Thetownend.com

The opponent:  Notts County

As I begin my regular Friday evening slot, England have gone 8-0 up and I don’t even bother looking up. Until a few years ago I used to really give a shit about England games, my first visit to the old Wembley was sometime back in the 80’s to watch England play Brazil in The Rous Cup. It was standing back then and I can’t have been more than 10 years old, it has to have been one of the most frightening but exhilarating experiences a kid of that age could have felt at a football match. I don’t think many kids would feel like this anymore which pretty much reflects my own apathy towards the national game. Not really sure why I have fallen out of love with it so much to be honest, might have something to do with Swindon Town taking up just about every ounce of football loving energy that I have in me!

After Tuesday night’s fantastic televised effort away to The Glovers its back on home soil for K Mac’s red and white army. The home form remains shot to pieces, the away form remains excellent. If we are to consider ourselves of having a good chance of automatic promotion then the 1 point at home simply have to be turned in to 3, starting today.
Today the gun slinging folk of Nottingham make the trek down to SN1 in hope of keeping our recent home form in check. I remember Notts County as a top flight team 30 odd years ago, and their history is well known and stretches some way beyond my tender years!  So rather than a re-run of the last Notts County match day thread I have searched for extraordinary facts on all things Notts County. Firstly, only big teams win this one, back in 1995 they won The Anglo Italian Cup, beating Ascoli 2-1 and they were runners-up in the same competition just the season before! Speaking of Italians, the black and white stripes of the County shirt were what inspired Juventus to change from their easy to fade pink tops after a friend of a Juventus player was said to be visiting Nottingham and decided to send one back to Luigi. With a total of 13 promotions and 15 relegations, no team has moved up and down more freely in the history of the football league and being the old farts that they are they have played more league games than any other football team. In more recent times they managed an incredible 19 away games without defeat, between 28th February and 26th December 2012.

For years, Notts County fans have watched helplessly for as soap stars, reality TV contestants and members of fleetingly successful boy bands pledged their allegiance to the red half of Nottingham and then finally it emerged that a truly world famous celebrity was a bona fide Magpie. Unfortunately it was actually Britain's most notorious serial killer Harold Shipman.  No wonder I couldn’t find any others, Dr Death has probably seen to that already.

What are they saying about us?

“Is JCR fit to play? Hope so...
I have a couple of Swindon supporting mates at work so am travelling to the game with them and 'slummin it' in their home end.

Swindon 1-2 Notts
Notts scorers - Jughes, Zoko
Notts Att - 365 plus me in the home end = 366”

http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=402&fid=17&sty=2&act=1&mid=2113025929

Notts County Last 6 –  DWDDLW (Currently 11th in League 1 on 57 points)

The Threat – Jamal Campbell-Ryce and Yoann Arquin have 8 goals each for County, hardly staggering but they are only 6 points off the play offs with a +13 goal difference, so it seems the goals are well spread out amongst the team.

A Warm Welcome to – Alan Sheehan, average left back and Grade A Twat. He used to rent a modest house on Cheney Manor Road that backed on to a former employers house. He knew very little about football so I got him to photograph said Irishman that he had chatted to over the back fence and confirmed it to be Sheehan.

The irrelevant stats – The Magpies recent away form suggests they will be looking for the point today. Their last 3 away matches have ended up as honours even, against Crawley, Tranmere and Walsall respectively.

Head to Head – Of the 59 meetings between us the record for us stands at Won 25, Drawn 11 and lost 23 times.

The Odds –  Swindon 13/20   Draw 3/1   Notts County 5/1  Chances of Sheehan getting the 1st goal? As short as 16/1 with some but pop down to Coral and you can soften the inevitable blow for a more generous 40/1. Connor Waldon seems to be quite fancied for County, as short as 6/1 to score 1st and Enoch Showunmi is generally around 10’s. My £’s are going for a Darren Ward 1st goal at 28/1 with Bet 365.

The Son Says – “Is it just this season you start the matchday threads Dad?” Some questions are so difficult to answer. He has gone for a comfortable 3-0 victory.

The Prediction - Finally the home form turnaround begins with a comfy 2-0 win, goals from Ward and A.Rooney in front of 8’101 (550 from Nottingham)

And Finally – The smallest cinema known in the world today is located at Broad Street in Nottingham, and seats 22 people! Bet the popcorn costs a bloody fortune......

COYR COYR COYR

Thrash em, 2-1

Good job, good read! Town 2-1 Gun Merchants.

