Tuesday 16th April

[Chris FGR]

Congrats to Stockport, best side I've seen (although hard to judge against our shite rabble).

After all those years stuck in national north it's nice to see their fans now getting to enjoy the good times.

 

[クレイグ]

Congrats Stockport. Very worthy champions.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

What a way to do it!

Could have easily scored 10 tonight and conceded a couple more to be fair.

Sarcevic has earned himself a new contract on that performance alone and we’re probably going to have to offer Paddy a two year deal.

Also please can we have Barry back next season. Cheat code Louie was in full flow again tonight and it was so much fun to watch.

We were actually 4 or 5 short of arguably our best team on paper tonight and have been for most of this year but experienced players like Camps, Powell and Madden have really stepped it up in recent months when needed.

 

[jacobncfc]

Fair play to Stockport, rode their lucky a bit early when we dominated and then clinical when their chances came.

I’ve never left a game that early before but I went at half time. Thing that did me was Baldwin kicking the ball out of play at 0-3 because Wootton went down holding his foot, just a pure example of the mentality problem we’ve had all season and we need to change if we want to do anything next year.

 

[saddler78]

30-40 seconds is an exaggeration. It was more like 15.

Would've taken a point beforehand and would have been a great one had Walsall not bagged late on.

That was a stressful couple of hours. Heads all over the place after that, pleased we stopped the rot with a battling performance and it keeps Crawley behind us, but if we'd seen that out we would have been as good as over the line.

Congratulations to Mansfield. Heard Fridays on the piss round Barrow are superb.

You should make it with some to spare i reckon its us donny or crawley now for that last spot.

 

[RavenBish]

Surely he can't stay. When a manager has so many horrendous performances and defeats after taking over it hardly ever results in them turning it around in the long run.

Very naive view this, wins and points are a construct the bureaucrats at the EFL want you to respect. We respect possession based stats only and our underlying metrics indicate we aren’t ‘bad’, simply ‘unlucky’.

We shouldn’t change, the entire sport should

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Fair play to Stockport, rode their lucky a bit early when we dominated and then clinical when their chances came.

I’ve never left a game that early before but I went at half time. Thing that did me was Baldwin kicking the ball out of play at 0-3 because Wootton went down holding his foot, just a pure example of the mentality problem we’ve had all season and we need to change if we want to do anything next year.

Notts favourite style of play. Either kick it out or pass it around the back.

 

[RavenBish]

There will never be another team like this Notts side. We’ve set some records that will never be broken.

Goals, penalties and vibes baby

 

[CTFC - Devils]

30-40 seconds is an exaggeration. It was more like 15.

Would've taken a point beforehand and would have been a great one had Walsall not bagged late on.

That was a stressful couple of hours. Heads all over the place after that, pleased we stopped the rot with a battling performance and it keeps Crawley behind us, but if we'd seen that out we would have been as good as over the line.

Congratulations to Mansfield. Heard Fridays on the piss round Barrow are superb.

Game went exactly as expected. It’s incredible how fragile our team are. The belief and swagger we were playing with not long ago seems like a distant memory.
Safe trip back to those that travelled, horrendous journey for midweek.
You took points from us tonight, all will be forgiven if you take something from Donny on Saturday.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Fair play to Stockport, rode their lucky a bit early when we dominated and then clinical when their chances came.

I’ve never left a game that early before but I went at half time. Thing that did me was Baldwin kicking the ball out of play at 0-3 because Wootton went down holding his foot, just a pure example of the mentality problem we’ve had all season and we need to change if we want to do anything next year.

Not sure we were even that clinical even in the first half you saw, Powell and Wootton missed big chances and Horsfall hit the bar.

 

[Super_horns]

Congratulations to Mansfield.

Fantastic achievement.

 

[jacobncfc]

Not sure we were even that clinical even in the first half you saw, Powell and Wootton missed big chances and Horsfall hit the bar.

To be fair you should’ve had eight, we were just the better team until Langstaff missed an open goal at 0-0 haha. Then we were like nah.

 

[1862]

We've just got nothing with so few players willing/able to put a shift in and against a really good team it showed. The defence is a calamity waiting to happen at all times but they got nothing from those in front of them, Langstaff and Austin aside.

I believe in the style of play if we get the personnel right, but it's hard to argue that Maynard will be able to turn it around. It's also such a large rebuild that to sustain a real charge we will either have to pay a load of players off or bring in 10 players who are all better than what we have under contract.

