Boxing Day: - 26th December

[SaddlerJonny]

One player I'm a big fan of is Connor Barrett. Watched him a fair bit for Fylde in the NL and he was obviously way above that level.

Connor has been so, so good too. An upgrade in every regard on what we had last season. Got end product too, I think that's 6 assists now so far.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

After a typical Notts first half of lots of decent possession, lots of over/under hit crosses and not many shots we probably pulled out our best half of the season. Really good from Bass forwards.

Not seen Maynard’s interview but glad he’s finally definitely settled on playing everyone where they should be playing. Well done Stu.

 

[CTFCfan99]

Fantastic win for us today. Crewe had the better of the first half and would've led but for an outrageous goal line save from Joe Day.

Second half we started well before Crewe scored against the run of play, but credit to our lads who got right back at them and dominated the half from then on.

We look a good side nowadays which is incredible considering where we were in October.

Shoutout to the ref who I'm sure Crewe fans will agree was a complete moron and was guessing for every decision he made. Just a good job none of them affected the result.

 

[Coalite]

And on the subject of goals - congrats to Andy Cook on netting his 100th ELF goal, 77 of which are for us. Moves into third in our all-time scorer charts.

Cook's model low key consistency in L2 deserves a bit more recognition outside of Bradford really. Likely he'll have a decent chance to add to his tally at the weekend too.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

We are the definition of a one man team. Best number 9 in the league no doubt. Constantly up there every season and is likely to win the golden boot for a second time in three seasons.

 

[AlanPep]

Think we’re about 5 wins away from safety and a decent start to life in the EFL. Being able to say that before 2025 is better than expected. Woody is doing a cracking job for us, long may it last

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Todays loss was richly deserved and all on the manager. We were good first half and poor second half but you don't start tinkering and trying to sit back with over half an hour to go. I get Powell was never playing a full 90 so was always coming off but why the unnecessary tinkering? Also why are we obsessed with playing for 1-0s? It's not sustainable in this league even if we've rode our luck at times.

Hopefully that loss suddenly stops us from playing not to lose rather than playing to win. Fair play to Cheltenham. Very committed and well organised side and deserved to win the game no complaints. One of those games where we decided to snatch defeat despite being in a good position to win the game. Onwards to Saturday.

Also, our midfield is an aberration and needs sorting out. I can forgive a rusty Powell not at 100% match sharpness yet but I can't forgive constant no shows from Joel Tabiner almost every game of late, I can't forgive the lack of balance the midfield has and I certainly can't forgive the lack of a ball winning midfielder in the side given our only one at the club now probably won't play again until 2026 if the worst is confirmed. It needs addressing in January or teams will play through us with ease.

 

[dannyc5]

Todays loss was richly deserved and all on the manager. We were good first half and poor second half but you don't start tinkering and trying to sit back with over half an hour to go. I get Powell was never playing a full 90 so was always coming off but why the unnecessary tinkering? Also why are we obsessed with playing for 1-0s? It's not sustainable in this league even if we've rode our luck at times.

Hopefully that loss suddenly stops us from playing not to lose rather than playing to win. Fair play to Cheltenham. Very committed and well organised side and deserved to win the game no complaints. One of those games where we decided to snatch defeat despite being in a good position to win the game. Onwards to Saturday.

Also, our midfield is an aberration and needs sorting out. I can forgive a rusty Powell not at 100% match sharpness yet but I can't forgive constant no shows from Joel Tabiner almost every game of late, I can't forgive the lack of balance the midfield has and I certainly can't forgive the lack of a ball winning midfielder in the side given our only one at the club now probably won't play again until 2026 if the worst is confirmed. It needs addressing in January or teams will play through us with ease.

Bell puts absolutely no emphasis on the midfield. They have no incentive to try and control a game. We try and keep a clean sheet and nick a goal on the break. The midfield is essentially bypassed. It mostly works for us, but I find it pretty tedious.

 

[Moonie]

I don't even like football anyway.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Clear gaps opening up between bottom half, top half and then Walsall. Looks like a 6-7 team shootout for the other two auto spots (I don’t include us in that). Nice to get a narrow win today because we have 4 tough matches coming up, 3 of them against fellow top halfers.

