The both got bored of Derry hoofball Derby! CUFC vs NCFC

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Massive game for us this if we are intending to have any form of promotion push. The lack of urgency in our play and unsettled team which seems to be picked out of a tombola in recent weeks leaves me not feeling too optimistic.

Hopefully we pick something which vaguely resembles a midfield and not a mismatch of luxury players players and give you a game. Will be making the journey tonight in hope of a result not been to Cambridge since the season you got relegated just one of those fixtures which always seemed to crop up on the one Saturday of football season I had something else on!

 

[LongEatonPie]

in my eyes a make or break fixture for Notts.
Anything less than a win and we are losing ground big time. Having gone from 4-5 points clear of 4th to trailing them by 4 means that a defeat tonight will be a massive dent in the top three challenge.

We have heard many times now from KN that he is “looking for a response” after a poor result. Was the 0-0 at Newport a poor result!
With the talk of Ranger possibly being signed we really are clutching at straws for an attack! We never done well against Cams bridge for a while plus they have won the last 2.

We need a win but I actually see a defeat!

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

If we sign Nile Ranger i would seriously question the decision making at the club. Anyone whose criminal history bio is longer than their football bio isn't worth signing in my book.

 

[LongEatonPie]

Agreed, surely there is someone else, loans are ok till mid March? I think? We just need a McGregor type player on loan.

 

[Habbinalan]

With County's away record and recent form, this probably looks the "easier" of our next 5 games - all against top 6 opposition. I'm expecting a loss.

I'm not optimistic about getting points from any of them but L2 being what it is, we can probably count on 1 or 2 teams helping our cause provided we offer a semblance of mistake free defence and goal scoring threat. Perhaps Mr Nolan will find a way of gifting us something.

I expect County to push for the win and us to aim to stifle, either with 2 holding midfield or the notorious diamond, before releasing the Amoo to generate some width at some stage in the second half. Perhaps Joe Dunne will feel able to go for it from the start but I doubt it. He and we all know that our defence needs significant protection from Deegan plus 1 if we are to keep the score line down to 1 or 2 against top 6 opposition.

No experience of Joe Dunne's honesty in the sick reports but I'm inclined to believe him. Maris and Corr are apparently out. Leon and Jabo are on the way back, as is Piero. My starting selection, for what it's worth:

Forde
Halliday, Taft, Taylor, Dunk
Deegan, O'Neil
Amoo, Waters, Brown
Ikpeazu

Subs: Mitov, Carroll, Legge, Lewis, Phillips, Elito? nah Mingoia (on crutches), Ibehre

Anything other than a defeat will be a plus on the Dunne/Bonner report card. I'm hoping for a 2-2, would settle for 0-0 but expecting a 1-3 in front of a decent crowd for a Tuesday night - perhaps 3,950 with 320 travelling 'Pies?

 

[Tom_CUFC]

This is the most confident I am for a game out of the next 5 for sure, our home record this season is actually really good, only 3 defeats and 4 draws from 17 competitive games, and with Notts having only won 2 away games since the end of September (only one in the league), then we should really be targeting a win. Having said that though, we have still not been quite so good against the better teams at home out of that lot, with the win over Coventry being the only real one of note, losing to Wycombe and drawing with Accrington, Mansfield and Lincoln.

Think will go with the diamond again but only because of injuries, dilemma the same as before in that through having to play Dunk at left back we don't have anyone to fill in properly on the left hand side of midfield. If Amoo is going to start one of the next two though I'd rather it was tonight (better pitch).

2-1 Cambridge.

