Monday 7th & Saturday 12th October

[SuperHans]

Right then. Travelling up for this one on Saturday. Soon to be a sell out (20 odd tickets left I think) - so should be a good atmosphere.

Not really sure what to expect from County, Maynard probably has a different style to Williams and you’ve got that big lad Jatta up top.

Cook has a selection dilemma on his hands:
Oldaker or Fleck (or Banks or Metcalfe)
3 of Dobra, Berry, Colclough, Jacobs, Mandeville, Markanday or Madden
Grigg or Madden up top

Personally I would go:

Boot
Tanton Dunkley Araujo Gordon
Naylor Oldaker
Markanday Dobra Colclough
Grigg

Berry, Madden, Mandeville to come off the bench

 

[Son of Cod]

A notts mate said they’re only getting 900 or so? assuming away fans down the side next to the “old” away stand?

Glad it’s on tv though as a neutral, need a football fix with it being international weekend.

Yep they'll have got 999, that's the max there this season and yep in the side stand.

 

[DippyDon]

Saturday's game suddenly pales in comparison to the news that broke last night. I'd imagine that there will be some form of tribute pre-match, be that applause or silence, for the passing of George Baldock. While it's probably only Lewington of the playing staff that was here when George was, a lot of the staff would have known him and he was an extremely popular guy around the place.

As a result I really don't know what to expect from the game compared to this time yesterday. I'd like to think we can win and definitely thought that could be the case yesterday, but ultimately, I'm struggling to be motivated for it now.

Edit: Looks like there will be a 1 minute silence pre match, with a book of remembrance within the Box Office from tomorrow and flowers being accepted.

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

Due to the amount of injuries vale have got and nobody available to play wingback I can't see anything other than a 6 nil win for mk dons.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Yep they'll have got 999, that's the max there this season and yep in the side stand.

We've actually been given a little more than that figure having asked very politely. So a season record breaking away allocation expected#massive

Rumours of a complete sell out.

 

[FiRTHYY]

Tranmere away:

Slowly but surely getting bodies back from injury. That being said, Sarcevic is a couple of months away and Kelly is in a pot - Aden Baldwin back on the grass, could be back next week.

With Niall Bryne back, we’ve been able to revert back to 352.

GK: Sam Walker

CB: Chicke Diabete
CB: Niall Bryne
CB: Jack Shepherd

RWB: Jay Benn
LWB: Tyreik Wright

CM: Corry Evans
CM: Ritchie Smallwood
CM: Jamie Walker

ST: Andy Cook
ST: Tyler Smith

If Corry Evans is fit, he needs to be starting. It’s that simple. He’s only playing in this league because of his injury record. Kavanagh needs a goal but he doesn’t look like scoring - and I actually rate Tyler Smith.

Tranmere are yet to lose at home. Surprisingly, they’ve only scored 5 goals so far this season, conceding just 9. The first goal in this game is key.

180 tickets remaining - should be a sell out (1,700).

2-0 City

 

[Son of Cod]

We've actually been given a little more than that figure having asked very politely. So a season record breaking away allocation expected#massive

Rumours of a complete sell out.

It's like an old boy's club round your way. Have heard they are introducing a ticket exchange portal exclusively for fans of Notts, Mansfield and Chesterfield called the Guild Of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Supporters. Or GONADS for short.

 

[valefan16]

John and Byers out for weeks. Massive blow to us that.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Notts (H), in front of a sell out crowd.

There is absolutely no doubt that we will be up for this one. Many of the players have changed since that Wembley defeat, but the management is still the same, along with a number of key players (Dobra, Colclough, Mandeville, Oldaker) and we’ll be wanting to get one over on Notts more than ever here.

I just have a feeling we could run all over Notts, especially in the early exchanges and they may find it difficult adapting to a game they’re not used to as they dominate possession in virtually every game, but so do we, and I can’t see us allowing them that time & space to do what they normally do, especially with it being at our place in front of a sell out crowd that will be more than up for it for reasons already covered… will be interesting to see if they adapt their style coming here but something tells me they won’t.