Improved second half today but we created very little up front. Oh for a decent striker and a fit Charles Vernam. The good thing is we have a decent set of midfielders with different abilities, it’s just finding the right system each game. Jayden Luker is a good player will feature in a higher league next season - not tearing it up each week but he’s getting better and better.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Stiffed out of 3 points by poor ref again. Anyway decent enough set of results.

You’re kidding re the poor ref? I thought she was excellent apart from the indecision at the end re “the goal”. I would have been disappointed if we had scored that goal and it had been disallowed, however, it would have been daylight robbery as I thought we were by far the better side. That’s 4 points against 2 playoff chasers in the last 2 games for us which gives a reason for optimism

 

[Si Robin]

Fantastic win for us today. Crewe had the better of the first half and would've led but for an outrageous goal line save from Joe Day.

Second half we started well before Crewe scored against the run of play, but credit to our lads who got right back at them and dominated the half from then on.

We look a good side nowadays which is incredible considering where we were in October.

Shoutout to the ref who I'm sure Crewe fans will agree was a complete moron and was guessing for every decision he made. Just a good job none of them affected the result.

Basically this.

The save from Day has to be seen to be believed - absolutely out of this World.

We're not exciting by any stretch of the imagination, but we're functional and bloody hard to beat. I fancy us in any game at the moment against anyone - except maybe Walsall.

 

[Optipez]

Think we’re about 5 wins away from safety and a decent start to life in the EFL. Being able to say that before 2025 is better than expected. Woody is doing a cracking job for us, long may it last

I thought you'd be okay, Woodman is a canny operator. The league's that tight that play offs aren't beyond you on current form.

 

[RavenBish]

We're not exciting by any stretch of the imagination, but we're functional and bloody hard to beat. I fancy us in any game at the moment against anyone - except maybe Walsall.

A brave comment to make 3 days before the Magpies come to town

 

[ROVERS⚽️]

Definitely would prefer both Sharp and Ironside to start I just don’t think we have the right combination of players in midfield to make it work against a team like Walsall. I hope I’m completely wrong but I just haven’t seen us play well enough this season, we seem to be missing a spark.

Well, home win was correct. We created only a few chances, better team won. Definitely feel we are missing that spark, swapping and changing personal doesn’t help. Big game for us Sunday now, Colchester got a great result today!.

 

[saddler78]

Basically this.

The save from Day has to be seen to be believed - absolutely out of this World.

We're not exciting by any stretch of the imagination, but we're functional and bloody hard to beat. I fancy us in any game at the moment against anyone - except maybe Walsall.

Flynn will do that for you but whether he can take a team any further remains to be seen
Decent guy though glad to see him doing well at the moment

 

[JJ1990]

Cheltenham fans won't see it this way as I expect, but we basically handed them the game with an utterly bizarre tactical switch. We were deservedly leading after having the better of the chances up until that point, but the management decided to switch from a 3-5-2 which was working well to a 4-3-3, which was baffling in so many regards. Williams at LB, why? Tracey on the LW, why? Conway in midfield, why? Lankester on the RW, why?

I get Powell needed to come off and I get they might have been worried about Holicek being on a yellow. But just bring on Lunt or Breckin and keep it the same. It made no sense at the time and it makes no sense now. The tactical switch handed all the momentum to Cheltenham and no surprise that both their goals came down our weakened left hand side.

We saw baffling switches cost us against Walsall and now again today. So frustrating. Fair play to Cheltenham, they battled back well and deserved in the end. But this was far more about us gifting the points away than them earning them.

 

[Bianconeri 1862]

I did some research and although they do it's significantly less than over 30s. Which should surprise everybody nobody.

Sports fishing at it's finest

 

[Meadow]

You’re kidding re the poor ref? I thought she was excellent apart from the indecision at the end re “the goal”. I would have been disappointed if we had scored that goal and it had been disallowed, however, it would have been daylight robbery as I thought we were by far the better side. That’s 4 points against 2 playoff chasers in the last 2 games for us which gives a reason for optimism

She did okay. I wondered why she disallowed the goal but watching back in tandem with a couple explanations from qualified referees I understand. She could have been a bit quicker though.

