Andy McMillan has been appointed Head of Academy Coaching. This is a very important role and by all accounts he should be a good appointment.

http://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news/article/head-of-academy-coaching-appointed-889748.aspx

Something just occured to me. This will sound quite odd but bear with me!

Have you noticed how ironic some clubs shirt sponsors have become over the years?

Lets look at a couple of examples:

Notts County's 2008-09 home shirt was sponsored by Forward Together Pest Control. FORWARD TOGETHER - at a team when the club was on a seemingly never ending slide downhill into non-league oblivian before the intervention of Munto Finance (whoever they actually were!)

Example 2: Portsmouth's shirts for the past few years now have been sponsored by Jobsite; at a time when the club have been making large numbers of staff redundent!

And another example is Hearts. I cant upload a photo due to the file size being too big (?) but their shirts are sponsored by wonga.com, at a time when the club are struggling to pay players and staff on time

I'm sure there are other examples out there but these are just a few I've found lately. I find it all kinda amusing myself, or is it more a sign that its time for me to go to bed?

Two pieces of news regarding players today.

First of all Joss Labadie has officially signed a new contract which will keep him at Notts for another 12 months. I think this is excellent news. For most of last season he was brought on off the bench but when he went away on loan he showed what he could do and he was probably one of our standout performers towards the end of last season. Here's hoping he can carry on his form from the end of last season.

Also today we made a new signing in the shape of 24 year old winger Andy Haworth on a six month deal. Andy is apparently comfortable playong on either wing. He began his career with Blackburn Rovers, coming through their youth system but never making the first team. He had spells on loan at Gateshead and Rochdale before he signed for Bury in 2010. He netted 3 goals in 46 games for the Shakers, and in two years at Gigg Lane he had two loan spells at Falkirk and Bradford City. He ended last season at Rochdale.

Hopefully he'll impress and earn himself a new deal. Welcome to Meadow Lane Andy

Hopefully we'll see a bit more activity now that clubs are back in for pre-season training and everyone has returned from their holidays etc. Meanwhile I'm off on one tommorow, I'll be checking back on here to make sure everyones playing nicely

I'm going to name my overall favourite, then I hope to name at least 9 other books I enjoyed as a child. Inspired by the 'Cartoon' thread and Jake repeatedly asking me to read him a book, I thought why not ask here? (More threads can only be a good thing - Slight hint)

Favourite Books You Read As A Child - What's yours?

My No.1 - Chronicles of Narnia

I still fondly recall being caught by the imagination of this wonderful series by CS Lewis, I wasn't very fond of reading when I was little. Prior to moving schools my teachers treated me like an idiot, most never really bothered to try and aid me. I moved to a new school half way through the term in year 5, my teacher there Mrs Dobbs pretty much pushed me to take up reading and it was great fun! At the start of year 6 Mr Jackson (Stern but loving/kind) got the whole class into projects, he would always read at least one book a week and I think this really made a huge difference for me. I went up levels, as I would stay behind assembly with a few others to catch up.

Rather randomly if I recall right, some teachers were off due to illness. The duty decided to have a get Mr Jackson and another teacher to read to us all in the library.

In the afternoon we were treated to being able to watch a tape They decided to watch Chronicles of Narnia (I believe an old BBC version - as it were in black and white) I loved it! I'm not greatly into the Disney version, CS Lewis didn't want the books to be touched by others and I believe very fussy. (similar to the TinTin writer/artist)

Here's some others (I didn't intend to rant)

Roger Red Hat, Biff and chip, Burglar Bill, Funnybones, Cat in the Hat, Ronald Dahl (easier to say them all but The Twits was the first) Where's Spot, Meg and Mog, The Snowman, Elmer and Goosebumps.

