theAnticlough

I've said that countless times myself @Piethagoram ! You must have missed the umpteen times I've made exactly that point For now though, I'm happy to support him as we look to gather enough points to put us in a good spot come January. Obviously Hall is ahead of all AMs, but in the absence of Luker, Grant is worth one of the AM shirts, bearing in mind that Iorpenda hasn't notched a single senior goal yet, and looks better playing deeper.

@Piethagoram that's what I've been saying consistently on here since I joined but he's earned the right to stake his claim thru Nov/Dec...January will probably be a pivot point for our attacking midfielders. For now, he's trying his best and giving us much more than last season and is ahead of other contenders for those shirts for the time being I think

Probably not, but he's hanging on in there and giving it his best shot. I'd say he's improved on last season's performances

I'm much happier when Iorpenda takes one of the holding mid roles. Last night, Iorpenda's physicality and energy, for Palmer's on the ball playmaking seemed like a decent trade. He's an excellent option to have there, him and Robbo were an formidable combination physically, no fun for Cheltenham at all. It's not fair though to expect someone without a senior goal yet to do the business in the final third as an AM

One thing I've noticed on these threads is how many different MoM performers we get. Yes, we get the multiple winners like Palmer, McDonald and Jatta, but so many others are capable of being the best player on any given day.

Some great performances tonight. I thought Ness was excellent. Vindicated MP sticking with him over Platt. Jatta's formula of goal + great hold up play + defensive work would usually win MoM... But my vote's for Robertson. Thought he was immense tonight and played a great all-round game. Maybe his best game in a Notts shirt

Super away win. No complaints about the second half, apart from the foul for their goal, Cheltenham were always going to play better after the break. Our 1st half performance won the 3pts for us. Was that Scott Robertson's best ever game in a Notts shirt? He didn't look like a L2 player tonight.

Great 1st half performance. So good off the ball. How good have Robertson & Bennetts been? Running the show

That's always bad news, but trying to pit a positive spin on it....Big chance for Bennetts - they don't come around too often. Iorpenda & Robbo pairing is great for physicality Final thought - good to see Jarvis back in the 18

I know what you mean @YoopEyes but I don't feel sorry for Dennis and he shouldn't feel sorry for himself. There was a clear owner of the No.9 shirt going into the season. Yes, he was tremendous with his goals and performances in the early games. But he got injured and then killed us when he came back with that pen at Crewe. It's down to him to force his way back in with his performances and effort. Nobody owes him anything, competition for places is what it should be all about anyway.

Yes @Robbie a promotion-winning AM duo might not be on the books at the moment. Hall had made one of the positions his own, but the drop off over the last 3 or 4 games has been alarming and could've opened things up again. Grant's star has been rising and Iorpenda's falling. Both are capable footballers but I've been saying all along that their output won't be what we need to sustain a promotion challenge over 46 games. MP can try Jones again, Jarvis, Dennis back there, Kouhyar, (I think Traore has shot it). It was a shame Luker got injured, he might have been part of the solution. Hopefully, MP and Montague will settle on AM has a big priority area for Jan. Two might be being greedy, but 1 first choice and let the likes of Hall and Grant compete for the other shirt might be good enough to grab one of the 4 slots.

Yeah Hall has looked like Charlie Whitaker on a bad day in the last couple of games. Despite his goals, that may cost him his place. I think Grant starts and he's earned it. Let's hope he can maintain the level of play. Big question for me - does Platt come straight back in? I bet it's a close call for MP, who wishes he still had RodMac

Top post @menzinho These days I think a radical change of formation is a summer thing or an act of a struggling, desperate team. Our squad has been assembled and prepared for 3-4-2-1 this season. As you said it's served us well since 2021. The variations can come from 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2, the height of the wingbacks and many other subtle moves the coach can make. And there's the thing that always seems to happen on the rare occasions we've played with a back 4 or something different, the players look really unfamiliar with it and the impression given is that they think the formation is being evaluated and not them.

Stoke City 2-1 Coventry City Wrexham 2-0 Charlton Athletic Joker Doncaster Rovers 0-0 Barnsley Exeter City 1-0 Wigan Athletic Bristol Rovers 1-2 Gillingham Harrogate Town 0-2 Oldham Morecambe 2-1 Sutton Truro City 1-1 Altrincham

Sticking to the micro-level of the goals conceded last night...the balance of the criticism doesn't seem right. Sure, Roos punch wasn't the best but it was out of the penalty box, which gives the defence a chance. He could've done better with the high ball back in, but where did Ness drift out to? Platt would've been in the centre of the box contesting that. RodMac would've been there at least rather than the corner of the 6-yard box. But as our main CB, Ness can't take himself out of that position. Bedeau was grounded and Macari retreated to the goaline, leaving Hall as the nearest to their scorer. None of the backline cover themselves with glory here. Roos gets the biggest slice, but Ness isn't blameless. His position in our 3-4-2-1 means that he should never leave that central area.

Norburn not showing for the ball was raised in those first few games he played. There's less excuse this time - he's had bags of time to get fit. It just seems like a tendency. If players have spent a lot of their careers playing under different styles, they don't develop the instincts that players like Palmer has - now many years playing possession football at Notts.

Key points for this defeat seem to be... Matty Palmer rested Norburn handles in the area to concede penalty on 90+6mins So turns out that giving the FA Cup 95% respect is still disrespecting the competition. Just couldn't resist being cute for that 5%...and it costs us an infamous exit to a non-league team. Will they ever learn?

I stand corrected, Matty Palmer rested

@Fan of Big Tone Proof of a good holiday :)

First choice XI. You have to assume Palmer has some minor injury. No defensive/holding CM on the bench, with Hinchy out on loan. Not a bring problem, but says to me it's an injury rather than being rested.

Makes sense for them and Macca. Not for us IMO

He can't repeat what he did for us - we had a winning squad assembled and he had pre-season to install his system of play. No time for that arriving bottom of the league in November. He'll have to go about it differently It's an appointment that kind of suggests 'we're going down, but we want you to take us back up next year', but they're only 2 wins off safety with 32 matches to go. The club will want to stay up and the fans will be against him if they don't. I tend to agree with @Robbie

I think it's important, to be able to bag those statement wins. It's a fair measure of where you stand in the division's pecking order. Of course you can still get complacent teams that can slip up against the lower orders and miss out on promotion because of that. But regularly losing to your close rivals says a lot. I guess we'll know through the December fixtures. SM's team was awful in crunch matches and at clutch time. We can see that MP is instilling more steel, and insisting on gutsy performances rather than just tactical instructions - let's hope it's enough to give MK, Walsall, C'Field and the like a really hard time.

Nottingham to Newport 3hrs 9mins. Peterborough to Newport 3hrs 33mins.

Another easy one I think...although it was a poor game overall, Jatta's might be the best individual performance of the season so far. His general play and battling was really good. He was our best defender for all the set pieces we defended. And then he won the game with a couple of Jatta specials that not too many others could've scored.