I would add that the ref was genuinely ridiculous, not biased but just very bad on several occasions, the second pen looked like Cameron won the ball and the Stockport player was fouled by his own man. At 0-0 someone (Cameron?) just fell over like the eventual first goal and the ref gave a free kick, awful stuff.

Anyway congrats to Stockport who looked very much like deserved champions.

 

[Meadow]

Congratulations to Stockport for winning the league and Mansfield for finally getting promoted.

Commiserations to FGR. Not sure you'll make it back in my lifetime but have fun in the National League.

Despite our good goal difference Playoffs is probably beyond us now. Sadly it looks as though Sutton are down.

 

[jacobncfc]

I have to say Maynard’s ‘neither were penalties but who the fuck cares we’d have lost anyway’ comment was both correct and very funny, so fair play there at least.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

To be fair you should’ve had eight, we were just the better team until Langstaff missed an open goal at 0-0 haha. Then we were like nah.

Yeah agree with that. Funny thing was that we were actually missing our best striker in terms of pressing and transition.

God knows what score it would have been with a fit Tanto.

 

[jacobncfc]

Yeah agree with that. Funny thing was that we were actually missing our best striker in terms of pressing and transition.

God knows what score it would have been with a fit Tanto.

Might’ve woken us up. Baldwin bless him is at his most dangerous (to us) when he feels like there’s no danger.

 

[1862]

Yeah agree with that. Funny thing was that we were actually missing our best striker in terms of pressing and transition.

God knows what score it would have been with a fit Tanto.

Good explanation of how far away we are really, the quality you had missing as well as coming off the bench and we had to recall a defender from Boston United to fill the bench with about 4 injuries.

 

[dedwardp]

That was probably the poorest I think we've been since the Cowleys came in, but who cares at this time as the result is all that matters. That second half in particular was utterly abysmal, but we managed to slog it out.

I know they have a bad rep for some of the anti-football stuff but, in the main part, I honestly haven't seen too much of it - I've really enjoyed watching us under them so far. The second half tonight and the first half at Mansfield were the worst two halves for it by far but, otherwise, it's generally been good to watch and I'm feeling really optimistic for next season.

 

[Chris FGR]

Forgot to say, congrats to Mansfield. Again a side I was impressed by (despite the pitch issues) and Clough has always seemed to be the type who builds up slowly and surely towards success, this promotion has been coming.

 

[Optipez]

Congratulations Stockport, best team I've seen this season tonight. You're actually only the second team to give us a mauling despite conceding 90? this season we usually don't lose by more than two. Sutton on opening day were the other.
Dave Challinor seems to always beat us, Hartlepool under him were exactly the same, energetic, dynamic, defensively solid and committed, well drilled and efficient. He's the best manager in the league and deserves a crack at L1.
Aiden Baldwin has made so many catastrophic errors that he surely has to go in the summer, he's got all the attributes to be a good defender, big, powerful, pacey, good footballer but his concentration and desire to just defend is nowhere near the standard of a decent L2 defender. I think we've conceded seventeen penalties this season, it's just ridiculous how bad we are defensively.
We've got a big summer ahead, we've at least five players under contract for next season who aren't good enough but will swallow a good chunk of our budget.
Glad the season is nearly over, we need a break to gather ourselves.

 

[WhiteRussian]

Well done Stockport and Mansfield. Jealous a bit but we were too fragile in the games that mattered which doesn't bode well for the playoffs whoever we get..

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Good explanation of how far away we are really, the quality you had missing as well as coming off the bench and we had to recall a defender from Boston United to fill the bench with about 4 injuries.

We had so many injuries this season that we went into the January window with something like 12 fit senior outfield players so a squad that was deep (when over half of it wasn’t injured) became deeper as we recalled Conor Evans and added a load of loanees to get us through.

We had 8 out injured tonight plus Barry on the bench because he can’t start right now.

Playing the formation we did tonight, Wright, MSH, Rydel, Barry and Tanto would likely be in our best 11. Will Collar is also one of the best attacking midfielders in the league and an ever present when fit but no idea who’d I’d drop to get him in with the way Sarcevic and Madden played tonight.

 

[Boz]

Congratulations to Stockport and their title and Mansfield on the promotion, both well deserved.

 

[jacobncfc]

We had so many injuries this season that we went into the January window with something like 12 fit senior outfield players so a squad that was deep (when over half of it wasn’t injured) became deeper as we recalled Conor Evans and added a load of loanees to get us through.

We had 8 out injured tonight plus Barry on the bench because he can’t start right now.