In Notts favour, they have some excellent technicians who will capitalise if we don’t quite get our press/shape right, and they have the quality to cut us open there’s no doubt about that, and I’m sure they’ll be hoping to do that early doors to quieten the home crowd down and get a foothold. We need to avoid them settling into the game and ideally get an early goal and hopefully kick on from there.

My XI would be:

Boot
Tanton Dunkley Araujo Gordon
Oldaker Naylor
Markanday Dobra Colclough
Madden

Thompson (GK)
Daley-Campbell
Fleck
Banks
Mandeville
Berry
Grigg

That’s our first choice and best defence without a doubt, it just depends on Tanton’s fitness as he missed the Walsall game. Confident the other three will definitely be in. Oldaker & Naylor is first choice midfield currently too with Fleck still getting up to speed, and they’ve both been brilliant this season so hopefully a continuation of that. I want to see Naylor all over Crowley like a rash & I’m sure that’ll be one of his jobs out of possession.

The front 4 is more difficult to pick, but I’ve just gone with the three behind the striker that IMO are our best players in those areas. Colclough/Berry is a must on the left as we need that pace and directness on one side, with the skill/precision coming from Dobra & Markanday on the right. Madden & Grigg is currently still a toss up as to who gets the nod, but I’ve always had that feeling about Madden that he really thrives on the big occasion, so I’d chuck him in.

My feeling/prediction for the game is a strange one as I’m feeling confident that we’ll be up for it & turn up, but also wary because only a fool would ignore some of the quality Notts possess… and they’ve had the upper hand on us in recent previous meetings. There’s also that slight worry in the back of your mind that we may end up ‘too up for it’ and end up with a bloody man sent off or just never get going for whatever reason, so no score prediction from me for this one!

COYB!!

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

I wish Jeff King was still playing for you. He was Notts' MOTM in more than one past meeting.

We Heart Jeff

 

[OneDecentLester]

I wish Jeff King was still playing for you. He was Notts' MOTM in more than one past meeting.

We Heart Jeff

That bit at the end where I mentioned the worry of being a bit ‘too up for it’ was wrote very much with our Jeffery in mind.

That boy loved a red in a big game, had one away at Stockport too once. 0-2 up, completely in control… Jeff decided to go and slice their left back in half out of absolutely nowhere. Ended 2-2 with us clinging on for dear life at the end

 

[leedsvaliant]

John and Byers out for weeks. Massive blow to us that.

Disaster that is to be honest. Probably two of our best players and replacements will be square pegs in round holes.

Saturday just got a lot harder. And the games after that...

 

[jacobncfc]

Notts (H), in front of a sell out crowd.

There is absolutely no doubt that we will be up for this one. Many of the players have changed since that Wembley defeat, but the management is still the same, along with a number of key players (Dobra, Colclough, Mandeville, Oldaker) and we’ll be wanting to get one over on Notts more than ever here.

I just have a feeling we could run all over Notts, especially in the early exchanges and they may find it difficult adapting to a game they’re not used to as they dominate possession in virtually every game, but so do we, and I can’t see us allowing them that time & space to do what they normally do, especially with it being at our place in front of a sell out crowd that will be more than up for it for reasons already covered… will be interesting to see if they adapt their style coming here but something tells me they won’t.

In Notts favour, they have some excellent technicians who will capitalise if we don’t quite get our press/shape right, and they have the quality to cut us open there’s no doubt about that, and I’m sure they’ll be hoping to do that early doors to quieten the home crowd down and get a foothold. We need to avoid them settling into the game and ideally get an early goal and hopefully kick on from there.

My XI would be:

Boot
Tanton Dunkley Araujo Gordon
Oldaker Naylor
Markanday Dobra Colclough
Madden

Thompson (GK)
Daley-Campbell
Fleck
Banks
Mandeville
Berry
Grigg

That’s our first choice and best defence without a doubt, it just depends on Tanton’s fitness as he missed the Walsall game. Confident the other three will definitely be in. Oldaker & Naylor is first choice midfield currently too with Fleck still getting up to speed, and they’ve both been brilliant this season so hopefully a continuation of that. I want to see Naylor all over Crowley like a rash & I’m sure that’ll be one of his jobs out of possession.

