lets have a quick vote

[durhampie]

You seem to have fallen into the same trap as the Coventry fans who seemed to think it was a figure skating competition rather than a football match. Football matches aren't decided by judges holding up a board with a mark for who looked the prettiest, they are completely, utterly, totally decided on who scores most goals. If Coventry are so brilliant in their stylish attacking play, and Notts are nothing more than a predictable, one dimensional hoofball team, tell me how we managed to gain more points than them and score more goals than them over the 46 game season? I'll answer it for you - it's because Coventry have a soft underbelly. For all their chances, if you take away the refereeing errors they weren't good enough to beat us fairly. We have often looked second best in games but still gained points because we are battlers. On a level playing field our grit and never-say-die attitude would have been a match for their pretty football, whatever the figure skating judges like you might say. Their soft underbelly was simply well-protected by three appalling decisions.

If you think we deserved to win that game then you are more stupid than i thought. We couldnt string 2 passes together, we hardly won any of the headers via our hoof ball and we never picked any of their players up when they were on the offensive. I suppose you think thats acceptable after reading some of your drivell..

[SolSigns]

If you think we deserved to win that game then you are more stupid than i thought.

The point is that the reffing robbed us of a fair chance to compete. We all deserve a higher standard of officiating.

[crazyfists]

I'm with Elite, not one Notts fan has said we played better but if you take away the wrong calls then we'd have been up on aggregate judging with what we know. Yeah Coventry might have scored 5 in the last ten mins, we'll never know but Notts would have had a really good chance of progressing themselves. The thing is Coventry fans and Durham seem to think that pretty football was the only way to win, if that's the case how come we were top for a long time and still finished above Coventry? I said myself on here in the week leading upto the second leg that we never play well really, we're grinders and the other team usually plays better than us but guess what, we more often than not get the result in our favour which is why we finished 5th. If we had of been 3-2 up after Fortes disallowed goal (which we should have been) then we had a great chance of Wembley.

Also Durham since when has deserving anything mattered? You get what you get and we didn't get what we should have got. We all want Notts to play like Barca but I believe they should be proud of their season. I think once we get rid of the next manager we should give Durham a go as manager, it's going to be the only way he'll be able to accept that maybe it's not as easy as it looks getting a mismatched squad of bottom league players who you didn't sign and nearly got relegated last season, to top of the league and end up in the playoffs. Personally Nolan has worked wonders with what he has at his disposal. All I would say in accordance with Durham is that Forte should have been played through the middle more earlier on in the season.

[CCFC Dan]

The point is that the reffing robbed us of a fair chance to compete. We all deserve a higher standard of officiating.

You could ague all day that officials are dreadful in the lower leagues. They are, they're awful. But robbing you of a fair chance to compete? If that's the case we were robbed too. Collectively over the season we've probably had enough bad decisions costing us enough points to make the autos. You could make a list of 100 ifs, buts and maybes. We were clearly the better side over 2 legs. And in terms of luck/rub of the green decisions i'd say it was about 60/40 in our favour. Not all against you tbf.

[Pies4u]

If you think we deserved to win that game then you are more stupid than i thought. We couldnt string 2 passes together, we hardly won any of the headers via our hoof ball and we never picked any of their players up when they were on the offensive. I suppose you think thats acceptable after reading some of your drivell..

Durham - you are right. I sat listening to a couple of people who thought we were "robbed". However, most people - particularly the discerning and less blinkered fans - accepted we were second best virtually all night and there was only ever going to be 1 winner on Friday night irrespective if any refereeing decisions. Our defence was clumsy and "leaky", the midfield until O'C appeared was non existent and the forwards were hopelessly ineffective. He was a beacon of light but was unable to compensate for some of the inept dross that surrounded him.

We had a bright spell for 10/15 mins at the start of the second half then ran out of steam and ideas again. Coventry were, quite simply, miles more composed, assured and clinical, end of story really.

[crazyfists]

Durham - you are right. I sat listening to a couple of people who thought we were "robbed". However, most people - particularly the discerning and less blinkered fans - accepted we were second best virtually all night and there was only ever going to be 1 winner on Friday night irrespective if any refereeing decisions. Our defence was clumsy and "leaky", the midfield until O'C appeared was non existent and the forwards were hopelessly ineffective. He was a beacon of light but was unable to compensate for some of the inept dross that surrounded him.

We had a bright spell for 10/15 mins at the start of the second half then ran out of steam and ideas again. Coventry were, quite simply, miles more composed, assured and clinical, end of story really.

How can you say there was only going to be one winner on Friday night whatever the decisions as when Forte scored we were in the ascendancy, playing better football than Coventry and the crowd was up? There's no way there would have been "only one winner" whatever happened, that's tripe. Yes Coventry played better but again I'll ask do the prettiest team always win? I don't think Man Utd are more entertaining than 4 teams below them but yet they're the closest team to Man City by playing pragmatically like Notts do. People unhappy with Notts style of play are confusing that with match dynamics which were quite obviously changed due to the officials. Plus you're going on like Coventry are amazing, it was big boot to number 9 and flick on which got them most of their success, thing is they have McNulty and we can't even get McVitie.

[Elite_Pie]

Durham - you are right. I sat listening to a couple of people who thought we were "robbed". However, most people - particularly the discerning and less blinkered fans - accepted we were second best virtually all night.

F*cking hell, yet another fan of figure skating! Being "second best virtually all night" only ends in defeat if the opposition are good enough to take advantage. Without being gifted three goals, Coventry just weren't good enough. If the officiating had been competent the Forte goal would have put us 3-2 up. Deserved or not, that would have been the match situation.

[Pies4u]

F*cking hell, yet another fan of figure skating! Being "second best virtually all night" only ends in defeat if the opposition are good enough to take advantage. Without being gifted three goals, Coventry just weren't good enough. If the officiating had been competent the Forte goal would have put us 3-2 up. Deserved or not, that would have been the match situation.

You do talk some tripe! What has figure skating got to with it? It is not about points for technical merit - it is entirely about footballing ability, application & effectiveness. Coventry were able to control the ball and dictate the pace of the game, they walked through our defence at will.

The myth that at 2 - 2 we would have gone on to win it is pure speculation. As Sidders says, or paraphrases, "... the rest is just gossip". Look at the papers, read the match report. We got turned over, hanging on to errors by officials will get you nowhere, it simply masks our inadequacies and failure to turn up on the night. Clinging on to the forlorn hope that the referee or assts beat us is complete and utter fantasy & delusion.

[Elite_Pie]

You do talk some tripe! What has figure skating got to with it? It is not about points for technical merit - it is entirely about footballing ability, application & effectiveness.

To use your own phrase, what a load of tripe. In fact, make that a load of laughable tripe. You say "It is not about points for technical merit" but then base your argument entirely on the basis of technical merit!!! Football matches are won by the team that scores most goals. What part of that are you struggling to understand? The key word in your sentence is effectiveness. It's a quality we have displayed in most games this season despite not playing the 'pretty' football that you seem obsessed with. We all know we weren't good on Friday, but without the errors from officials we would have been 3-2 up when Forte scored. True or false?

The myth that at 2 - 2 we would have gone on to win it is pure speculation.

Of course it's a myth, and I've never mentioned or supported it once. It would have still been anyone's game. But you can't deny that the refereeing errors denied us the chance to make it our game. Can you?

[SwalePie]

Look at the papers, read the match report.

Just to play Devil's Advocate here, pretty much every report I have seen also notes that were clear victims of poor officiating.