theAnticlough

No Robertson, new injury? I hope Iorpenda is deep and Hall further forward, but recently it's been Hall and Tangen there. Big game for Hall today. You'd imagine he'll be really motivated to rediscover some form and show what he can do

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Yes, no doubt we have to be consistently good to get around 24 points over 12 games. Also agree @Fan of Big Tone on the injuries and the rub of the green. I think something else will be needed though - improvement in a key area By and large, we have been pretty consistent, bar a few out-of-character flat, slow-paced performances or poor tactical games. Even then, nobody has really dominated or rolled over us. Across the back and middle thirds of the pitch we have been consistently strong. The problem has been in the attacking third. It hasn't been from lack of attacking intent - it's a personnel problem. Too many of our squad fail to execute in the final third, suddenly lose their composure and fail to find that pass, snatch at a shot or fail to shoot at all. There's no risk of singling out players because there have been so many like this (including really, really good players for us). - Macari, Bedeau, Tsaroulla, Iorpenda, Grant, Kouhyar, Bennetts, Gordon, Cotter, Traore....there's 10, right there. We had 1 player who could keep his composure - but he was sent back to Shelborne. For the sake of balance, maybe he should've stayed. Time will tell So yeah consistency, injury luck, general luck, key decisions - but I don't think we can get autos unless with make a leap in final third execution.

A win tomorrow would be an enormous boost

Agree@Robbie I'd say Play-offs 60% Autos 30% 8th or below 10%, something like that, changing after each game.

What I took from the presser today, and MP leaves you guessing, is that when he spoke about "being fair' and 'honest' is that the released list has already started. Maybe MP concluded that he'd go to Hall, Tangen or Bennetts in CM (if the other 4 are injured) before he'd go to Hinchy. Hinchy has to play and put himself in the shop window for his next cotract because his time at Notts is over. That's how I read it, anyway.

Yes @Michael D Pie. McDonald has hit levels as good as anyone this season. He's kind of a wasted asset now. I'm sure he's got a role to play this season. It's tough though, Platt has been superb too over the last 10 games. One day, it might be worth surprising a team with a 4-1-4-1, or 4-2-3-1 as Macari-Platt-McDonald-Bedeau makes one hell of a back 4

Yes @Robbie, the Walsall side of this is interesting. They've gone from top to 11th - much the same happened last season. When that happens in consecutive seasons, I think it says something about the club, its methods and its ethos. Belief will be low as you say but how much fight do they have? Are they demoralised and are their fans on their backs? Last Saturday, they won at Shrewsbury where we just lost. So I think you're right - it's going to be a close one with the odd goal in it.

I wonder if Jatta might be in the squad. If not, it's Dennis up front. I don't have a problem with that, he can score. But what's MP going to try in the disastrous No.10 positions this week?

His contract ends in June

There are exceptions to that I think @Chris At Altrincham, he wasn't playing at all. He might as well be with us. With this one, might it be possible that all of Palmer, Norburn and Robertson are unavailable at some stage going forward. Not beyond the realm of possibility, given their histories, I'd say. That'd have to be a recall, and I think bench counts as being used.

I wonder if this is just about giving a player the game time he needs. With a recall clause, in case we need him

Probably different cases @DangerousSausage. There's nothing too wrong with our formation or attacking intent, it's just a personnel issue. Our promotion-clinching No.10 was scoring a hat-trick at Orient at the same time. I'd predict MP calling time on Kouhyar now. In a similar way that he turned against Roos after C'Field. He's been a lively sub for us (albeit w/out goals and assists) but that's 3 starts now in which he's looked nothing like that player who can give a nice 10min cameo. We all know now what Grant does and what he doesn't do. If we had a productive alternative, his lack of output would have consigned him to the fringes. Both Luker and Hall were ahead of him previously. That this was our main area of weakness going into the Jan window was obvious to all. We were interested in Ruben of course but that was the longest of long shots. Monty's answer in the end.....Tangan. I hope this season doesn't pass by without him getting the same chance Kouhyar's just had. I've kind of given up on this weakness in the team being solved this season and there are only 12 (or 15 games left). We have to muddle through and hope MP can come up with something on a match-by-match basis. Can we get 2 or 3 more of early-season performances from Hall for example. Can we ever surprise a team by playing JJ or Tsaroulla there. Or throw in a totally different formation...

