Thursday 22nd & Saturday 24th August

[OneDecentLester]

Yeah Notts look ridiculously open to be counter attacked. I can see more Grimsby goals but… I can also see more Notts goals

 

[pontoonlew]

Comfortably the worst 45 mins of officiating I’ve seen against us in years. I don’t even think this game is over yet either

 

[Son of Cod]

I'm glad we've been well and truly battered because that Crowley goal was scandalous and Jones accidental stunner would have had me in a rage if they didn't deserve to be about 5-0 up. How the fuck we're still just about in this is pretty bonkers. Notts have been quality.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

The ball in from Crowley for the first goal deserved two assists.

Thing of beauty and should be banned from 4th tier footy

 

[1862]

Just reminding me of Bradford last season, also on Sky - we were 4 up at half time and the second half was still horrible. I think we'll need to score again...

 

[GTFCfish]

I'm glad we've been well and truly battered because that Crowley goal was scandalous and Jones accidental stunner would have had me in a rage if they didn't deserve to be about 5-0 up. How the fuck we're still just about in this is pretty bonkers. Notts have been quality.

Completely agree yet we still should’ve scored 3 ourselves too, this is gonna finish about 5-2 or 6-3 or something as we’ve definitely still got goals in us but every time Notts put a cross in they look like scoring.
Such a flat away end now too I’d happily just fuck off right now but the kids want to stay.

 

[Stocky]

Crowley different class.

Ref horrendous.

 

[GTFCfish]

Crowley different class.

Ref horrendous.

I’m guessing that’s the guy who keeps twisting and turning on the edge of our box?

 

[OneDecentLester]

I’m guessing that’s the guy who keeps twisting and turning on the edge of our box?

Why’s no one nailed him yet? He’s taking piss. 5/6 touches every single time he has ball. Needs a good old school league 2 smash… Green looks the type

 

[Son of Cod]

Why’s no one nailed him yet? He’s taking piss. 5/6 touches every single time he has ball. Needs a good old school league 2 smash… Green looks the type

Green is definitely the type, he doesn't really look himself tonight. Think he's a bit bewildered by the touching of the ball that Notts are doing. Curtis Thompson would also be in charge of smashing them but he's out injured.

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Hes been running the show, but I think town have left him to his own devices and not closing down enough, tight enough. I agree with OneDecentLester, a good old smash should do the trick.

 

[Luke Imp]

The cross for the first deserved a goal, even if it was offside. Baffling how the ref missed the handball(s) for the second, though, he was looking right at it!

Bizarrely, I don't think Grimsby have offered too much threat and been pretty poor really but you feel as though Notts are the kinda side that will let you back into it - do their defenders always mistime the bounce on headers?

 

[クレイグ]

Wish our football was as attractive as Notts'.

 

[kieran_vale]

Aye must admit it's quite pleasing on the eye unless you're an opposition fan I guess.

And that's game over, fortunate goal but it had been coming.

 

[1862]

This is surely all the luck we will get all season so if anything I'm a bit annoyed.

FFS

 

[jacobncfc]

Aye must admit it's quite pleasing on the eye unless you're an opposition fan I guess.

And that's game over, fortunate goal but it had been coming.

We’ve been the most entertaining team in the country for like three years as a purely neutral watcher probably. It does go wrong and has gone wrong on a fairly regular basis but it’s never boring.

 

[leedsvaliant]

A few observations:

-Notts look excellent going forward, as good as you see at this level. Their pressing and workrate has been unbelievable at times.
- Where has this Crowley come from? There seemed to be no fanfare about him but he looks like a Championship player
- Having said that, why are Grimsby not putting a man on him? He's got all the time in the world to face the goal and run at the defence.
- Why the fuck do Notts do that play out from the back thing? They've nearly been caught out half a dozen times! Asking for trouble.
- Grimsby look OK in spells but their defending as a unit looks awful.
-Notts look vulnerable to balls in the air

 

[Grimsby Road]

Crowley & Jones are too good for league 2 , I thought that last season aswell so Notts need to hang onto them at all costs .

Artells Variant of 'art form ' worries me because this is far from that from us , no doubt he will blame the ref and point to 'data' .

The ref has been bad but not a homer , they are as bad for all teams down here so it will even itself out and we will get some dodgy decisions in other games no doubt .

 

[Grimsby Road]

A few observations:

-Notts look excellent going forward, as good as you see at this level. Their pressing and workrate has been unbelievable at times.
- Where has this Crowley come from? There seemed to be no fanfare about him but he looks like a Championship player
- Having said that, why are Grimsby not putting a man on him? He's got all the time in the world to face the goal and run at the defence.
- Why the fuck do Notts do that play out from the back thing? They've nearly been caught out half a dozen times! Asking for trouble.
- Grimsby look OK in spells but their defending as a unit looks awful.
-Notts look vulnerable to balls in the air

Artells idea was to not practice defending until 4 days before the season started because they 'already get it ' make of that what you will.

