris - 6 @DangerousSausage, @Joshua, @KB1862, @KingWilliams, @liampie - 4 @cheeky~k8, @Fan of Big Tone, @gtownjohnno, @jimbob, @thommo - 3 @AmericanPie, @Dan, @DonnyNotts, @nottsnutter - 2 @allardyces tash, @magpiejue, @OoooooTommy, @super_ram, @TheSkipper, @upthepies, @william1984 - 1 @Canadian, @CliftonMagpie, @JIMBO, @Megan_Elizax, @Nocturnal-Magpie, @NottsCountyKev - nul points! --- The top three are unchanged, but @ARLukomski is now within a point of @Joshua at the top. And look who's in a "play-off spot" Joshua - 37 ARLukomski - 36 magpiejue - 31 4everapie - 30 liampie - 30 nottsnutter - 29 DangerousSausage - 28 KingWilliams - 28 cheeky~k8 - 28 gtownjohnno - 28 TheSkipper - 26 william1984 - 26 Fan of Big Tone - 25 thommo - 24 DonnyNotts - 24 allardyces tash - 24 super_ram - 22 upthepies - 22 Megan_Elizax - 21 NottsCountyKev - 21 Chris - 20 OoooooTommy - 20 JIMBO - 20 KB1862 - 18 jimbob - 18 AmericanPie - 18 Dan - 18 CliftonMagpie - 17 Nocturnal-Magpie - 15 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- The next round will be this coming Saturday, 9 September, and the fixtures will be up on Wednesday. Thanks for playing and hope to see you all then!

That's a great win for us. A crucial moment was when we were 2-1 up and Stone got just enough of a hand on a Stanley shot to divert it wide. Moments later, Palmer slotted a wonderful ball to Langstaff and it's 3-1. So it's definitely one of those that could have gone either way, but that doesn't mean we were lucky. When you have Langstaff, a Jones or a Palmer in your team, those crucial moments on which a game can turn are more likely to go in your favour. Just look at our second goal - 99 times out of a hundred, a striker receiving the ball with his back to goal and with so many red shirts around him is going nowhere. I agree with John Coleman that the yellow cards are getting silly - I think it was Brindley who got booked waiting for the ball boy to give him the ball. And the "yellow for kicking the ball away" rule is being used to penalise players who have a shot a fraction of a second after the whistle has gone. That's not dissent, that's muscle memory! It might not be saying much, but Accrington were the best team I've seen us play so far - they were physical, but they could also bring the ball down a play a bit too. Wouldn't be surprised to see them near the top at the end of the season.

Nice to hear. The way we play is probably difficult to coach and takes time to get right, but when we get it right it pays off in spades.

It's outstanding. It shows that people are feeling entertained enough to come back, and there's also real belief that we can build on last season. The place will feel very different the next time I'm over! To put it into context, we haven't averaged five figures over a season since we were in the top flight.

This is an interesting point @liampie. I would wager that most people on here aren't nearly as critical or analytical when they're actually at a match. This is a place where we can mull over and analyse what we've seen, but as the match is usually long finished by the time most people log in to PON, the spontaneous excitement of a match doesn't really come across. It might do when there are live updates, but most people's attention is elsewhere. I think that's reasonable. What is less reasonable is just being an absolute misery as @Chris describes, but that's people for you.

We're not a slow team at all. I can imagine they've worked out the number of passes per goal or something to get that statistic. The graphic makes it look like we're trying to play tiki-taka football and boring the whole stadium into submission, but that's not the truth at all. We play some exhilarating and fast attacking football and - most importantly - it works very well for us!

Sounds like a handy addition, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We've definitely got someone watching the Irish league! It's only a loan till January, so hopefully he's up to speed and ready to go straight away. Him sitting on the bench as an emergency back-up won't benefit anyone. Good luck to him!

Remember - the action kicks off at 3pm on Saturday. Get your predictions in and experience the unparalleled glory of a good score (possibly)! @allardyces tash, @AmericanPie, @Canadian, @CliftonMagpie, @George L, @JIMBO, @Joshua, @KB1862, @KingWilliams, @Nocturnal-Magpie, @NottsCountyKev, @OoooooTommy, @TheSkipper, @thommo, @upthepies

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

These matches kick off at 3pm on Saturday - have a go, you know you want to! And don't forget your joker... Middlesbrough v QPR Plymouth Argyle v Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers v Derby County Northampton Town v Wycombe Wanderers Morecambe v Salford City Newport County v AFC Wimbledon Maidenhead United v Woking Rochdale v Halifax Town

"For the foreseeable future" sounds really bad, terrible luck for him. Was really hoping he'd have an injury-free season after having such a stop-start time of it last time around. Hope we hear better news soon, but he should be given plenty of time to recover. As for the squad, I'm still not sure we really need a fourth striker if Morias proves his worth. If one of our front three needs a break, there's always the option of playing Jones in behind Langstaff and Chicksen (or Randall when fit) on the left.

