O/T:- Swansea

[LaxtonLad]

I agree he has better players at his disposal. Do you think IB manages to get the squad last season to go toe to toe with Wrexham for most of the season or tick along like Chesterfield did? I know ultimately it resulted in us both being at Wembley but he was a vast improvement on IB in almost every measurable aspect.

Beware of Chesterfield next season. Thundering along a la Wrexham were last season.

The point has been made about our frailties in defence and how LW was at a loss as to how to fix it. Signing more strikers and midfielders certainly didn't work, nor did loanees. Goalkeeper? None were better than what we already had in Slocombe, so I wonder who in Radar checks out goalkeepers?

Still, ignore the goals against us, we've just signed a massive unknown striker, 6' 4" but not known for his heading ability - he'll be useful defending and attacking corners anyway, so there's a start.

[slack_pie]

You cant make comparison's, because IBs team were not as good as LWs. We didnt have Macca, Scott, Jones or Bostock for starters..

Jones and Bostock came late to the party. LW had already got us top of the table before they arrived. As good as he is, Scott was more a bit-part player than a regular starter. Yes, LW benefited from having Macca, but bear in mind that he changed Macca's game significantly, turning him from a wide forward who runs the channels to a fox in the box who doesn't. Would IB have made those changes to his game? Probably not. There's good reason to assume that Macca wouldn't have scored 40+ goals under any other manager.

Also, IB didn't exactly have a team of duds. He had Wootton, who's deemed good enough for the best team in L2, and Roberts, who on his day was excellent. He also had Lacey, who was a better player overall than Rawlinson or Brindley.

We can argue about players all day, but in my mind, the main reason we got so many points and scored so many goals last season was Luke Williams. He took the good points of IB's team and added more bite and intensity, resulting in some of the best performances I've ever seen in my 30+ years watching Notts (Southend at home springs to mind).

That said, I agree that something needed to change before he left, and I was beginning to question whether he had the inclination or even ability to make us more resilient at the back. Who knows where we'd have ended up if he'd stayed.

[i961pie]

Jones and Bostock came late to the party. LW had already got us top of the table before they arrived. As good as he is, Scott was more a bit-part player than a regular starter. Yes, LW benefited from having Macca, but bear in mind that he changed Macca's game significantly, turning him from a wide forward who runs the channels to a fox in the box who doesn't. Would IB have made those changes to his game? Probably not. There's good reason to assume that Macca wouldn't have scored 40+ goals under any other manager.

Also, IB didn't exactly have a team of duds. He had Wootton, who's deemed good enough for the best team in L2, and Roberts, who on his day was excellent. He also had Lacey, who was a better player overall than Rawlinson or Brindley.

We can argue about players all day, but in my mind, the main reason we got so many points and scored so many goals last season was Luke Williams. He took the good points of IB's team and added more bite and intensity, resulting in some of the best performances I've ever seen in my 30+ years watching Notts (Southend at home springs to mind).

That said, I agree that something needed to change before he left, and I was beginning to question whether he had the inclination or even ability to make us more resilient at the back. Who knows where we'd have ended up if he'd stayed.

This

[Notts78]

Beware of Chesterfield next season. Thundering along a la Wrexham were last season.

The point has been made about our frailties in defence and how LW was at a loss as to how to fix it. Signing more strikers and midfielders certainly didn't work, nor did loanees. Goalkeeper? None were better than what we already had in Slocombe, so I wonder who in Radar checks out goalkeepers?

Still, ignore the goals against us, we've just signed a massive unknown striker, 6' 4" but not known for his heading ability - he'll be useful defending and attacking corners anyway, so there's a start.