Well I named a few there. LOL

P.s Super Ram - Can you recall the book where the young child wants to have an adventure out at sea, he runs away from home (if I recall right) on a toy boat or something, he ends up not liking it and encountering an octopus which I believe turned out to be friendly. I don't recall the name - Plus the Pirate Book, I think it was about Black Beard.. well a pirate who wasn't very good and pretended to be him. Wonderful memories

My list would feature many from the 80's and 90's, it's a shame these days they're watered down so much and each one tends to remind me of another. Hardly any are original or creative! (At least this is my opinion)

Here's two of my most favourite, please share yours.

Where is the compassion, meaning or even life lessons?  Imagination is so weak with today TV full stop, they just focus on speaking down to children.

Just settling down to watch my favourite group The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury. No I'm not actually there but watching BBC2.

I hope you'll indulge a proud grandad showing off a picture. This is my grandson George he was fascinated to find a tiny lizard poking his head out of a small hole in the top of a wooden fence whilst on our holiday in Spain. Our son took the picture I think it is brilliant.

Can you think of a caption? No prizes just for fun.

I was recently approached by a general football forum, they we're trying to establish a link with fan sites such as ours (most likely to aid their growth at the cost of ours). I've been monitoring the site, as I was actually considering joining. Yet I've noticed some very iffy things, such as discrediting a skin author which in it's own sense is pretty lame of them.

I stumbled across a Bury thread.

A Juventus fan who posts under 'Arturo Vidal' said "Notts County fans singing "It's Just like watching Juve" best fans in england hands down!"

These seems to spark up some petty remarks, very common on general football forums.

Then a Forest fan posts; "I see Notts County as a friendly little local club with a spasticated fan base. I like to see them do well, but due to their fans' recent retardness since the Munto disaster it's always funny to laugh at their failings. We're going to sign David Beckham, they said. We're going to sign Roberto Carlos, they said. Sven will take us to the Premier League, they said. Munto Finance don't even have a single penny to their name, they never said.

You're right I probably do give a **** about them. But in a good way. As a club I like to see them do well. But then it's always funny to see them fail. Their love-in with Juve is ridiculous. You don't see Forest fans wanking constantly over the fact we provided Arsenal with their first ever kits, or the fact that the founder of AC Milan was a Forest fan. The way they worshipped Lee Hughes was ridiculous too.

Overall, good little club and it's nice when they do well, but at the same time it's funny to see them fail because of their retarded fan base"

These types of comments are totally unaccepted on any site, I find it beyond belief. He see's us a friendly little local club? That's good coming from a team who's only real success emulates their arch rivals (who I hate to say it are a much bigger club than them). Hence why they can get beat by 10 men! (Didn't you manage it by 9 also @super_ram?)

Now, why do the majority of teams name Forest as one of their most hated teams? It can't be because they're such a big friendly club, with the most loyalist fans who are certainly no example?

One of the worst things is the fact, he's mocking Munto!! At least we manage a major signing without the riches of false promises, they've got a broken camel and a chairman who is clueless when it comes to football. I seriously don't think they can talk, as most of my friends who support forest said very similar things when they got took over and who did they sign? Andy 'chub chub' Reid.

"As a club I like to see them do well. But it's always funny to see them fail" <-- Undermining himself yet again.

He's right regarding Arsenal, yet it's uninteresting because it was very common for sides to loan out their shirts or donate them to smaller teams. We do however, see Forest fans walking around wearing *loody MANCHESTER UNITED clothing and cheap forest cap (or something minimal).

Love how he repeats his ending! At least we're not a bunch of thugs and mindless goons.

Sorry, It just annoyed me that the idiot uses offensive words. I wanted to post it, yet I didn't want to give him or that poor site the time of day,

@JoeJones shared this link on PoN's Facebook wall.

It highlights an artists work, capturing Football Grounds. A simpler, modern take on the artist Lowry, only difference being there's no matchstick men etc. I hadn't heard of Jamie Edwards, although this is a great share by Joe and I was going to suggest to him to do this (yet I thought I'll just do it).



