I always have mixed feelings when I see a Notts team play outstandingly well in a cup match but then play abysmally in the league. I've never really bought that "raise your game for the cup" argument. Either you're capable of hitting a standard or you're not, and if you prove that you are, but only do it on 'big nights' when the cameras and the lights are on, then there's a problem with hunger and desire there somewhere.

I remember us playing Tottenham completely off the park and beating them 3-0 in a League Cup tie, then going to Burnley a few days later and turning in a putrid performance in a season where we finished bottom of the Championship and got relegated. Some would say the players simply "raised their game" for the night against Spurs. I'd say that squad defrauded the fans for the rest of that season, because that degree of difference between one performance and many others can only be attributed to a lack of effort and application.