⚽Match Thread vs. Accrington 16.03.24 [EFL L2]

[Kent Magpie]

It's just another example of how some people will never give Maynard a chance. Everything that goes wrong is because he's an amateur - even the stuff out of his control.

I get that people aren't happy with our form - it's bloody awful - but constantly digging at the coach isn't going to help. Our owners will come to their own decisions in their own time. From what I can see, Maynard seems like a decent, hard-working, honest kind of guy. He's trying hard to turn things around. He might not be the right man for the job, but constantly attacking him doesn't exactly help.

This. It feels that some people are now searching quite diligently for tenuous reasons to blame SM. The latest being that the overnight stay was a mistake and his fault because he 'must have requested it'... why must he have? Why is it a mistake? Surely saving an early start for the players, especially after Crawley and with Bradford coming up. I am really struggling to see, a, how it was a mistake and 'b' why it is all on SM?

[matt_magpie]

Trew inherited a side good enough to win the league. Hardy bankrupted the club and got us relegated. I'd take midtable in our first season back in the league and not almost going out of business over what Trew and Hardy did to the club.

Exactly, Trembling and Russel King? are we having a laugh? It was bogus ownership and ran up £7/8m of debt in one season and then Trew got the upside. As you said Hardy spent ridiculous money and we almost lost the club.
I had look at the salarysport.com and whilst there seems to be ambiguity with odd players, that has us overall around 11th budget wise and Hardy as an example claimed we had a top 3 budget the last season and we were relegated.
I guess the question is are people happy the owners don't spend beyond their means as they have previously lost money with lack on income in the NL with TV money etc and also covid or do people want them to take risks or even have new owners?
Back on the pitch if we could get a win tomorrow night and Saturday we would be right back in the play off mix, but can't say I feel that optimistic at the moment.

[SinceSept1959]

It seems there are many apologists on here for SM & Co accusing long standing fans and customers of digging for excuses to undermine them.
Of course everyone wanted them to hit the ground running and Notts to be maintaining the PO placing. Indeed ,as I have said previously , Notts were " cheated out of points " at Mansfield , Wrexham and the red card tackle that the ref bottled v Barrow.
In the stadiums , watching games , supporters have a sense of the game is going, particularly anyone who has played the game.
Against Wimbledon as an example it was obvious that Langstaff needed help up front . Notts were in the ascendancy for near on 20 minutes before and after half time, plenty of crosses into their box towards the lone figure of Macca , who is not particularly tall.
No action taken at the appropriate time and then the substitutions were a fiasco and Jatta gets on the pitch on 90 minutes !
On that basis bearing in mind the coach picks the team there have been 2/3 games when no striker was on the bench , not even young Sanderson or Luther.
There are other examples of , apparently , poor use of substitutions at Crawley and at Accrington too.

Making changes is always a double edged sword but it would be nice to see changes proving advantageous rather than what has happened too frequently.
The manager / coach needs to instill confidence, camaraderie and belief in his squad not deflate or fail to believe in them.
To put it bluntly , as I and many others see it , I'm afraid SM & Co have undermined themselves with poor decision making.

[BanjoPie]

Given our lack of squad depth, are you surprised? Don’t get me wrong, some of the substitutions have been baffling at best.

As for us being weaker the longer games go on. Is anyone surprised? We have a substantial non league squad that are physically conditioned to deal with the rigours of the NL. EFL2 is a different beast… even the worst teams like Sutton will run all day. There are no easy games where players could coast to a win… how many times did we see that last season?
What is a must in the summer, is more established EFL players. Players who are fit for a full EFL season.
Macca has had a little stick recently and it’s harsh at best IMO. He is a player who has never played at this level. He will consider himself a fit lad but being fit to compete at 100% every EFL2 is nigh on impossible even for players who are conditioned to the level. I haven’t seen stats, but I’d be surprised if any other striker has played more minutes. He’s been flogged due to our complete lack of options.
I’m hoping Jatta comes good and is able to play on his own at times so Macca can be freshened up.
Other players have also suffered ‘brain farts’ as a result of not being conditioned to the level played at. It’s impossible to expect a player to up his fitness levels and was always going to take time.
Established EFL players are a must when we recruit in the summer. We can’t take punts on non league players, hoping they come off. Yes one or two…. Any more and we will see results like we see over the last few months.

Many of Notts squad have played in the EFL at L2, L1 level so you saying that we are mainly a ‘non-league squad’ is incorrect also, if we can’t compete at L2 level, how come we had such a brilliant first half season? - I don’t believe it is a case of other clubs sussing us out more likely that we just ran out of steam and could not keep up the mementum followed by losing our mentor!. I agree we need a few more players in order to mount a promotion push but not a wholesale clearout. Regards non-league players, Langstaff is one of those and yet he is the L2 joint leading goal scorer, how do you equate that?

