theAnticlough

Best of luck to Kellan Gordon going back to Crawley I have to say I'm not unhappy about this, I didn't enjoy watching him play for County

We might still see Barry Cotter move back or move on. I don't think he would play again, unless about 3 or 4 players get injured. My take is that he isn't a Notts player, doesn't fit the possession-based style we still tend towards. He's a force but doesn't help us control the game at all.

Not too surprised, thought there was even a chance of cancel by mutual consent. Good luck to Kelle Roos at Kilmarnock and hope he and his family enjoy that part of Scotland. He can't say he wasn't given chances to steady the ship. The 2nd goal at Chesterfield was what did for him IMO. MP calling it pathetic. And that can't be aimed at Jatta, he can't be expected to head away every single corner. MP and RM could easily find consensus deciding on a Gagliardi mistake.

The signing is exactly what fans were asking for. It's too much to ask in January for a surefire new No.1 like Bass was, but for a high level alternate keeper - reliable and experienced, James Belshaw is perfect. Which way is it going to go though? Scenario 1 - Roos has had more good and Ok games than bad ones, and we've the 4th best defensive record in the league. If we dropped Roos straight away and then Belshaw got injured, we'd may have pissed off or broke the confidence of someone we need. If Roos responds to the new competition by being better, then the Belshaw signing will have worked in an unexpected way. Obviously if Roos has another really bad game, or say 2 poorish games in 5 or 6, Belshaw comes in then Scenario 2 - We heed MP's unusual description of Chesterfield's 2nd goal - pathetic. You don't often hear a coach describe an individual mistake like that. It was both Roos and Jatta, but you'd guess he was saying Roos' part was the more pathetic of the two. Maybe MP brings in Belshaw right away.

I think those that say it depends on the transfer window are close to the mark. We need a couple of immediate, quality first-team contributors to have a shot. By definition, promotion seasons require promotion-level players for the respective league. Not the whole team, but you need at least seven and then the rest can be below that but aren't weak links. We might be on the wrong side of the line there. Palmer and Robbo were playing like promotion-level players, but when they're out we're so obviously not a promotion team. We have Platt/Rodmac, Bedeau, Tsaroulla, Dennis, Jatta, Robbo and Palmer, fit and on best form take you to the 7. Macari is border line. And Iorpenda when playing CM. IMO We need that GK alternate and the promotion-level AM [For reference, our NL final. team in 2023 - Baldwin, Cameron, Palmer, Nemane, Jones, Rodrigues, Langstaff were the 7. Bostock almost. Rawlo, Austin, Chicksen, made up the numbers but didn't let us down]

Welcome and good luck to Beck-Ray Enoru. Hope this is a gem of a signing. The club will do what the club will do according to its strategy. Question though for fans, what would you prefer this January window if it was a choice between 3 punts on future talent or 1 promotion level, first-team contributor, if that was the straight choice on how to spend X amount of available funds?

Yes, this 2nd postponement is a much needed chance to reset and address the issues which have been building up Why is our passing out from the back so poor Why aren't we building through midfield Why are our only wide players, the WBs always trapped, tightly marked around the halfway line The no.10 weakness we know about Why are our excellent 2 top goal scorers prone to following good games with really poor ones Sort some of these out, add some new blood and hopefully we can drive on and get back up the table again.

Leyton Orient 0-2 Cardiff City Joker Peterborough 1-2 Bolton Accrington Stanley P-P Barnet Chesterfield 1-P Colchester Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Bromley Aldershot 0-2 Solihull Moors Sutton United 1-2 York City Woking 1-1 Hartlepool United My thinking behind the Cheaterfield prediction....they will suddenly call the game 'ON' just before 3:00. Obviously Colchester will have no time to get there, even for the second half. Cheaterfield will still struggle, and have to rely on a stoppage time goal (they were still time wasting) to claim the the 3pts.

Ah yes, might've thought of that it I hadn't had a skinful

Not sure why....does checking make a difference, me old sausage?

With the extra recovery time, it has to be the time for Matty Palmer

Crazy article, whoever penned that should be embarrassed with themselves

Yes, welcome the signing and the player. Good luck to Luke Browne Defence isn't an area of desperate need for us right now. When the inside-forward we're all waiting for arrives, he'll be a very different type of signing with more experience.

I think we have a better coach and coaching team. But there's less quality in the squad (although more depth). Maynard's football was becoming unwatchable. And always 2nd best at clutch time. Moving away from a formula that would never win has to be progress in itself. The possession with a purpose mantra is fine. I appreciate that there's enough attacking intent. But we're verging on lapsing into a team that gives the ball away too cheaply on a regular basis - we need our first-choice midfield back and more quality in general to put a stop to that. Overall, I'm happier than I was last year. And that was before knowing for sure that SM was setting us up for the most gutless end of season run-in and play-off campaign you'll ever see.