It's a pity@Chris that we squandered the confidence boost of a 5-0, now we'll have to try to win that back, starting at Walsall. MP rightly criticised the 1st half. This time it wasn't down to the defenders not being able to move the ball fast enough. We just weren't ready to play from the first whistle. In the MoM thread you're right to mention Tsaroulla and Robertson. But I'll throw in a caveat and it's something I've noticed in recent matches - some of our players regularly make slow starts. This is especially Robertson, Tsaroulla and Jones - from 0-20mins they're nowhere near their level of play from 20-90mins. Add this to Grant and Kouhyar putting in typically toothless Notts No. 10 performances and you have the answer as to why we wasted a full half of a home game, hardly troubling the opposition.

Not much to choose from today. Macari or Platt? I'll go Platt - he continues his much better form, he had a good all-round game. Iorpenda did fine. But it all goes blurry for him in the penalty area. Grant was OK. Kouhyah, had to be hooked, but Grant didn't. McDonald was easily the pick of the substitues.

A mess. I don't want to blame the ref - we weren't good enough. Our achilles heel - poor No.10 play - continues to drag us down. Kouhyar was poor for two straight games. Both had to come off and the replacements were no real improvement. And we just can't get goals from that position. What happened (or didn't) in the 1st half contributed even more to the defeat than the 2nd.

He's got all 3 of Barnsley's goals at Orient. We were lucky to have him for 2 years, and if he'd have stayed with this squad I think we'd easily be top.

Just Bennetts in for Hinchy I think... Unchaned as expected. COYP! 15mins to go Cambridge 0 MK 0, hope it stays that way

Happy 30th Birthday Super Ram!! Hoping for two County wins today, and I don't mean Newport.

All true. I'm not sure he's been a 'success' on the whole spectrum from 'abject failure' to 'resounding success'. It's just that the perception of failure might not be correct. For the reasons given, and for 700K, I'd say neutral at this point, with the needle twitching slightly towards the success side. It's weird that his contract length isn't disclosed, but you can imagine it's til summer 2027. Would he see out that contract? Your guess might be right @Robbie but as a counter to that....a) there won't be too many team's banging down their door to offer what they paid, the lack of goal output will deflate his market value b) whichever league they're in his wage might be seen as good value for a squad player in 2026-27 as they round out their squad. So I don't think you can rule out him seeing out his contact - and maybe he'll bang in half a dozen in their promotion run-in. Who knows?

I think it's time to look at Maca's move in a different way. He just played 90mins in a 3-0 home win over Birmingham that put Millwall in 3rd place - pole position for the play-offs up to the Premiership. After almost 2 complete seasons on his contract with Millwall, showing perseverance and the ability to progress and get there in the end. What's the going rate for a contributing Premiership striker? What's the going rate for a promotion-aspiring team striker in the Championship? Whatever that is, 700K or so has to be good value for Millwall. And starting, or regularly coming on, for the 25th placed team in English football has to be a result for a player who was playing L6 for Gateshead not too long ago. Yeah, the goal output may not be there at all, but looking at the greater context means it's been a win-win for both Millwall and Maca, methinks.

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Good posts. Yes, it will be a much tougher test - Grimsby are genuine play-off candidates. That doesn't mean we can't win handsomely. Our players got the taste of something different last week. They were finally reminded how much better it feels to win by a big margin, and bag a lot of goals - a much better feeling than scraping by on the odd goal. They'll be hungry for that taste again. Grimsby are good but they should be worried about that.

Intriguing. A big X factor for us

Good luck to SM but I can't summon up any postive enthusiasm for his post-Notts career. Yes, a nice guy and all that, but he oversaw two awful collapses, of different types, in both seasons at the helm. And he brought coaches in with him whose tenures ended in mystery. Not Monty's greatest hire but I suppose he's being vindicated by what's happening in the NL this season - it just was never a fit for us looking back.