 

[Gladders]

No doubt Notts were better, and Crowley and Jones ran the game, but better teams than us will punish that defence, they don't seem to have addressed it from last season looking at that. We made it easy for them tonight with poor decisions and poor touches when we had chances.

But going forward they are quality.

 

[kieran_vale]

Good marker laid down by Notts there, impressive from them. Think Grimsby need to find more prescence in midfield based on that tonight.

 

[Conker]

I cannot get over how bad Grimsby kit was.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

A few observations:

-Notts look excellent going forward, as good as you see at this level. Their pressing and workrate has been unbelievable at times.
- Where has this Crowley come from? There seemed to be no fanfare about him but he looks like a Championship player
- Having said that, why are Grimsby not putting a man on him? He's got all the time in the world to face the goal and run at the defence.
- Why the fuck do Notts do that play out from the back thing? They've nearly been caught out half a dozen times! Asking for trouble.
- Grimsby look OK in spells but their defending as a unit looks awful.
-Notts look vulnerable to balls in the air

I can answer that.... David Artell. Should come as no surprise really as he decides to let Jodi Jones have the freedom of the Cleethorpes last season where he supplied 4 or was it 5 goals last season at BP.

No wonder MK Dons are interested in Crowley and others are likely sniffing around JJ in case he doesn't extend his contract. Masterclass from both albeit against very generous and limited opposition.

 

[Youpies]

Crowley adding £££s to his price tag tonight. Just pay the man what he wants for a contract Notts

Deserved to win. Offside looks marginal to me, if it's off it's a foot or a hand type of offside

A much, much improved performance from Sunday. Edwards putting in a right shift. Moving the ball faster with more purpose

Defence still looks dodgy to me. The open nature of our game will always put us at risk of a counter.

Don't know what to make of Grimsby. Not what I was expecting from them

 

[jacobncfc]

Thought we were great, we’ll still concede a decent amount but it’s not quite the disaster zone it was last season, and we’re just outrageous going forward when we get on top. Crowley and Jones should be nowhere near this level.

Grimsby were admittedly very poor, lambs to the slaughter playing like that against us.

 

[LS Bantam]

Last weekend we had our goal not given because all of the officials failed to spot the ball being miles over the line, tonight we have a LeBron James tribute act assist let go (to name just one example) that helps determine the match; it’s fine to say Notts deserved the win/the lead at that point but not when you’re at match fixing levels of ineptitude from the referee, L2 football is well and truly back.

 

[RavenBish]

Good performance that, we’re obviously an iteration of the team last year rather than a different team

we obviously play a risky game with men ahead of the ball and stuff but people who think we’re ’wide open on the counter’ are oversimplifying it, felt like the back 3 defended space on breaks superbly, just a couple of occasions where a midfielder didn’t fill in (which I ultimately think is the risk/reward of playing Crowley in the midfield 2 as he has no interest in defending)

I’m far more concerned about us not winning first contact at set pieces and conceding that way again than I am about the above

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

I think it being on Thursday will knock quite a few off the overall gate. Will be lucky if there are 1000 Town there I think with the trains also not providing a way back. Must be plenty of out town Notts fans that won't be going either. I'm saying about 8500 in total, which is about 4500 down on last year's fixture.

Completely agree that we mixed it up well for large parts of the Cheltenham game, so if we can find that balance between nice passing and moving and being a bit more direct then we should cause them problems.

8500

Thursday night football, on Sky Sports and during the dreaded summer holidays and the attendance was over 10,000.

Obviously only 8684 were actually in attendance due to 'no shows'.

 

[1862]

Crowley just lucky tonight. Definitely not worth a look before the end of the window.

I'm far more concerned about us not winning first contact at set pieces and conceding that way again than I am about the above

Yeah, if we can cut that sort of goal out (the first on Saturday as well), we can live with the goals where we get caught out on the break. I do think we've set up for Grimsby tonight and we can go with a much more solid team in games that don't play their style.

 

[Optipez]

We had a bit of luck and there were a few times where we were three on three in defence but Robertson going off as our holding midfielder didn't help with defensive shape.
We did play some good stuff going forwards though, Jatta now 8 from 11 and new players look like they've got improvement in them, so a good night for us.
Didn't think Grimsby were as bad as the scoreline but we had a stronger bench and a bigger budget and it showed in the end.