Blackburn 2-1 Charlton Hull City 1-2 Watford Plymouth Argyle 2-0 Burton Reading 1-1 Stockport County Joker Wycombe 1-0 Wimbledon Barnet P-P Crewe Alexandra Barrow P-P Bristol Rovers Walsall P-P Fleetwood

I think it'll be a surprise line-up. MP said himself that these particular players have had a long run (or words to that effect). Predicting what those changes will be is a bit of a lottery. I'd say Palmer in asap. He's not a sub, play him and get him on the path to match fitness right away. Main reason there is that despite Norburn doing OK we have to have someone showing for the ball to make this team work. In two consecutive games now we've conceded goals from our own throw-ins around the half-way line. At MK, Dennis had to come back to receive it and then had no midfielder available to pass to (Accy was more of a fluke). Let Iorpenda do his box-to-box, all-over-the pitch thing, but we need the other guy to keep on showing for the ball and knit the play together. Norburn seems happy with the midfield being by-passed, cue Platty playing balls to the opposing GK all game long. With the window open and a largish squad already, it's 'show us what you've got' time. We've seen Kouhyar. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw someone like Jarvis start in this one. I'm a fan of JJ but isn't the way to get back into the team doing well when you come on as a sub? He hasn't, but I hope to see him as RWB tomorrow because I'm in no rush to see Kouhyar again and Gordon starting would be a downer.

That puzzles me as well @menzinho. He seemed to get nervy during those bad games and things went from bad to worse. Hopefully,that's easily fixable for him. .

Aljofree has gone back to Man Utd. It was a weird loan. He actually did well in most of the games he played. But he had absolute disasters in two, at Barrow and V Gills I think. One of those is bad, but two means MP cannot trust you as he's terrified of it happening again. A striker having an absolute mare is one thing, but a defending having one means defeat usefully. I hope his next loan is a happier one. Good luck to him for the future.

Great points @Robbie, and it's good to see someone back up the most pressing issue I also agree with the point you make about tactics and the solution being more quality rather than becoming like Accrington or Harrogate. Yeah, if we want to play like we do, positively and with skill, then we need the quality to pull it off. Back to the AMs, Luker isn't the answer either as we just can't afford to give a player a run to get up to match speed. We have to get this particular bit of January business right to have any chance of promotion.

It was such a poor performance yesterday, I think it's fair to truthfully examine where this team and this set of players stand. Based on the Accy game, I'll divide the starting XI into 3 groups 1) Still pieces to build a promotion team/squad around - Macari, Bedeau, Tsaroulla, Iorpenda, Dennis 2) Not so bad yesterday and probably best regarded as squad back-ups anyway - Roos, Norburn 3) Players that might need to be re-evaluated in terms of how far they can take us - Platt, Hall, Kouhyar, Jatta Platt - Rod McDonald better be injured or there's been some cowardly team management going on. Montague recruited Platt as a starter and RodMac as a back up in summer '24, but this season's evidence should throw that out of the window and the team should be picked on merit. Maybe Monty missed Sept/Oct when RM was a revelation. Platt is a fine L2 defender, but is prone to poor runs of form, is a below average distributor, can't use the space ahead of him and has stopped contributing as a goal threat, so the jury's out on him being a promotion level L2 defender. All I'm saying is that if there's someone who's been playing better this season in his position, they should have the shirt instead. Let's see if they can defend it and Platt/Ness can earn it on performances. Hall - We've seen so may Charlie Whitakeresque games from Hall by now - largely anonymous and ineffectual, and way too easily dispossessed and knocked off the ball. I speculated before that Hall was probably a schoolboy level striker that Spurs coaxed into becoming a midfielder when he didn't turn out to be big, strong or fast enough. He's still got great skill, composure in the box and an eye for goal, but 3 out of 5 of your performances in midfield can't be like yesterday's Kouhyar - was hoping he could force his way into the team but instead he shows like a natural sub, blazing brightly for 10mins and then dropping off a cliff. MP doesn't give too many chances but he does give them and you have to be ready to take them. He didn't Jatta - the big one, where to start? He has too many games like yesterday. English pro football isn't like the Danish league, you just don't get the time and space. You have to try to win your individual battles with the opponent. Does he try enough? Probably. But that doesn't change the fact that he loses 80-90% of his tussles and challenges. I wish he was regarded as someone who still had to prove himself rather than a surefire sell-on asset and then maybe him and his agent would see it that way too. I get it, we want (big) money for him so have to talk him up. But how nice would it be to tell him you have to do better, take a seat on the bench. The subs are a whole other story, so won't get started on that. Comments? Is most of that the usual over-reaction (probably is ;) ) or does any of it ring true.

I'd say Dennis was the pick of the few 6/10s today - decent effort from him

There's been very little talk about McDonald, a star performer earlier in the season but interviewers don't even ask about him. He came back to the bench then disappeared again as Ness took the back up CB role. If Platt is picked ahead of RodMac it can only be based on the previous season. i hope there wasn't anything daft happen like giving him Christmas off :) ! Because he should've been back in the team by now and we wouldn't have had to see that Platt horror show today.

As we enter the Jan window, the message form the players is "I'm not good enough, please replace me' Many players low quality was cruelly exposed today. Instructive for the club though, we don't have enough quality as it is to sustain a promotion challenge.

Really bad Our best two players at MK, Iorpenda and Tsaroulla, have been OK, but that's about it. Platt has been ragged, Bedeau asleep, Hall anonymous and Jatta's lost most of his tussles. Koukyar started like on of his sub performances but then fell off a cliff. I think MP has to find a way to get Jones on at HT To add to the frustration, Stall's 'absolutely' habit has spiralled out of control

With names like Big Tone, Super Ram and Dangerous Sausage I do feel there's a lost consonant there