 

[Vanni]

Midweek game so that means I won't be there, but hopefully I'll take my usual place in the faux Habbin (iFollow). Such a shame as I'm well aware that watching a midweek game under our famous floodlights is a life changing experience akin to conquering Mt. Everest or something

I really don't have a clue on tonights game, in that I wouldn't be surprised by whatever the outcome is going to be. We've got a half decent home record and Notts don't have such a great away record so we can win this. OTOH, I reckon they'll be much more up for it as let's face it, we don't have anything to play for except pride while they're still in the mix for the autos. Plus, we're not managed by Derry anymore - I always felt like Notts will never beat us while he's the manager. Perhaps we could tempt him to manage the side just for tonight

With that in mind, I'll go for a draw, probably a 1-1 as I don't see us keeping a clean sheet. One thing I'm sure of though is that Don E will feature at some point tonight, and I'm also sure this won't go down too well with at least 3300 of the 3600 home fans in attendance. Better him than Philips IMO. I can't wait for his debut album to drop if I'm honest. Proper music and heartfelt lyrics I reckon

 

[Habbinalan]

.......... Better him than Philips IMO. I can't wait for his debut album to drop if I'm honest. Proper music and heartfelt lyrics I reckon

I'm sure Adam Phillips agrees - not a patch on Piero's classic offering..... or his alter ego disguise.

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

How long will we last until the traditional Cambridge away goalkeeping calamity curse strikes?

 

[Indian Dan]

Agreed, surely there is someone else, loans are ok till mid March? I think? We just need a McGregor type player on loan.

Can only sign out of contract players now. He’s class, for sure, but a total knobhead

 

[LongEatonPie]

We are so unlucky - not to have been thumped!

 

[Youpies]

Absolute dross being served up by us right now. Terrible January business has done us in

 

[AdamStag]

Enthusiastically enjoyed in north Nottinghamshire

 

[Optipez]

This last three months is our true level, we played out of our skins 'til Christmas.
We're short on pace, have to rotate because we are carrying crocks, Yates hasn't been replaced adequately and Nolan has to take some blame as the football has been poor to atrocious most of the season and in open play we create little more than nothing.
We were playing with massive hearts, covering our deficiencies but the belief has just gone now and I'm not sure how Nolan gets that back without a rebuild.

 

[Vanni]

Take a bow Don E. What a player

 

[jacobncfc]

Nolan deserves credit for what he's done so far, but his decisions, both in terms of team selections/tactics and in the transfer market, since the turn of the year have been nothing short of bizarre.

Why he's decided to change our formation, half of the team and the general style of our football at the start of January when we were comfortably in an automatic promotion spot I am never going to get my head around.

 

[Habbinalan]

Take a bow Don E. What a player

(In my defence, I was only one out in my 320 forecast of visitor numbers)

I've always respected your judgement on most things. Mine is frequently influenced by tangential issues and prejudices. He was excellent tonight, even without his goal. His was the 1st minute tackle that gave away the early corner as he covered for Brad and his contribution was key to the first half dominance.

Everyone was excellent. Pity we couldn't make more of the second half opportunities on the break but luckily County proved to be more toothless than they were in the reverse fixture.

With County's away record and recent form, this probably looks the "easier" of our next 5 games - all against top 6 opposition. I'm expecting a loss.

I'm not optimistic about getting points from any of them but L2 being what it is, we can probably count on 1 or 2 teams helping our cause provided we offer a semblance of mistake free defence and goal scoring threat. Perhaps Mr Nolan will find a way of gifting us something.

Now a more cavalier soul than myself might be suggesting that those 5 games include at least a couple of 6 pointers and, with the first one out of the way, we only need a couple of decent results on the next 2 saturdays and the visit of Swindon could be the key to both our seasons. I prefer to enjoy one match at a time and take the results as they come. Looking forward to the CUFC Trophy decider already. Fickle soul aren't I?

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Nolan and his experiment have ruined our chance of going up. Doubt we will even make the play offs we are absolutely awful. Husin Noble simply aren't good enough and Grant doesn't look like he cares. Nolan is persistently playing 4-5-1 despite 4-4-2 working well for all season until his daft experiemrnt meant we capitulated.

We were a successful horrible long ball team which he has needlessly tinkered with and decimated. We had a settled well drilled team now we almost seem to have names picked out of a tombola most weeks.

 

[Conker]

Notts County fans seem intent on putting the majority of it all on Nolan, but I think a big problem is the fact that players are not good enough.

Optipez got it bang on in my opinion.

 

[jacobncfc]

Notts County fans seem intent on putting the majority of it all on Nolan, but I think a big problem is the fact that players are not good enough.