Thoughts?

Has anyone heard of any pre season matches yet?

I did hear of a match at Eastwood was being considered but nothing official.

Welcome to new member @Pete Dennis please come and say hello, I think I recognise the name. How long have you been a Notts fan?

Hey @stewartpot, (Stewart)

Sorry I didn't get chance to post this sooner, I've had a fairly busy day but I noticed earlier. Hope you enjoy the site! Thanks for taking the time to join us here

This past month has seen some changes made to PoN, although quieter than it's been previously. We have seen some great dedication to our site, I'm very grateful as we need activity in order to attract more.

With this in mind, I'd like to thank @weymouthPIE and congratulate him on winning June's Member of the Month!

He's continued posting his insightful responses, aswell as sharing his interesting blogs and engaging with members. It's nice to see! This will be Weymouth's second time, as he was awarded Member of the Month for January 2013 (a whole six months ago). Well Done buddy, Thank you very much! I won't say keep it up, there seems to be a curse with winning this award as of recently. LOL

Here's a list of previous winners.

Many thanks to all active members who've also helped us over this quiet spell

Evening everybody. I was thinking about setting up a prediction league for the new season just to add a bit of fun to the site and who knows, maybe get a few other people involved - particularly those who have signed up but are hiding away (come on out, we dont bite. Well, not all of us anyway )

Basically I'd post a thread at the beggining of each week with a list of SIX fixtures from across the football league and premier league, all due to take place on the Saturday, and everyone taking part would then post their predictions on that thread for each match.

E.g.

Chelsea 1-1 Manchester City

Liverpool 4-2 Aston Villa

Derby County 1-0 Blackburn Rovers

Notts County 3-2 Rotherham United

Wolves 2-1 Sheffield United

Plymouth Argyle 0-1 Exeter City

You get the picture

As far as the scoring system would be concerned, it'd be 3 points for a correct score (if my prediction of Notts 3-2 Rotherham was spot on, it'd be 3 points). 1 point for a correct result (Notts win, but the score is 2-0 or something), and 0 points if the result and score are both incorrect.

I would add up everyones scores for each round and post them in a table.

I would appreciate any feedback, would anyone fancy taking part in that? Just thought it'd be a bit of fun and it might provoke a bit of discussion on the site over a week

Let me know what you think, hopefully I've explained myself properly

I was just having a nosey around the site and luckily noticed that yesterday was  the birthday of a most valued member. So I hope you had a great day,@tonyhateley,   Happy belated birthday. Sorry I didn't notice in time.

The seedings were announced today, and Notts County are classed as a seeded Northern team. We can only play an unseeded Northern team in round 1, so we can draw any of the following teams:

Accrington Stanley

Bradford City

Burton Albion

Bury

Carlisle United

Chesterfield

Fleetwood Town

Hartlepool United

Mansfield Town

Morecambe

Oldham Athletic

Port Vale

Preston North End

Rochdale

Rotherham United

Scunthorpe United

Shrewsbury Town

York City

I bet Chris Kiwomya is praying we dont get Hartlepool after what happened to our last two managers following games against Hartlepool

Who does everyone fancy then? Most people in facebook and Twitter seem to fancy a game against Mansfield. I suppose you just hope for a home game really, or if we have to travel hope we dont have to travel too far.

Derby County are also seeded so they can get any of those teams listed, anyone in particular you fancy @super_ram?

Was at Notts this morning and saw Mahon there in his training kit, I thought he was leaving to the club he went on loan to?

I've just watched Chris Kiwomya's interview on Magpie Player rounding up pre-season so far, and he spoke about a few players:

Mahon had no concrete offers on the table from anyone else. He wants to keep his fitness up so for the time being he's training with Notts and will join the squad on the pre-season trip to Finland. As will Krystian Pearce. Pearce may still have a future at the club, but it will all come down to finances - weather or not we can afford to keep him on but Kiwomya was pleased with the way Pearce played when he came in for the final couple of games at the end of last season.

