Play Offs - You're having a laugh

[MAD_MAGPIE]

It has Joe but even you the eternal optimist with rose coloured spectacles can see we could be in danger of missing out. If that doesn't disappoint you then I think you would accept anything Notts do.

This is the thing for me. As much as I'd have taken 5th place by mid February and even a top ten finish at the start of the season it will be disappointing if we fail to make the top 7 after all the hard work of the first half of the season and the fact we've been in the top seven since the third game of the season on 19th August 2017 which is 6 months!

It's not worth getting downbeat about our recent form, we've just got to try and pick up starting at home to Stevenage on Saturday.

[pravda_plc]

I doubt very much that we will make the playoffs.

On current form and quality of performance, Mansfield, Luton, Wycombe and Accrington should dispatch us with ease. It's looking like yet another end of season unravelling for Notts.

The problem for me is where do we go next season? By my reckoning we have 13 players out of contract and 3 loan players who will return to their parent clubs. Will Hardy and Nolan learn from the mistakes of this season or will they assemble yet another team of owd 'uns, runners, grafters and 'good characters' etc.?

Let's be honest: the football we have played this season has - with a few exceptions - been very basic and at times no better than just plain old-fashioned hoofball. That's OK when you are winning on a regular basis but it won't tempt the punters to pay hard-earned cash to watch it when we start losing more than we win...

[Elite_Pie]

Will Hardy and Nolan learn from the mistakes of this season or will they assemble yet another team of owd 'uns, runners, grafters and 'good characters' etc.?

The thing is, in League 2 a team that are nothing more than "owd 'uns, runners, grafters and 'good characters'" often get promoted. The team at the top usually have a bit of extra quality, but the others who go up only need to be organised, motivated and hard-working on a 46 game basis to earn it.

Let's be honest: the football we have played this season has - with a few exceptions - been very basic and at times no better than just plain old-fashioned hoofball. That's OK when you are winning on a regular basis but it won't tempt the punters to pay hard-earned cash to watch it when we start losing more than we win...

Quite right. The style of football we play is largely irrelevant regarding attendances in my opinion as long as we win. 99% of supporters would be more tempted to return after a run of scrappy wins than a run of stylish defeats.

[RoyalBulwell]

The thing is, in League 2 a team that are nothing more than "owd 'uns, runners, grafters and 'good characters'" often get promoted. The team at the top usually have a bit of extra quality, but the others who go up only need to be organised, motivated and hard-working on a 46 game basis to earn it.



Quite right. The style of football we play is largely irrelevant regarding attendances in my opinion as long as we win. 99% of supporters would be more tempted to return after a run of scrappy wins than a run of stylish defeats.

That is why we, well most of us, wouldn't entertain buying or investing in a football club, even ours. We have seen money dripping out of owners hands like water with very little control of stopping it, drip drip. I felt sorry for Ray & still do in a lot of ways, he surrounded himself with the wrong people & it took him 5 years to stop the money dripping away.

Very few are successful unless you have 8 figure sums that you just don't care about, even then you have to have the right people at the helm. I do hope AH can do it, our attendances, facilities are superior to the Accringtons, Barnets, Crawleys etc, but they seem to beat us, for how long though??.

[jackal2]

The honeymoon period is over for the spin dr.Fecked up big time in Jan with all the spin about players & agents ringing him.Lets see how he handles this spell now on his twitter.Signs that he can't handle criticism.Had the chance in the window to really push on & get out this division,could come back to haunt him next season.He let the cup run take over & his obsession with getting a big draw.
Sommat is not right at the club at the minute,maybe KN, the players,AH, tactics?.The cart is rocking for a reason.

I don't really buy this "something is not right at the club" line. Stuff like this comes out whenever fans get a bit frustrated, and then they try to create a narrative that there's some sort of fundamental deep-lying problem, which most of the time there isn't.

The simple fact is we've had a moderately bad run of results in the past month, but at various times virtually every other club in the country will do the same. It's not a sign of some huge internal cancer, just the normal variances of form most teams go through. The likes of Luton and Manchester City are having very consistent seasons with few blemishes, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I do agree that the winter transfer window was underwhelming, and that has been compounded by the injury to Mason Bennett, but we should remember that both Alan Hardy and Kevin Nolan are relative newcomers to their current roles and it's entirely understandable that they will make some mistakes.

Notts fans really do need to at least temper any criticism they may have of the chairman or the manager, because the last thing we need to do is to permanently disillusion them, especially Hardy. Overall, since the Chairman arrived, the turnaround at the club has been phenomenal and our current position in the play-offs would have surprised many at the start of the season, so any current concerns need to be balanced and viewed in that context.

Generally speaking, we're doing OK.