The front 4 is more difficult to pick, but I’ve just gone with the three behind the striker that IMO are our best players in those areas. Colclough/Berry is a must on the left as we need that pace and directness on one side, with the skill/precision coming from Dobra & Markanday on the right. Madden & Grigg is currently still a toss up as to who gets the nod, but I’ve always had that feeling about Madden that he really thrives on the big occasion, so I’d chuck him in.

My feeling/prediction for the game is a strange one as I’m feeling confident that we’ll be up for it & turn up, but also wary because only a fool would ignore some of the quality Notts possess… and they’ve had the upper hand on us in recent previous meetings. There’s also that slight worry in the back of your mind that we may end up ‘too up for it’ and end up with a bloody man sent off or just never get going for whatever reason, so no score prediction from me for this one!

COYB!!

This is largely how I see it. Am expecting you to properly come after us early (a bit like the PO final really), and then the game is set by whether you can score at least one in that time. We’ve got much stronger as games have gone on this season (we’ve only conceded one second half goal so far I think, and that inside thirty seconds of kick-off against Fleetwood), so I think we’d be more than happy to see out the first half an hour at 0-0 and then hope you’ve used up loads of energy and we can start controlling things. If we go behind then we’ve struggled to break good teams down in that situation already and you’re very nicely set to counter with pace.

We have dealt a lot better with a high press this season, though, to be fair to Maynard. It’s the low block that’s become his problem. Playing Crowley deeper has meant he can use his freakish ability to dribble and turn out of tight areas to get us out of trouble, and we’re fairly happy to go over the top for the massive Gambian to chase after.

I think it’ll be a good game, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if we got out of it with something.

 

[Conker]

Back to wishing our lower league Nottinghamshire neighbours well, last happened in the non-league play off final.

Good luck County!

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

I said I would have took 2 draws from the 2 away games against notts county and mk dons and we have 3 points so I'm not bothered if we get thrashed on Saturday. Your going end up with a 17 year old shorrock at wing back who is inexperienced and it's not his natural position. Basically Mitch Clarke, Sam Hart and Kyle John all wing backs out injured and 2 others that could have played there Dan Jones and James plant loaned out. George Byers our best player and Sheffield Wednesday fans saying he's too good to be playing is league 2 out injured. His replacement funso ojo loaned out to Shrewsbury. Disaster probably going drop from being around 5th to 12th due to injuries. Mk Dons are in a false position aswell so there season will kick start now they arnt going slack off and take it easy against a injured hit team, they thrashed Harrogate 5 1 last week so are well capable of putting plenty of goals away. The object for me has got to be avoid a hammering, got a plus 3 goal difference if that isn't minus 1 or worse after Saturdays match then it's not to bad. It's just what we do after that as these players are still going be out going into the next 4 or 5 games.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Back to wishing our lower league Nottinghamshire neighbours well, last happened in the non-league play off final.

Good luck County!

Awww thanks Conks. Your best wishes worked wonders that day and gave 23,000 Pies one of their finest days at a fan. A playoff final win at Wembley is always special in any league.

This game, not so important. Would take another 1-1 after 90 mins but I don't think we'll handle the opposition's intensity. Would love to see McGoldrick and Jatta start together , no defence is going to like that at this level, but that is very unlikely for a couple of reasons.

 

[spireite]

Sad to be missing this one, think it'll be a good atmosphere. Will be catching it on the box.

Awww thanks Conks.

 

[valefan16]

I said I would have took 2 draws from the 2 away games against notts county and mk dons and we have 3 points so I'm not bothered if we get thrashed on Saturday. Your going end up with a 17 year old shorrock at wing back who is inexperienced and it's not his natural position. Basically Mitch Clarke, Sam Hart and Kyle John all wing backs out injured and 2 others that could have played there Dan Jones and James plant loaned out. George Byers our best player and Sheffield Wednesday fans saying he's too good to be playing is league 2 out injured. His replacement funso ojo loaned out to Shrewsbury. Disaster probably going drop from being around 5th to 12th due to injuries. Mk Dons are in a false position aswell so there season will kick start now they arnt going slack off and take it easy against a injured hit team, they thrashed Harrogate 5 1 last week so are well capable of putting plenty of goals away. The object for me has got to be avoid a hammering, got a plus 3 goal difference if that isn't minus 1 or worse after Saturdays match then it's not to bad. It's just what we do after that as these players are still going be out going into the next 4 or 5 games.

