The story so far!

[OchPie]

I suppose it could be argued with some justification that our first goal was offside, our second was handball

Having watched back a few times, I think the ref got both calls right.

For the first, it's hard to see precisely but for me Jatta looks in line with the defence when the ball is played. Hard to say for sure from the angle on TV, but looks close enough for the benefit of the doubt. Grant is in an offside position but isn't obviously interfering with play - he's not obviously being marked or acting as a distraction, and he makes no effort at all to play the ball.

For the second, the EFL have been clear this season that playing the ball onto the player's own arm is a mitigating factor for handball. To me, from the video shown, it looks very much like the ball goes from chest to arm (to other arm maybe), and his arms are more or less where you'd expect them to be for the position he's getting into, so no handball.

Both of these are marginal calls and we'd likely be pissed if they'd gone against us, but I think the ref probably got both calls right.

[frenchmagpie]

We have played against 3 teams we played last season and so far we have done better than we did when LW was in charge..For me that says SM must be doing something right. Let's hope last night was the transformation in the home form he/we needed.!.x

I applaud the sentiment but I don't think you can say we played the same teams as last season. Same club maybe. So it proves nothing really. Having said that I feel very positive about the way things are going though very early to judge.

[MagpieNate]

We’ve been the better team in all 3 games, are unbeaten and have 5 points on the board. We’re averaging 1 goal against and 2 scored. It’s a 7.5/10 for me for the recruitment team and SM. No games now until after the window shuts so really intrigued how many more bodies we’ll bring in.

GK - depends on Stone. Imagine what we have is what we’ll go with.

DEF - Macari, Platt, Bedeau with McDonald, Cundy and Ness as cover looks sorted.

Wingers - there’s space for a right footer but not dead against 2 from 3 of Jones, Tsaroulla, Gordon with Chicks and Austin as back up.

MID - the new lads have eased my concerns so far so don’t expect anymore.

ATT - we have a bunch of players able to play the no10 roles but beyond Jatta I’m not sure we’re too strong up top and expect this to be the one position we are 100% looking to add depth.

I’d take no more new bodies though if it meant Jones and Crowley could be tied down to longer contracts.

The pitch looks great and massive on TV. Good times.

[Hoppie]

We’ve been the better team in all 3 games, are unbeaten and have 5 points on the board. We’re averaging 1 goal against and 2 scored. It’s a 7.5/10 for me for the recruitment team and SM. No games now until after the window shuts so really intrigued how many more bodies we’ll bring in.

GK - depends on Stone. Imagine what we have is what we’ll go with.

DEF - Macari, Platt, Bedeau with McDonald, Cundy and Ness as cover looks sorted.

Wingers - there’s space for a right footer but not dead against 2 from 3 of Jones, Tsaroulla, Gordon with Chicks and Austin as back up.

MID - the new lads have eased my concerns so far so don’t expect anymore.

ATT - we have a bunch of players able to play the no10 roles but beyond Jatta I’m not sure we’re too strong up top and expect this to be the one position we are 100% looking to add depth.

I’d take no more new bodies though if it meant Jones and Crowley could be tied down to longer contracts.

The pitch looks great and massive on TV. Good times.

Excellent post

[MapperleyMagpie]

I thought last night was one of the best performances ( alongside Newport away last year ) under SM. Lots of positives, better defensively ( still room to improve ). Completely bossed midfield, outclassing Grimsby. Jatta may be a little unorthodox and busy at times but has a knack of finding the net. Wingers were on top form, Crowley looked championship level. Good subs, positive attacking set up and with few players coming back I'm certainly more confident than I was few weeks ago. Still need another keeper ,central striker and 1 more midfielder in my books, then job done.

[Jampie]

So far, so good IMO. A few wobbles. Definitely room to improve but we're seeing improvement, I think.

Hopefully one or two more to come in, but even if not, the squad we have now looks pretty strong although the bench is a bit thin in places.

[PedroTheFisherman66]

The concern will be that we will live to regret employing SM with no guarantee the current owners will find themselves in such a great position again that deep into a season.
Put it this way.... Who thought 12th placed Crawley Town were a better team than Notts at the time LW left? They are now playing in tier 3. With Crawley in mind, Notts definitely could have gone up last season had they replaced LW with somebody half decent.

It's all well and good if SM ultimately delivers but I still think he'll turn out to be another Burchnall type of manager, doing enough to stay in the job but not actually getting Notts over the line. At this level, that is going to be no less frustrating than it was being stuck in tier 5 before LW came along.

Definitely could have.? A bit of a contradiction.

[matt_magpie]

The concern will be that we will live to regret employing SM with no guarantee the current owners will find themselves in such a great position again that deep into a season.
Put it this way.... Who thought 12th placed Crawley Town were a better team than Notts at the time LW left? They are now playing in tier 3. With Crawley in mind, Notts definitely could have gone up last season had they replaced LW with somebody half decent.

It's all well and good if SM ultimately delivers but I still think he'll turn out to be another Burchnall type of manager, doing enough to stay in the job but not actually getting Notts over the line. At this level, that is going to be no less frustrating than it was being stuck in tier 5 before LW came along.

The thing is if we’d have bought in a manager with reasonable EFL experience and success we’d have probably put the decline down to the team on a downward spiral already, poor defensive qualities and lack of mental strength getting over LWs departure. SMs lack of experience made him the fall guy, maybe he was the problem and none of the above but we don’t 100% know, he’s got his chance now and we’re going to find out what he’s made of.

[bule1]

We need to work out how to break down teams who just sit back behind the ball and the counter attack like Fleetwood. We look better at defending than before but struggled to get through them.

[Med Pie]

Much better teams than Notts, struggle when teams set up like this.