[Kent Magpie]

It seems there are many apologists on here for SM & Co accusing long standing fans and customers of digging for excuses to undermine them.
Of course everyone wanted them to hit the ground running and Notts to be maintaining the PO placing. Indeed ,as I have said previously , Notts were " cheated out of points " at Mansfield , Wrexham and the red card tackle that the ref bottled v Barrow.
In the stadiums , watching games , supporters have a sense of the game is going, particularly anyone who has played the game.
Against Wimbledon as an example it was obvious that Langstaff needed help up front . Notts were in the ascendancy for near on 20 minutes before and after half time, plenty of crosses into their box towards the lone figure of Macca , who is not particularly tall.
No action taken at the appropriate time and then the substitutions were a fiasco and Jatta gets on the pitch on 90 minutes !
On that basis bearing in mind the coach picks the team there have been 2/3 games when no striker was on the bench , not even young Sanderson or Luther.
There are other examples of , apparently , poor use of substitutions at Crawley and at Accrington too.

Making changes is always a double edged sword but it would be nice to see changes proving advantageous rather than what has happened too frequently.
The manager / coach needs to instill confidence, camaraderie and belief in his squad not deflate or fail to believe in them.
To put it bluntly , as I and many others see it , I'm afraid SM & Co have undermined themselves with poor decision making.

As in most aspects of life things are not binary and this idea that you are either a supporter or a hater is just daft (and a tactic of popularist politicians that has pervaded society generally unfortunately). It isn't helpful and fuels discord.

I am not defending or SM or otherwise at the moment. I think the issues are more deep-seated than just the head coach, but I think he has made many mistakes. Only those at the club will know what the situation behind the scenes is like, and at the end of the day I think that will impact heavily on how much time he has to sort things out.

[legs77]

They need to be doing better than this. Currently worse than both Trew and Hardy on tier 4 results.

Tier 4 owners PPG table

2.40 Peter Trembling
2.15 Derek Pavis
1.87 Len Machin
1.64 Jack Dunnett
1.62 Russell King
1.35 Fred Williamson
1.35 Alan Hardy
1.32 Ray Trew
1.30 C. & A. Reedtz
1.21 Bill Hopcroft
1.13 Supporters Trust

Not sure why you have put Trembling and the con artist King in this list not exactly “owners” were they.

This is Reedtz first season in the FL and they picked us up from the worse position in my lifetime also at the end of the day their Job is to write the cheques not play or manage the team.

[SinceSept1959]

As in most aspects of life things are not binary and this idea that you are either a supporter or a hater is just daft (and a tactic of popularist politicians that has pervaded society generally unfortunately). It isn't helpful and fuels discord.

I am not defending or SM or otherwise at the moment. I think the issues are more deep-seated than just the head coach, but I think he has made many mistakes. Only those at the club will know what the situation behind the scenes is like, and at the end of the day I think that will impact heavily on how much time he has to sort things out.

A fair riposte and sensible comments.
Very true that fans are not privy to what happens at clubs behind the scenes.
Talking to ASFC fans on Saturday , there were assumptions that the sackings of Coley & Belly were only coincidental after the heavy defeat at Wrexham and other issues had been simmering behind the scenes.
Rangers boss Phillipe Clement revealed that the Rangers revival has come about by a camaraderie spirit and that togetherness had boosted confidence and improved performances.

[Could'vebeenacontender]

A fair riposte and sensible comments.
Very true that fans are not privy to what happens at clubs behind the scenes.
Talking to ASFC fans on Saturday , there were assumptions that the sackings of Coley & Belly were only coincidental after the heavy defeat at Wrexham and other issues had been simmering behind the scenes.
Rangers boss Phillipe Clement revealed that the Rangers revival has come about by a camaraderie spirit and that togetherness had boosted confidence and improved performances.

We need camaraderie and spirit. Most of our squad have it but we have one or two rotten apples
As Alex Ferguson is reputed to have said when asked how to turn things around 'get rid of the *****'

[SwalePie]

We need camaraderie and spirit. Most of our squad have it but we have one or two rotten apples
As Alex Ferguson is reputed to have said when asked how to turn things around 'get rid of the *****'

Who would you say are the 'rotten apples' in our squad?

[Could'vebeenacontender]

Who would you say are the 'rotten apples' in our squad?

Don't want to say too much
It's alluded to elsewhere