We've got a big enough and good enough squad we should be able to cope, not deal and our stellar man fracturing his leg isn't great but we beat County without him, John is a problem although sounds like Sam Hart is training so hopefully close to a return but I would be looking at bringing Connor Grant out the cold and putting him left back, he had a poor season last year but won L1 the year before so clearly has something about him.

There is no excuses for Saturday with the squad and budget we have not to put in a very competitive performance, if we want promotion we will have periods where we have to cope without certain players.

 

[Cloudy]

Seems several clubs have extensive injury lists in League 2. It appears far worse than ‘normal’? Wonder why? Training methods, sports science investment not keeping pace? Seems lots of pulls and tears rather than broken bones.

Grimsby now have both Senior keepers out, Tharme coming back as Atkinson is suspended. Thompson not played yet and now a further set back, Green out for a few weeks,and he has been excellent thus far. Vernam out until the new year and doubtful Davies will see much action before Christmas. The lesser spotted Pyke has been seen of late but not sure he is really fit yet. Two loanees brought in on deadline day and neither made a league start yet due to injury. Wilson fit one week then not the next. Rose missed the start and is struggling, imo, to get anywhere near the heights of last season.

 

[Son of Cod]

Seems several clubs have extensive injury lists in League 2. It appears far worse than ‘normal’? Wonder why? Training methods, sports science investment not keeping pace? Seems lots of pulls and tears rather than broken bones.

Grimsby now have both Senior keepers out, Tharme coming back as Atkinson is suspended. Thompson not played yet and now a further set back, Green out for a few weeks,and he has been excellent thus far. Vernam out until the new year and doubtful Davies will see much action before Christmas. The lesser spotted Pyke has been seen of late but not sure he is really fit yet. Two loanees brought in on deadline day and neither made a league start yet due to injury. Wilson fit one week then not the next. Rose missed the start and is struggling, imo, to get anywhere near the heights of last season.

Oh ffs. Haven't listened to Artell's pre-match this week, what's happened with Thompson and Green?

 

[Limerick Mariner]

Seems several clubs have extensive injury lists in League 2. It appears far worse than ‘normal’? Wonder why? Training methods, sports science investment not keeping pace? Seems lots of pulls and tears rather than broken bones.

Grimsby now have both Senior keepers out, Tharme coming back as Atkinson is suspended. Thompson not played yet and now a further set back, Green out for a few weeks,and he has been excellent thus far. Vernam out until the new year and doubtful Davies will see much action before Christmas. The lesser spotted Pyke has been seen of late but not sure he is really fit yet. Two loanees brought in on deadline day and neither made a league start yet due to injury. Wilson fit one week then not the next. Rose missed the start and is struggling, imo, to get anywhere near the heights of last season.

Green injured yesterday then? Not mentioned in the DA interview yesterday - all the talk about him was his no. of yellow cards.

 

[Stocky]

Seems several clubs have extensive injury lists in League 2. It appears far worse than ‘normal’? Wonder why? Training methods, sports science investment not keeping pace? Seems lots of pulls and tears rather than broken bones.

Grimsby now have both Senior keepers out, Tharme coming back as Atkinson is suspended. Thompson not played yet and now a further set back, Green out for a few weeks,and he has been excellent thus far. Vernam out until the new year and doubtful Davies will see much action before Christmas. The lesser spotted Pyke has been seen of late but not sure he is really fit yet. Two loanees brought in on deadline day and neither made a league start yet due to injury. Wilson fit one week then not the next. Rose missed the start and is struggling, imo, to get anywhere near the heights of last season.

Sports Science has never been more developed. The pitches are miles better and there is less physical contact, hard tackles being much severley punished etc.

But undoubetdly, there are more injuries in modern football. The Premier League teams have lots of injuries when you look so it's not the quality in sports science.

