Fair play to Harrogate

[countygump]

Agreed, well done to Horrorgate, best team won but you would expect that with only one team on the pitch.

[Mark_Ross]

Indeed congratulations to Harrogate on a very well deserved win.

Only from our perspective surely you cannot help but wish that it had not been QUITE so easy.

[SwalePie]

I will not be silenced where this chief bottom washer is concerned. Have a look on his left lion site. The XXXX is completely woke

Enough now please. Last chance.

EDIT: Just so you know, I've had a look at that site and can't at first glance see what you're referring to. There's a lot of content there.

[TheBlackHorse]

... if you looked at the Notts team, on paper, from a Harrogate perspective you could easily say that Notts would be a more skilful side. In order to beat a better side you have to work harder to make up for your shortcomings. Harrogate did just that and closed Notts down from the outset, not giving us time to play. At that point Notts should have played one and/or two touch until Harrogate began to stand off us and then we could start to play. So perhaps we aren't as good as we thought we were. In addition, Harrogate scored two goals, the 1st and 3rd, which were replicas of so many goals we gave away last season, ie., the defender not closing down the winger to cross the ball. There are only two rules worth bothering about in football - 1. being first to the ball, and 2. stop the cross ... everything else follows from that.
After all that, we have done so well this season. Some people talk about us only having a week to prepare at the start of the season. It wasn't a week; it was TWO days - we signed seven players on the Thursday before Eastleigh, so think on, some of you ...

[Davy500]

What has only having 2 days at the start of the season got to do with this game?

NW6pie has already said, its not the first time we have struggled aginst a team that has a high press, and is full of energy in midfied

NA as manger should have the tactics to deal with these kind of teams, there 1st and 3rd goals were the carbon copies of the defensive nightmares from last season that got us relegated

Any team now knows where Notts weakness lies, and will exploit that like Harrogate did today .
Until NA finds a solution to this, we are going nowhere fast next season

[nw6pie]

What has only having 2 days at the start of the season got to do with this game?

NW6pie has already said, its not the first time we have struggled aginst a team that has a high press, and is full of energy in midfied

NA as manger should have the tactics to deal with these kind of teams, there 1st and 3rd goals were the carbon copies of the defensive nightmares from last season that got us relegated

Any team now knows where Notts weakness lies, and will exploit that like Harrogate did today .
Until NA finds a solution to this, we are going nowhere fast next season

The solution is simple on paper - have more energy in the centre of the park and have the quality to play through the press. Failing that, go long and turn them around or hold the ball up and get up the pitch. Hard to do if the other team are first to every ball, though. We thought we'd struggle against "big brute" sides this season, but it's the likes of high energy sides like Barrow and Harrogate who have highlighted our continued weakness - lack of energy in key areas.

Reflecting on the season, I think we often relied on moments of brilliance to win us games that were otherwise pretty even, and two good runs distorted a season that was otherwise pretty average, performance-wise.

The fact we were on a winning run in March clearly distorted our memories of what had gone before (worth bearing in mind that our last trip to London ended in a pathetic 2-0 defeat to D&R, and that much-heralded 2-0 win at Barrow came after they'd hit the woodwork a few times and had a player sent off, with us clinging on).

Did we deserve to go up this season based on everything (and, in fairness, I'm basing this mainly on PiesPlayer highlights, Radio Nott'm commentaries and comments on here)? I'm guessing not. I don't remember hearing or reading many comments about "complete 90-minute performance", that's for sure. We're just going to have to accept this disappointment and make sure we go one better next season.

Huge job again now given the lack of players on the books, but we've got a small window to assess the players we have and decide who is going to get us promoted (and it's not a midfield of Rose and Doyle).

[slack_pie]

The solution is simple on paper - have more energy in the centre of the park and have the quality to play through the press. Failing that, go long and turn them around or hold the ball up and get up the pitch. Hard to do if the other team are first to every ball, though. We thought we'd struggle against "big brute" sides this season, but it's the likes of high energy sides like Barrow and Harrogate who have highlighted our continued weakness - lack of energy in key areas.

Reflecting on the season, I think we often relied on moments of brilliance to win us games that were otherwise pretty even, and two good runs distorted a season that was otherwise pretty average, performance-wise.

