How's Ruben doing for you lot? I see he's scored a few, but is he playing well?
How's Ruben doing for you lot? I see he's scored a few, but is he playing well?
Jodi nominated for L2 player of the month:
Jodi Jones has been nominated for January's Sky Bet League Two Player of the Month award.
The wing back notched six assists in January, equalling the League Two season record of 17, including four in our 5-5 draw at Grimsby.
Jones is nominated alongside Wrexham's Steven Fletcher, Harrogate's Abraham Odoh and Crawley's Danilo Orsi.
The winner will be decided by a judging panel comprised of Sky Sports’ EFL expert Don Goodman, EFL chief executive Trevor Birch and Sky Bet EFL trader Ivor Davies, with an announcement to follow on Friday.
While I'm here, another cheeky question - can any of you recommend a decent pub or three for the evening? Thinking somewhere that serves some half-decent beers... craft ales and that kind of thing is probably ideal. Somewhere that maybe plays alternative music etc. rather than something too bar/nightclubby? Cheers.
I think you must be mad for wanting to attend a Notts game, in which case you will fit in very well with the rest of us.
Can I humbly recommend to go first to the "the Trip to Jerusalem" a very famous real ale pub below Nottingham Castle rock. It's on Castle rd at the edge of the city centre approx one mile from NCFC. Just Google it. Then for a pub near the ground I like "the Embankment" which is on London Rd opposite the end of Meadow Lane. Good selection of crafty ales & frequented by friendly Notts fans.
Hi - sorry for the extreme delay in responding.
A bit of context - we're in a sort of similar situation to you... our manager (Liam Manning) upped and left after not very long in charge and our replacement isn't doing great.
Ruben was one of the players Manning brought in and he cited Manning as a key reason he joined us.
He's primarily been deployed in an attacking midfield/number 10 role, and he started pretty well, netting a couple but with an incredible ability to unlock defences with incisive passes.
And then Manning left. We had a caretaker coach in charge for Orient away, and Ruben had one of the best performances I've seen in a yellow shirt in a really long time. Completely bossed the whole game. Gazza-like - legitimately incredible.
And then our new manager (Des Buckingham) came in. He's a bloke with a lot of history with us, so fans were really pleased. Results have not been great though, and neither have performances. Ruben has been all over the shop since Des came in. He's being played in the same position, but suddenly doesn't seem to know his role and his head's gone. We got completely humped by Bolton last night, and Ruben put in one of the worst performances i've seen in a yellow shirt in a really long time. It was a disaster, and he got hooked off after 65 minutes after being partly at fault for two goals we conceded and strolling around with some really, really poor body language.
Honestly pretty p***ed off with him for that - clearly there's some other stuff going on, but there was still no excuse for that performance in my opinion.
Anyway, the long shot is, I've been instructed by some of my mates to bring him back to Meadow Lane when we visit next weekend, if you guys are up for that? Haha.
Sounds familiar. Ruben has it in his locker to pull out incredible performances where, as you say, he looks like a lower-league Gazza. Then a few weeks later, he'll put in an absolute stinker where his first touch is awful, he can barely run, and he looks like he's lost all confidence. He played like that in the playoff final and also away at Wrexham last season.
I think L1 is pretty much his ceiling, and he might find himself back in L2 if he doesn't become more consistent. I'd love him back at Notts though!
Hope you're looking forward to Saturday more than we are!
Interesting the Gazza comparison - never thought about it but I suppose he has got something Gazzaesque with that stout upper body and almost a kind of waddle when he's dribbling with the ball.
And yes we would take Ruben back on loan in heartbeat if he falls out with someone there. Crowley and Ruben in the same team is a mouth watering prospect!
And as an Oxford fan, I'm very well used to disastrous lower league football, so I'm very certain I'll feel right at home - we're having enough of that at the moment ourselves.
Though to be fair, when I picked you guys out, Williams was still in charge - I was quite keen to witness his famous short-corner game!
Either way, we're very much looking forward to it, so thanks for the warm welcome and thanks for the advice.