[MancMagpie]

I don't really buy this "something is not right at the club" line. Stuff like this comes out whenever fans get a bit frustrated, and then they try to create a narrative that there's some sort of fundamental deep-lying problem, which most of the time there isn't.

The simple fact is we've had a moderately bad run of results in the past month, but at various times virtually every other club in the country will do the same. It's not a sign of some huge internal cancer, just the normal variances of form most teams go through. The likes of Luton and Manchester City are having very consistent seasons with few blemishes, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I do agree that the winter transfer window was underwhelming, and that has been compounded by the injury to Mason Bennett, but we should remember that both Alan Hardy and Kevin Nolan are relative newcomers to their current roles and it's entirely understandable that they will make some mistakes.

Notts fans really do need to at least temper any criticism they may have of the chairman or the manager, because the last thing we need to do is to permanently disillusion them, especially Hardy. Overall, since the Chairman arrived, the turnaround at the club has been phenomenal and our current position in the play-offs would have surprised many at the start of the season, so any current concerns need to be balanced and viewed in that context.

Generally speaking, we're doing OK.

Agree with most of that. Rational and balanced.

[SwalePie]

I don't really buy this "something is not right at the club" line. Stuff like this comes out whenever fans get a bit frustrated, and then they try to create a narrative that there's some sort of fundamental deep-lying problem, which most of the time there isn't.

The simple fact is we've had a moderately bad run of results in the past month, but at various times virtually every other club in the country will do the same. It's not a sign of some huge internal cancer, just the normal variances of form most teams go through. The likes of Luton and Manchester City are having very consistent seasons with few blemishes, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I do agree that the winter transfer window was underwhelming, and that has been compounded by the injury to Mason Bennett, but we should remember that both Alan Hardy and Kevin Nolan are relative newcomers to their current roles and it's entirely understandable that they will make some mistakes.

Notts fans really do need to at least temper any criticism they may have of the chairman or the manager, because the last thing we need to do is to permanently disillusion them, especially Hardy. Overall, since the Chairman arrived, the turnaround at the club has been phenomenal and our current position in the play-offs would have surprised many at the start of the season, so any current concerns need to be balanced and viewed in that context.

Generally speaking, we're doing OK.

I was seriously tempted to yellow card you for being calm and rational after reading that.

[tarquinbeech]

I don't really buy this "something is not right at the club" line. Stuff like this comes out whenever fans get a bit frustrated, and then they try to create a narrative that there's some sort of fundamental deep-lying problem, which most of the time there isn't.

The simple fact is we've had a moderately bad run of results in the past month, but at various times virtually every other club in the country will do the same. It's not a sign of some huge internal cancer, just the normal variances of form most teams go through. The likes of Luton and Manchester City are having very consistent seasons with few blemishes, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I do agree that the winter transfer window was underwhelming, and that has been compounded by the injury to Mason Bennett, but we should remember that both Alan Hardy and Kevin Nolan are relative newcomers to their current roles and it's entirely understandable that they will make some mistakes.

Notts fans really do need to at least temper any criticism they may have of the chairman or the manager, because the last thing we need to do is to permanently disillusion them, especially Hardy. Overall, since the Chairman arrived, the turnaround at the club has been phenomenal and our current position in the play-offs would have surprised many at the start of the season, so any current concerns need to be balanced and viewed in that context.

Generally speaking, we're doing OK.

Agree with everything.....up until the last line.....I can correct that for you....."Generally speaking, we WERE doing OK"

[jonnyt1]

We have a top 5 wage budget for this League so anything below top 5 is under par however you cut it.

Expectations were always Playoffs at least pre season until we saw the crap that was brought in.

So in my view we:

Expected the playoffs at least after last season ended following our Chairmans noises
We didn't make anyone stand up with our summer recruitment despite what was said on ****ter so expectations were lowered
We started the season exceptionally well and everyone was beginning to think that us and Luton would be fighting it out for the Championship. This was above expectations.
In 2018 the team is getting the kind of results that on paper looks about right for the squad we have, i.e. Mid table.
The wage budget we have should have bought us a much better squad. The recruitment has been poor and below expectations.

That's my thoughts.

I give AH 5 out of 10 and KN 6 out of 10

[LaxtonLad]

The inexperience of Nolan and the naivety of Hardy, their over-caution in the Summer and January transfer windows when the squad should have been strengthened has come back to bite us on the bum. There is always room for an input of quality but we signed mediocrity. We ain't skint, but Nolan's "satisfied with what we already have" is now echoing round a lack-lustre changing room, you can almost see the cobwebs hanging in the corners and the tumbleweed rolling down the corridors and out onto the pitch. Dissatisfaction and murmour are rife on the fan's websites, gone are the expectations of regular wins at home. We're doomed, I tell ye - doomed!

P.S. Can't wait for Saturday - come on you 'pies!