It was nice to get back to Meadow Lane, and good to see the fans give the new owners a warm welcome. I thought the crowd in general were somewhat subdued compared to the fantastic support from Stockport but maybe that's a little bit of a hangover from last season.

Stockport started the more lively as Notts worked hard to find their feet but when we did get some possession we looked rather disjointed. It was evident that they knew what they wanted to do but there were numerous wayward passes, and suicidal ones at times. I was encouraged by some of the play, especially for most of the first half.

The three centre backs looked solid to be fair and didn't really see the need to bring Turner on in the second half when we were holding a lead. Jim O'Brien was my MOM, almost everything we did well came through him as he always tried to make us play through the pitch rather than over it, which became more and more frequent as the second half gathered pace.

The forwards struggled to get in the game, especially Hemmings and although Enzio came in for some abuse, especially where I was sitting, I thought he did ok and a goal towards the end of the game would have done his confidence a world of good....he hasn't given up yet so we should give him our backing, not get on his back.

I liked the looks of Dunn when he came on, he looks like he can play given the chance...there's something of Shaun Murray in him, but we must to play it on the ground to get the best of him. He could do with a run in the team in-between Rose and O'Brien.

As gut wrenching as It was to concede the equaliser (nicely worked goal actually) it was good to see us fighting and making a fist of it for a change. We will be ok this season, the signs are there we are heading in the right direction and after a few more games I feel we will start to see a team capable of taking a command of games instead of playing in patches.

I'm certainly no manager but I don't like the 3 - 5 - 2 / 5 - 3 - 2 formation at our level and I don't think we've the right players for it. Kelly and Backayogo (Kelly inparticular) don't look like wing backs to me. I would much prefer a 4-4-2 but then it doesn't look like we have any wingers to make the most of that formation.

Next time I would like to see:

GK Slocombe

RB Kelly
CB Rawlinson
CB Graham
LB Backayogo

RM Enzio
CM O'Brien
CM Rose
LM Dunn

Fwd Hemmings
ST Tyson.......or Turner 🤔

All in all I had an enjoyable evening, pitch looked decent and I have genuine hope for the future!