The fact we were on a winning run in March clearly distorted our memories of what had gone before (worth bearing in mind that our last trip to London ended in a pathetic 2-0 defeat to D&R, and that much-heralded 2-0 win at Barrow came after they'd hit the woodwork a few times and had a player sent off, with us clinging on).

Did we deserve to go up this season based on everything (and, in fairness, I'm basing this mainly on PiesPlayer highlights, Radio Nott'm commentaries and comments on here)? I'm guessing not. I don't remember hearing or reading many comments about "complete 90-minute performance", that's for sure. We're just going to have to accept this disappointment and make sure we go one better next season.

Huge job again now given the lack of players on the books, but we've got a small window to assess the players we have and decide who is going to get us promoted (and it's not a midfield of Rose and Doyle).

Totally agree with all of that. We had better players than most teams, and in many games, individual quality shone through to make the difference. In terms of organisation and energy, or simply having a plan to win the game, we've often been second best. Today was the epitome of all that.

We need energy and bite in midfield. We always go back to the Bishop/Ravenhill combo because it worked so well. We have two quality wingers at the club; now we need two CMs to be the engine.

Big mistake not playing Rawlinson in my opinion. Turner was at fault for a couple of goals today and generally looked out of shape.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Totally agree with all of that. We had better players than most teams, and in many games, individual quality shone through to make the difference. In terms of organisation and energy, or simply having a plan to win the game, we've often been second best. Today was the epitome of all that.

We need energy and bite in midfield. We always go back to the Bishop/Ravenhill combo because it worked so well. We have two quality wingers at the club; now we need two CMs to be the engine.

Big mistake not playing Rawlinson in my opinion. Turner was at fault for a couple of goals today and generally looked out of shape.

The team of 09/10 teach us a lot about what’s required to be champions. A solid spine of goalkeeper and two central defenders with two spoilers in midfield, two creative midfield players and two strikers with a 20 goal lead striker.

Defensively something went wrong today but we did have the best defence in the league in Slocombe, Turner/Rawlinson and Lacey at the heart of it . Hopefully when the dust has settled fans will not ostracise Turner for having a bad day, he was not the only one. There were many others.

With the likes of Roberts and Enzio they are the equivalent of Davies and Westcarr. We need a Bishop and Ravenhill combo next season two spoilers who get stuck in and stop the other team playing.

Up front we are fine with Wootton, Dennis and Thomas.

My verdict is that major surgery will not required. A few signings to deal with our shortcomings this season and all should be good for a title push.

[legs77]

The team of 09/10 teach us a lot about what’s required to be champions. A solid spine of goalkeeper and two central defenders with two spoilers in midfield, two creative midfield players and two strikers with a 20 goal lead striker.

Defensively something went wrong today but we did have the best defence in the league in Slocombe, Turner/Rawlinson and Lacey at the heart of it . Hopefully when the dust has settled fans will not ostracise Turner for having a bad day, he was not the only one. There were many others.

With the likes of Roberts and Enzio they are the equivalent of Davies and Westcarr. We need a Bishop and Ravenhill combo next season two spoilers who get stuck in and stop the other team playing.

Up front we are fine with Wootton, Dennis and Thomas.

My verdict is that major surgery will not required. A few signings to deal with our shortcomings this season and all should be good for a title push.

I agree we have a good squad for NL level but it depends how many we can afford if they are out of contract.

Think quite a few players are going to have to take pay cuts as with no revenue coming in its common sense.

The worry I have is we will lose Roberts/Wootton.

[eastwoodmagpie]

placed

Totally agree with all of that. We had better players than most teams, and in many games, individual quality shone through to make the difference. In terms of organisation and energy, or simply having a plan to win the game, we've often been second best. Today was the epitome of all that.

We need energy and bite in midfield. We always go back to the Bishop/Ravenhill combo because it worked so well. We have two quality wingers at the club; now we need two CMs to be the engine.

Big mistake not playing Rawlinson in my opinion. Turner was at fault for a couple of goals today and generally looked out of shape.

Totally agree Turner was slow all match, should have been replaced at half time with our player of the season. He must have been very frustrated and unhappy with being left out and seeing Turner stop on for the full match.