I’m not overly worried about Cheaterfield. They are doing well, but so they should be. The National League is as weak as it has been for a number of years and Chesterfield are comfortably the biggest club on paper and in the pitch. They have an attack that is built around aging players on the way down. I think they will do will in L2 as a club, but certainly won’t romp it, unless they make improvements in key areas.
I’ve said in previous posts that if Notts don’t go up this season, next season presents a great opportunity as the league will undoubtedly be weaker… the likelihood is that the 3 biggest budgets will get promoted if not all 4. The likes of Stockport, Mansfield and Wrexham and possibly MK.
That would leave clubs like us, Chesterfield, Bradford amongst the biggest hitters. Clubs like Crewe and Barrow will compete, as will Swindon and Walsall if they get their acts together. The clubs coming down from L1 all look mid table L2.
That said, I’d love to see us go up this season and L1 next season will be a good league with loads of clubs that will bring good crowds to ML. That won’t be the case in L2 next season.

[OP67]

Beware of Chesterfield next season. Thundering along a la Wrexham were last season.

Thundering along as were we and as we've found L2 isn't as easy as first thought.

Chesterfield will be promoted well before the end of the season as there's no one else to compete with. Wrexham would have been promted in March if it wasn't for us.

It's a good question though regarding who recommends the keepers???

[Elite_Pie]

We can argue about players all day, but in my mind, the main reason we got so many points and scored so many goals last season was Luke Williams.

Yeah, but if you ignore the facts that under Luke Williams we were promoted, we won the most games we've ever won, we scored the most goals we've ever scored, we got the most points we've ever got, he was pretty average.

[slack_pie]

Yeah, but if you ignore the facts that under Luke Williams we were promoted, we won the most games we've ever won, we scored the most goals we've ever scored, we got the most points we've ever got, he was pretty average.

Agreed. Similarly, if you ignore the fact that he was a genuinely lovely, honest, and humble guy, he was actually a bit of a prick.

[matt_magpie]

Jones and Bostock came late to the party. LW had already got us top of the table before they arrived. As good as he is, Scott was more a bit-part player than a regular starter. Yes, LW benefited from having Macca, but bear in mind that he changed Macca's game significantly, turning him from a wide forward who runs the channels to a fox in the box who doesn't. Would IB have made those changes to his game? Probably not. There's good reason to assume that Macca wouldn't have scored 40+ goals under any other manager.

Also, IB didn't exactly have a team of duds. He had Wootton, who's deemed good enough for the best team in L2, and Roberts, who on his day was excellent. He also had Lacey, who was a better player overall than Rawlinson or Brindley.

We can argue about players all day, but in my mind, the main reason we got so many points and scored so many goals last season was Luke Williams. He took the good points of IB's team and added more bite and intensity, resulting in some of the best performances I've ever seen in my 30+ years watching Notts (Southend at home springs to mind).

That said, I agree that something needed to change before he left, and I was beginning to question whether he had the inclination or even ability to make us more resilient at the back. Who knows where we'd have ended up if he'd stayed.

Great post, though Durham won’t agree, anyone could of done it, including him 😂

[i961pie]

Yeah, but if you ignore the facts that under Luke Williams we were promoted, we won the most games we've ever won, we scored the most goals we've ever scored, we got the most points we've ever got, he was pretty average.

😂

[upthemaggies]

In time, we'll have a clearer perspective of what LW did or didn't contribute to Notts moving forward. It's too early to tell at this stage, though in comparison to what went before I'm still very much leaning towards him being seen to be a big big loss. Whether or not he can cut it at tier 2 level is a whole different question altogether and not one we need to be troubling ourselves much with.

Some people have claimed that it's all designed to be a seamless transition at Notts between one head coach to the next and they just slot in without any disruption to the flow of things, yet we've now got somebody claiming (rightly or wrongly) that the defence was all LW's fault and that it will be down to Maynard (not the recruitment process) to sort that out.

If we don't get some decent results over the next two games then (points wise) we will fall behind where The Trust with Steve Thompson in charge were at the same stage of the season, but with 7,000 odd extra supporters as opposed to coming out of admin with the worst squad of hoofers ever ( according to many). That will be very poor optics indeed.