Joss Labadie has agreed to sign a new contract in principle, theres just 1 little detail thats he's srting out himself and he should be signed up soon, so nothing really to worry about on that front. He is keen to stay at the cub

Yoann Arquin has signed a 1 year extension although he's away on International duty currently, playing for Martinique in the CONCACAF Gold Cup (main tournament for teams in North & Central America, and the Carribbean). He wont be going to Finland, and we dont know when he'll link up with the squad as it depends on how far Martinique get in the competition. The final is at the end of July.

Alan Sheehan has left his options open but has done well in pre-season. The club are yet to sit down with Alan to discuss things.

And finally, some of you may have heard that we had a trialist from Arbroath. Kiwomya has dismissed this as untrue, replying with "well thats news to me!"

Thought I'd share these bits of information on here for those who dont have Magpie Player

I've seen a couple of messages regarding who our new captain is or will be, it seems everyone is saying Dean Leacock is our new captain. I haven't checked the official site, neither have I checked facebook or twitter.

It's not who I would give it too.

Yet, now with those who remain in our squad. I am not sure who aside from Dean and Gary Liddle, who would make a good captain. Mahon would have been a good call, if he was younger and likely to play more often. I don't like when keepers become captain, so this rules out Bart. Zoko, too quiet.. I feel like I'm missing someone obvious!

Happy Birthday Mate @Joe Jones!

I know I posted on FB but it's not the same, we're a community and so here. Please take time wish Joe a belated happy birthday! The jammy bugger is away at the moment. Last time we spoke (on Facebook) he was on a boat over the Amsterdam harbour, enjoying the good life.

Come back soon! We miss ya!

are we going to sign some players????

I'm getting bored, I want to talk about football, come on Notts. give us something to talk about even if its a moan.

Was it Martin Luther King who said that? No I think he said "I have a dream" anyway I digress.

I was playing football on the wing for Notts County, I think I was supposed to be Stevie Carter (anyone remember him). Notts were playing Derby at home, we got a corner and I had to take it, I floated a lovely ball into the box and someone rose majestically into the air and nodded it against the post, this was one of several near misses in the dream. The ball was cleared and went back up the field to the other goal where a goal was scored, I was feeling pig sick until a realised that we had actually changed ends at half time and I had taken the corner at the wrong end so the goal that was scored was in fact for us!

What a mixed up dream it was, the Derby fans were more intent on running around trying to find some Notts fans to fight with, I bet Super Ram was there somewhere.

Anyway I thought I would share that with you, I don't always remember my dreams but this made me smile when I woke up.

It's been very quiet on here today, in fact totally silent. Where is everyone? have you all hibernated? I don't blame you if you have. Tomorrow is Midsummers Day, though there doesn't seem to be much summer weather about and the nights are getting longer again.

Perhaps the coming week will give us all something to discuss. Hello... Anyone there?

Surprised there's no mention of this on here yet, unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Notts County will travel to Brammel Lane to face Sheffield United on the opening day of the season as part of a group of special games announced by the Footbal League today to celebrate their 125th anniverary. The six games announced today are all of signifficance to the football league.

They are:

Championship:

Derby County v Blackburn Rovers (Founder Member v Founder Member)

Burnley v Bolton Wanderers (Founder Member v Founder Member)

League One
Preston North End v Wolverhampton Wanderers (Founder Member v Founder Member)
Sheffield United v Notts County (Oldest Ground v Oldest Club)

League Two
Newport County v Accrington Stanley (Newest Member v Founder Member)

Rochdale v Hartlepool United (Most played game in the football league)

I think this is a really good idea from the football league to celebrate the 125th anniversary, nice to see them actually putting some thought into something!

The rest of the fixtures will be announced tommorow.

Exciting game to begin the season for us. Hopefully the Dorset Pies will be able to make the trip