Jan 1952 v Luton. Notts 5 Luton 4 . Uncle insisted we went again after that!
September 1955 Home to Fulham in Division 2 (Championship) we lost 3-4, Johnny Haynes scored a hat-trick.
That season (1955/56) we finished 20th avoiding relegation by 3 points, conceding 82 goals.
The following season (1956/57) we finished 20th again avoiding relegation by 5 points, conceding 85 goals.
My third season (1957/58) we finished 21st and were relegated to Division 3 (League 1). Conceding 80 goals.
The next season (1958/59) we finished 23rd and were relegated again, this time to Division 4 (League 2), conceding 96 goals.
My first four seasons we won 40, drew 40 and lost 92. We scored 212 and conceded 344 and were relegated twice.
But as a kid in those days, I didn’t care that we were rubbish. I loved going down to Meadow Lane every other Saturday. Jimmy Linton, George Smith, Peter Russell, Bert Loxley, John Sheridan, Gerry Carver, Don Roby, Ron Wylie, Stan Newsham to name but a few, were all my heroes.
Judging by those results though, maybe they weren’t quite as good as I remember them being.
Jan 1952 v Luton. Notts 5 Luton 4 . Uncle insisted we went again after that!
16th April 1991, Notts 1-0 Watford.
It was a Tuesday night game and the whole experience was just magical to me as an 11yr old. Evening games still seem to have an extra something about them.
Anyway, great introduction to Notts and football but as we got promoted to the top flight that season it's always left me with a distinctly warped view on our natural level in the football pyramid 🤣
Oldest player in the Notts team at my first match had been born in 1949. The first match Notts played after his birthday was the famous Trentside derby in which Tommy Lawton scored what many who were there described as the greatest goal they'd ever seen.
Youngest Notts player on duty that day was born in 1962. Not quite the first player to have been born in the 1960s to play for Notts in a first team competitive game.
That would make for a good quiz question. Who was the first 1960s born player to play for Notts?
My first match was on the 13th March 1993. We beat West Ham 1-0. Richard Walker the scorer in front of a packed family stand where I was watching on from. I was 13 at the time and have been hooked ever since. YouTube of the goal:
If you're sure the opponents were in claret shirts with white sleeves, it wouldn't have been Hateley's return match. Northampton were definitely in white shirts and shorts that day with two claret hoops and claret socks. York had visited earlier that season and they had a claret kit but no white sleeves (claret shirts, white shorts).