When I saw that we had a female ref, I did worry about the reaction if she made a "wrong" decision. As it was, our lot realised that they couldn't use the same abuse that they dish out to male refs and kept to "we always get shit refs" and booing a few times.

 

[Crewelad87]

Completely on Bell today that was. Up until he changed formation needlessly it was a pretty perfect away performance. Just made no sense to go to 4 at the back and to play our best left back in midfield when we've got adequate midfielders on the bench. Just hope he learns from that one today.

Credit to Cheltenham though, they capitalised on it well, and we're by far the better team afterwards.

 

[valefan16]

Wondergoal Adjudication Panel have regrettably denied this status as a ‘wonder hit’ on the basis the keeper got a full hand on it and should have saved it, upon review it has been downgraded to ‘well struck’

To be fair Tom Pope is on x being very critical of Ripley for that goal and looking back he probably should save it comfortably, it seems to go straight through his full hand. It doesn’t lob him and goes straight through him. He’s had some great games lately but has made a few costly errors this season.

 

[jacobncfc]

It’s obviously a cracking hit either way, but the ‘keeper should definitely be saving it.

 

[saddler78]

Completely on Bell today that was. Up until he changed formation needlessly it was a pretty perfect away performance. Just made no sense to go to 4 at the back and to play our best left back in midfield when we've got adequate midfielders on the bench. Just hope he learns from that one today.

Credit to Cheltenham though, they capitalised on it well, and we're by far the better team afterwards.

Playing for draws away from home instead of going for it? That’s how it looked against us mate tbh with you.

 

[Moonie]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1872316700286455954

 

[Limerick Mariner]

You’re kidding re the poor ref? I thought she was excellent apart from the indecision at the end re “the goal”. I would have been disappointed if we had scored that goal and it had been disallowed, however, it would have been daylight robbery as I thought we were by far the better side. That’s 4 points against 2 playoff chasers in the last 2 games for us which gives a reason for optimism

Don’t you know that we don’t count as proper playoff chasers - look at our goal difference. We are interlopers, over achieving relegation candidates, squeezing in a single goal win every other week to break up our regular thrashings.

Our main objective for this sesason is to annoy Notts County fans by occasionally being above them in the table. Oh and also create chatter amongst Stockport fans about the many attributes of David Artell.

 

[Super_horns]

Not seen our disallowed goal back so don't know if it should've been given. Anyway Swindon deserved a point at least. A bit odd having a female ref today but I guess there is no reason why not. I thought she was poor second half but no worse than a lot of the other lower league refs.

Seemed to be a “foul “ on the keeper and took a while for it to be ruled out ?

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

After a typical Notts first half of lots of decent possession, lots of over/under hit crosses and not many shots we probably pulled out our best half of the season. Really good from Bass forwards.

Not seen Maynard’s interview but glad he’s finally definitely settled on playing everyone where they should be playing. Well done Stu.

Also well done Stu for matching last season's total numbers of clean sheets (8) before the New Year.

The fans demanded vast improvement on that front and Part Time Stu delivered#radar

 

[Si Robin]

A brave comment to make 3 days before the Magpies come to town

Is it? I fancy us to win games, doesn't mean I'm expecting us to roll teams over, even those a massive 4 points ahead of us in the table.

We've lost twice in 15 games and have failed to score once since 28th September. We could well be set for a battering, but we've only lost by more than 1 goal once all season as well.

As I said, we're functional and battling - not overly exciting, but we score goals and go right to the end in every game.

 

[Scum.]

Well looks like we are heading for 6 defeats in a row to balance the universe.

 

[Optipez]

Is it? I fancy us to win games, doesn't mean I'm expecting us to roll teams over, even those a massive 4 points ahead of us in the table.

We've lost twice in 15 games and have failed to score once since 28th September. We could well be set for a battering, but we've only lost by more than 1 goal once all season as well.

As I said, we're functional and battling - not overly exciting, but we score goals and go right to the end in every game.

I think it will be a tough game for us. We've had a massive jump in performance levels the last two games but I'd not be unhappy with a draw.