Some interesting thoughts above, thanks! To be honest I also haven't got a scooby. I feel reassured that we're going to deal with the league after the last four games, but it's too early to get carried away with our league position. Hopefully it'll give the team that bit of extra self-belief and help settle them down a bit, but otherwise it doesn't mean much at all this soon into the season. We've got tougher tests coming up, and I'm fascinated to see how we'll do. We won't have it all our own way, but that's all part of moving up a division. With the injuries to Scott and Bajrami and the disappearance of Morias and Randall, the squad also feels a bit thinner right now and one or two new faces probably wouldn't hurt. The transfer window makes life in L2 a bit less forgiving - we can't just sign a player when we need one, as we've done over the last few seasons. That said, if we can address our defensive weaknesses without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, this squad has real potential. There's one thing for sure though - it's a lot more interesting than hitting our head on the NL glass ceiling season after season!

The gap from top to bottom is just 29 points. With 41 rounds remaining, that's nothing! I'll post the next round in a few minutes.

The results: Coventry City 0-0 Sunderland Millwall 1-0 Stoke City Exeter City 2-1 Reading Lincoln City 3-0 Blackpool Bradford City 1-0 Crewe Alexandra Walsall 1-1 Grimsby Town Boreham Wood 0-0 Oldham Athletic Ebbsfleet United 3-0 Kidderminster Harriers --- Congrats to this round's winner @KingWilliams! And me, because I'm ace. @KingWilliams - 10 @ARLukomski, @DangerousSausage, @william1984 - 8 @gtownjohnno, @Joshua, @magpiejue - 7 @liampie, @TheSkipper - 6 @Nocturnal-Magpie, @NottsCountyKev, @nottsnutter, @OoooooTommy, @upthepies - 5 @Canadian, @DonnyNotts, @Fan of Big Tone, @thommo - 4 @4everapie, @allardyces tash, @cheeky~k8, @Dan, @JIMBO, @Megan_Elizax, @super_ram - 3 @Chris, @CliftonMagpie, @jimbob, @KB1862 - 2 @AmericanPie - 1 --- The table is just starting to settle down, with @Joshua being chased by our defending champion @ARLukomski and @magpiejue: Joshua - 33 ARLukomski - 30 magpiejue - 30 nottsnutter - 27 liampie - 26 william1984 - 25 TheSkipper - 25 cheeky~k8 - 25 gtownjohnno - 25 KingWilliams - 24 DangerousSausage - 24 4everapie - 23 allardyces tash - 23 DonnyNotts - 22 Fan of Big Tone - 22 NottsCountyKev - 21 upthepies - 21 thommo - 21 Megan_Elizax - 21 super_ram - 21 JIMBO - 20 OoooooTommy - 19 CliftonMagpie - 17 Dan - 16 AmericanPie - 16 Nocturnal-Magpie - 15 jimbob - 15 Chris - 14 KB1862 - 14 George L - 6 Canadian - 4 --- The next round is on Saturday, so expect the fixtures to magically appear on Wednesday. Thanks for playing and see you all then!

I saw it on iFollow (including a replay) and you're right - he was expecting contact and none was forthcoming, so he did a kind of belly flop. That's the sort of thing that goes viral if you're unlucky. No need for it at all. But in his defence, there seems to be three of him on the pitch at any one time and we missed him when he went off. Other than that I don't have a lot to add. Bostock just oozes quality and we're going to have a lot of fun with Crowley. I'm also pleased for McGoldrick that he got off the mark at home. He really looked the part yesterday after a couple of games where not a lot of things he tried came off, and he was so unlucky to hit the post too.

Before the season started we were given dark warnings from Mansfield fans that we (and Wrexham) would be shocked at how high the standard in League Two is. Now we're five games in, what are your thoughts so far? Personally I've been less than impressed so far. Even Sutton didn't do anything we hadn't seen in the NL, we were a rabbit in the headlights that day and weren't ready. In the last three games in particular we've looked a class above the opposition. However, I think we've had a soft start - we've played three of the bottom four (and lost against one of them) and only one of the teams we've played is in the top half, and only just. The last two would struggle in the NL; Doncaster in particular were frighteningly bad and reminded me of us in our relegation season. It's nice to be in the top four, but our next games are against the franchise (first) and Accrington (third). I think it'll take another month or so until we truly know where we rank and whether another promotion bid is realistic.

Very impressive performance, for large parts of it we made Tranmere look like a Sunday League team. The way we passed it around them was breathtaking at times and we really should have scored more than two. Then came the substitutions. I've said before, just because you can use five subs, it doesn't mean you should. Replacing half your outfield players stops any momentum in its tracks, then you have the situation we found ourselves in yesterday with Scott coming off injured. That's incredibly unlucky and could have happened in the three subs era as well, but with five substitutions available and in the position we were in it just seems so unnecessary to take that risk. But we've got the three points we deserved and it's hopefully a lesson learned.

I saw him pull up while he was running, my immediate thought was that his hamstring had gone. It's such hard luck for him as his season hadn't really got going, I hope he's back soon. Not sure how we'll deal with it if this is longer term. We've seen little of Morias so far, but he must have something about him. But this would leave us with three strikers, one of whom is 35. If things get tight, we do still have the option of playing one up front with Crowley or Jones in behind.

Sacking a manager so soon into the new season is pure stupidity, especially when he'd done a steady job with them in the past. Do they have big ambitions this season or something?