Optipez got it bang on in my opinion.

Maybe this is true and I think we were definitely overachieving a bit, but before Nolan decided to, in his words, ‘integrate a different type of player into the team’ before we played Exeter, we’d lost one game in three months and were maintaining a small gap on the teams behind us.

Maybe we’d run out of steam anyway and this would have happened either way - we’ll never know - but it seems pretty coincidental if so.

 

[Luke Imp]

Nolan deserves credit for what he's done so far, but his decisions, both in terms of team selections/tactics and in the transfer market, since the turn of the year have been nothing short of bizarre.

Why he's decided to change our formation, half of the team and the general style of our football at the start of January when we were comfortably in an automatic promotion spot I am never going to get my head around.

Cowley tried something similar earlier in the season with us (September time, IIRC) but swiftly reverted to what we as a squad know best.

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Cowley tried something similar earlier in the season with us (September time, IIRC) but swiftly reverted to what we as a squad know best.

It appears our manager is too arrogant at admit this experiment isn't working until it costs us our season.

 

[Davidimp]

An arrogant manager! We've had loads of them over the years.
Long way to go, plenty of twists and turns yet!

 

[AdamStag]

Maybe this is true and I think we were definitely overachieving a bit, but before Nolan decided to, in his words, ‘integrate a different type of player into the team’ before we played Exeter, we’d lost one game in three months and were maintaining a small gap on the teams behind us.

Maybe we’d run out of steam anyway and this would have happened either way - we’ll never know - but it seems pretty coincidental if so.

Maybe it's just you're on a poor run and its led to others catching up. Who's to say you won't then go on a good run and pull away again. There's only Luton who are head and shoulders above everyone else.

 

[Davidimp]

Been the case all season Luton are better than the rest of us. We've then ended with a group of 10 or so teams scrabbling for the other 6 places.

 

[Conker]

Been the case all season Luton are better than the rest of us. We've then ended with a group of 10 or so teams scrabbling for the other 6 places.

I would not say Wycombe, Accy and Mansfield are scrabbling.

 

[Indian Dan]

I would not say Wycombe, Accy and Mansfield are scrabbling.

Well, they are really. They are by no means certain to finish in the other 2 auto places. There’s only a gnat’s nob between 5 or 6 teams.

 

[Conker]

Well, they are really. They are by no means certain to finish in the other 2 auto places. There’s only a gnat’s nob between 5 or 6 teams.

Well it does not feel like Mansfield are to me, maybe i’m just too confident but I’m 100% sure we will easily finish in the play-offs, and I’m confident we can crack the top three too.

Lincoln for example are six points behind Mansfield, more than a gnat’s nob that.

 

[AdamStag]

Well, they are really. They are by no means certain to finish in the other 2 auto places. There’s only a gnat’s nob between 5 or 6 teams.

Any side goes on a run of few wins or losses and it's completely changed. Can't I think Accrington will go up

 

[Vanni]

I'm 99% positive that Mansfield will make the top 3. I made up my mind after that 0-0 draw at ours, as I thought at the time they had that look of a top 3 side - well drilled, disciplined all over the park, solid at the back, and the other signs the top 3 sides usually show.

OTOH, it's looking increasingly likely I was wrong on Coventry, as they were my pick for the autos together with Luton and Mansfield. But if I'm wrong on Cov, then last night's match told me I'm probably right in not picking Notts for the top 3. Just the one shot on target and a couple of blocked efforts is all they had, and that's simply not good enough for a side like theirs. But even if we disregard this - strikers can have an off day just like everybody else - their back line was all over the place and we could've made sure of the win even before the first 45 mins were over. Actually I was surprised by how fragile their whole defence looked.

Then again perhaps I'm being a bit unfair on the pies. I've always argued this season that we do have a decent side but Derry was holding it back (contrary to the 'Derry can't work miracles with a poorly assembled squad' argument that some U's fans believed) and so far the football has been much better under Dunne. Case in point was last nights, and the way the side kept on pushing after taking the lead. If Derry was still here I'm sure he would've looked to keep it tight once we took the lead.