Playing the formation we did tonight, Wright, MSH, Rydel, Barry and Tanto would likely be in our best 11. Will Collar is also one of the best attacking midfielders in the league and an ever present when fit but no idea who’d I’d drop to get him in with the way Sarcevic and Madden played tonight.

Of all the annoying things tonight, Evans getting a start and looking good after his contribution to our season last year of arriving on loan, missing a succession of open goals and then getting recalled… was up there.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Congratulations Stockport, best team I've seen this season tonight. You're actually only the second team to give us a mauling despite conceding 90? this season we usually don't lose by more than two. Sutton on opening day were the other.
Dave Challinor seems to always beat us, Hartlepool under him were exactly the same, energetic, dynamic, defensively solid and committed, well drilled and efficient. He's the best manager in the league and deserves a crack at L1.
Aiden Baldwin has made so many catastrophic errors that he surely has to go in the summer, he's got all the attributes to be a good defender, big, powerful, pacey, good footballer but his concentration and desire to just defend is nowhere near the standard of a decent L2 defender. I think we've conceded seventeen penalties this season, it's just ridiculous how bad we are defensively.
We've got a big summer ahead, we've at least five players under contract for next season who aren't good enough but will swallow a good chunk of our budget.
Glad the season is nearly over, we need a break to gather ourselves.

As a supporter of a team who’s predominantly played a back three and tried to play out from the back I know how difficult it is to find the right people for those positions, particularly the side CBs.

It’s really hard to find defenders at this level who can pass under pressure, beat the press and dribble high with the ball and not put your team in trouble and then defensively have the ability to defend high and wide one on one against pacy forwards and wingers and also have the physicality and height defend the box when a targetman tries to drop on your shoulder.

We’ve tried quite a few different options in the past five seasons with varying degrees of success but only Wright and Pye have had the majority of the attributes above. Wimbledon took two CBs from us this summer who couldn’t do the job we needed but have excelled for them in back four where they can just concentrate on defending.

As I said in an earlier post though I don’t think it matters who’s in that back three with Jones and Nemane as wing backs. If you want to keep a back three you need to change to 343 get wingbacks that can go both ways and push those two higher.

 

[jacobncfc]

Congratulations Stockport, best team I've seen this season tonight. You're actually only the second team to give us a mauling despite conceding 90? this season we usually don't lose by more than two. Sutton on opening day were the other.
Dave Challinor seems to always beat us, Hartlepool under him were exactly the same, energetic, dynamic, defensively solid and committed, well drilled and efficient. He's the best manager in the league and deserves a crack at L1.
Aiden Baldwin has made so many catastrophic errors that he surely has to go in the summer, he's got all the attributes to be a good defender, big, powerful, pacey, good footballer but his concentration and desire to just defend is nowhere near the standard of a decent L2 defender. I think we've conceded seventeen penalties this season, it's just ridiculous how bad we are defensively.
We've got a big summer ahead, we've at least five players under contract for next season who aren't good enough but will swallow a good chunk of our budget.
Glad the season is nearly over, we need a break to gather ourselves.

Baldwin is the most annoying Notts player I have ever seen. He is a functioning brain away from playing two leagues higher than this, but we are going to have to release him. The lad’s got everything you could want for a centre back other than the ability to concentrate when it’s easy and he’s not under any pressure, but he just can’t do it.

 

[GTFCfish]

Artell said he though we played well and were by far the better side.

Christ.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Of all the annoying things tonight, Evans getting a start and looking good after his contribution to our season last year of arriving on loan, missing a succession of open goals and then getting recalled… was up there.

He’s really improved since his loan at Wimbledon. Got some belief and energy that he didn’t have last season. Definitely won the battle with Jones down that side.

I’m not sure I’d trust him defensively as a wing back in L1 and he’s out of contract in the summer and we’ve got attacking midfielders galore in Powell, Collar and Bailey in contract and I’m guessing Sarcevic and Madden (who can and has played deeper) will stay so I think he might move on and join Wimbledon full time.

 

[Stocky]

Champions with two games spare, with everything thrown at us, simply sensational.

If Barry hadn't torn him hammy in October we could have broken serious records and that isn't it even mentioning injuries elsewhere. I make it 6 first team starters didn't play tonight and we toyed with Notts to be honest.

Obviously a worry when it went 2-4, Crowley surely can't waste away there next season under Maynard, he's an excellent player. If I was Stott, I'd be trying to leave with him in the bag tonight. Notts' only good player IMO, Nemane a threat with his pace.