O/T:- Swansea

[Woodypie]

I once spent four nights in Swansea for work purposes. I didn't like it much.

[Lullapie]

This would make perfect sense if we were in a one club only city where you can rely on fans old and new turning up in sufficient numbers to sustain progress at higher levels once you get going, but as we've found to our eternal cost, when you're competing for the loyalty of the same people with a club on your doorstep, the lack of a sense of urgency can literally halve your fan base with consequences stretching out over several decades. It all looks rosy now in terms of gates, but I wouldn't take that for granted.

Totally agree. I mean the percentage of possession in favour of Notts against Wrexham was ridiculous, but who won? There wouldn't be many Wrexham fans who weren't happy with the result on Saturday.

I personally don't find it entertaining Notts playing the ball around at the back.

It's like when posters on here derogatorily talk about hoofball, but there's a big difference between playing hoofball and putting the opposition under pressure quickly. I was always taught that you play the fancy stuff in the opponents half, preferably their penalty box.

Alex Ferguson once said (and I keep quoting this), possession without penetration is pointless. It's bloody boring too (my quote ).

[Lullapie]

Agree. We don't compete in figure skating where you get points for artistic impression, we play football matches where the team that scores the most goals gets 3 points. We've had the best of both worlds for a while, where we've played 'pretty' football but still won games. I'd still take an ugly win over a pretty defeat any day of the week.

Spot on!

[Lullapie]

Macca never seems to play well against the 'better' sides. I don't think it is him. I think the rest of the team struggle because of the tippy tappy mantra that they play and the better teams suss out Notts and starve the forwards of any quality service.

I think Langstaff with his speed, anticipation and prowess will do well wherever he goes, IF the team plays to his strengths.

[matt_magpie]

Totally agree. I mean the percentage of possession in favour of Notts against Wrexham was ridiculous, but who won? There wouldn't be many Wrexham fans who weren't happy with the result on Saturday.

I personally don't find it entertaining Notts playing the ball around at the back.

It's like when posters on here derogatorily talk about hoofball, but there's a big difference between playing hoofball and putting the opposition under pressure quickly. I was always taught that you play the fancy stuff in the opponents half, preferably their penalty box.

Alex Ferguson once said (and I keep quoting this), possession without penetration is pointless. It's bloody boring too (my quote ).

But they he didn’t win because their style of play, they won because they took a half chance whereas we missed a sitter as we did at Mansfield and they scored a beauty. I think SMs finding the balance but we need players to put it the back of the net.

[maddogslater]

If you'd seen the hole match at Wrexham it wasn't tippy tappy, it was a team moving the ball with purpose to try and open a powerful home team who were forced to deploy 11 men behind the ball against us, Maynard can't do it overnight but I've seen enough to be impressed.

[TheBlackHorse]

... so right Madds ...

[OP67]

Macca never seems to play well against the 'better' sides. I don't think it is him. I think the rest of the team struggle because of the tippy tappy mantra that they play and the better teams suss out Notts and starve the forwards of any quality service.

I think Langstaff with his speed, anticipation and prowess will do well wherever he goes, IF the team plays to his strengths.

Our pi** poor defence struggles against the better quality forwards when slightly pressed! That's why the whole team struggles, you can see the panic on our defenders faces.

[Kent Magpie]

Unfortunately I haven't been able to see any of the games against since Barrow, but it seems to me, reading these boards, that there are 2 narratives. Firstly, our defence is still rubbish, and by extension you must assume lucky to not concede more against the top teams, and now causing our attack to falter, and secondly, our defence is tighter and less likely to concede, and the attack has been unlucky with decisions and finishing.

From what I have heard on commentary and watching at Barrow (very early days), my feeling is that our defence has improved, but there is still work to do. We have been guilty of not taking chances in front of goal and I wonder if this could be partly down to the new systems and shapes bedding in and when we get that last 5% sorted we will start to score again.

My first impression of SM is that he is more flexible than LW, has ideas on how to balance things out, and thinks out of the box (Macari not warming up with the other defenders to keep Newport guessing for example). Overall I think that bodes well for the future. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

[Could'vebeenacontender]

I believe the players are taking to SM
They all loved LW and were sorry to see him go but they are definitely happier with the changes LM has made to try to make us harder to beat
I suspect we will start to see positive results in the coming weeks (at least I hope so)....