I've been racking my brains on this issue for a couple of years now as we've suffered heavily from injuries over the past couple of seasons and one of my thoughts is that the strength and conditioning is tailored to turn the modern player into very good athletes (which they successfully do- the game has never been faster, the players are more dynamic)

However, this leads them to being like finely tuned cars. When they're 100% they run like a dream. But the moment something goes wrong, they're in the garage for weeks because it's harder to get them back up such a high quality standard.

A minor hamstring injury in old money, players would just play after a couple of weeks when the pain went away. Now it's all about "getting back on the grass", then "back training with the group" and box ticking until the player is 100%. This puts a fairly basic hamstring injury as always being like 4-6 weeks now.

So if anything, I would say the introduction of sports science at these levels has increased injury time periods. I get the argument it is probably better for players in later life etc particularly with knees and ankles etc.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Great, the exact same ref from the play off final who bottled Slocombe’s sending off in the first 5 minutes which would have most likely seen us through that day…

Apparently same one we had earlier in that season against Notts at our place too… who sent Jeff King off

Couldn’t make it up…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844351059206209944

https://x.com/bbcrns/status/1844351059206209944?s=46&t=fapFreRGBdG6lEkcE46Blw

 

[OneDecentLester]

Anyway in other news for us from Cooks presser. Cook has confirmed Fleck has picked up a minor hamstring injury so that knocks him back another few weeks. We’re going to need to be very patient with him I think and get him up to speed gradually without pushing too hard. Cooks already confirmed he’s got an adapted training programme that includes training early in the week, but then massively easing off at the back end of the week ahead of a game.

Cooks also said we have a couple of other players out of tomorrows game but hasn’t confirmed who, so will see the impact of that at 11:30am tomorrow

 

[jacobncfc]

Great, the exact same ref from the play off final who bottled Slocombe’s sending off in the first 5 minutes which would have most likely seen us through that day…

Apparently same one we had earlier in that season against Notts at our place too… who sent Jeff King off

Couldn’t make it up…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844351059206209944

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844351059206209944

To be fair, literally no one appealed for a red at the time because no one knew that was a rule. You could’ve had 100 different refs there I reckon and struggle to find one who’s pulling out a red for that in the first few mins of a play-off final, letter of the law or not haha. Not a great day for ‘keepers, was it?

The King red was a stonewall second yellow as well from memory. He reffed that pretty well not for it to end up nine a side, that was a really nasty, bitty game of football.

 

[We Are Sailing]

To be fair, literally no one appealed for a red at the time because no one knew that was a rule. You could’ve had 100 different refs there I reckon and struggle to find one who’s pulling out a red for that in the first few mins of a play-off final, letter of the law or not haha. Not a great day for ‘keepers, was it?

The King red was a stonewall second yellow as well from memory. He reffed that pretty well not for it to end up nine a side, that was a really nasty, bitty game of football.

You have some odd takes, but that is right up there with the best of them. No one knew that was a rule? Haha.

 

[jacobncfc]

You have some odd takes, but that is right up there with the best of them. No one knew that was a rule? Haha.

I’ve never seen another goalkeeper pick up their own goal kick before or since, let alone get sent off for it. The fuck was I meant to know!?

 

[1862]

Yeah absolutely no expectation of a result here, especially given the way we've played against good teams recently. Still, going to head down to the Nest hopefully, not tried that for an away game yet.

I’ve never seen another goalkeeper pick up their own goal kick before or since, let alone get sent off for it. The fuck was I meant to know!?

Yeah if I ever see it again I'll be surprised. Didn't know that was the rule until a couple of days after the game I think. If he had been sent off Mair would have come on, saved the penalty and we win 1-0 anyway, that's how it works imo

 

[OneDecentLester]

Lads, you do realise it’s literally a referees job to know the rules don’t you?

Whether we as fans know it or not is irrelevant

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Lads, you do realise it’s literally a referees job to know the rules don’t you?

Whether we as fans know it or not is irrelevant

Yeah but not everyone is good at their job.

As for Jeff King getting sent off earlier that season, fully deserved. Reckless and needless, classic Jeff.

Sure helped us win at your place although naturally in another game chesterfield dominated

Thank you Jeff.