Good work my friend , 3-1 to the mighty reds , Flint , Rooney (pen ) and collins in front of 8603 with 409 from notts



Let's fucking stuff these fucking cunts

Wont be there.  Off to sheffield working where their game will be cancelled, doncaster will lose against scunthorpe leaving us able to go top.  Well be top off the league until the 87th minute when they equalise in a high scoring 7 all.

I read somewhere that Campbell Rice is injured

Well done SR as consistent as ever. I always look forward to this fixture because if I hadn't of moved down South this would of probably been the team I supported . Been to Meadow Road many many times as a young kids as my Dad and his brothers supported them unlike my cousins who all support the Red half of Nottingham. they have picked up a few impressive away points recently against some strong sides so its going to be tough. They are quite attacking so I see it going the same way as Yeovil, If we can defend well and not Concede first we will get the win, I'm going for a very hard fought 2-1. The Weather forecast is wet and cold so may keep a few fans away but still reckon around 8,400.

We should have got something at their ground. I'm actually looking forward to it, as there is absolutely no chance of Donkey wrecking my leg on a disallowed goal this time. Well done on the lowdown SR. Hang on  am I talking to myself.

arf arf. Meadow road ;)

Lane it's Lane

Ha, Classic,  I have been there, honest  :)

After 5 hours in hooters no doubt.

Never been to Hooters, my old man used to leave me and my brother standing outside the local before the match whilst he had a swift pint.
They'll be in their pink kit tomorrow which will probably look even worse close up than what does on the telly. What were they thinking !

Tight 2-1 win, been buzzing for this all week.

Sheehan deserves some shit for fucking off to Preston on trial without permission before the season even finished!

Hmmm, don't think it'll be a problem but its currently snowing!

I am supposed to be coming up - is it bad ?

was fairly heavy but seems to be lightening , only light dusting on the ground (well garden, can't see road), but its supposed to lighten up and stop so I wouldn't worry just yet.

cheers Batch - according to the met office its supposed to get heavier.

Not worried about te game - more about getting up and back

Not the met office website, well it is at 9am, but then lighten again. But that's just a fancy guesstimate!

it's coming down very heavy now , got a gut feeling it gonna be off

Are you in Swindon ?

yep , it's settling quite quickly now , Newbury racing already abandoned .

just saying on radio , it's going to get up to 10c this afternoon    :eek:

10 ??

Met office gives a balmy 1 degree

that's bbc wiltshire for you ,

Update for Bewster, it is settling on grass and the path, but the bit of (untreated) road that I can see looks absolutely fine..

Cheers Batch.

I have just driven to work with the wipers on full speed & still struggled to see clearly, it is settling but i think it has started to late to affect the game. Where are you coming from Bewster?

Hopefully if it stops soon , then the game should go ahead . If it stays like this for a few more hours then i seriously doubt it

I'm coming up from the south coast - east of Pompey (Chichester). The issue is that it has come further south than expected and there seems to be a load of snow from south london across to Farnborough, Newbury and Swindon so I'd be driving about 30 miles through it. OK if I could stay didn't have to get home again tonight

Traffic Cam:

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/li/traffic.detail.6107352/?ref=ltp

It better fucking be on. The first time I've been to a game on my birthday!  :beers:

I'm begging to have doubts this will be on now. The ground won't be frozen, and if it stopped now wed be OK. But it hadn't stopped yet.

Happy birthday :yay:

Cheers!  :)

Could you look at the trains Bewster? I know they don't get the greatest press but it takes more than a sprinkling to disrupt them too much. Unlike the roads. Also you only have to worry about yourself then and not your motor too.

Happy Birthday Gnasher.

Trains down here and along the coast are great but the trouble is to get to Swindon from here I'd have to change at least twice. Also I was bringing the family up and at £46 each it makes it a bit pricey (and almost twice as long journey time)

A scrappy 1-0 win with a last minute deflected goal off Robert's arse will do nicely today, cheers.

2-0 Williams, Collins

I hope it's off as I'll be driving south during the match

Snow definitely easing up.

Mrs Kerry Red is off to Bath shopping which means an even earlier pub start for my good self.

As it seems the only ones who give a stuff about the club are the fans and the players I urge maximum support and for any of the lame-brained morons who get on a player's back after one misplaced pass - SHUT THE FUCK UP

I'll go for a mesmerimising 2-1 in front of 7608 very cold fans with some 321 from oop north

No worries mate, just a thought. It'll be my method of transport if this bloody white stuff continues. But I only have to get from Reading.

Hopefully it goes completely by lunch time

It is starting to slow down , radio dont seem too concerned about it being off at the moment .

Prity much stopped here in north swindon, lets hope it thaws a bit and we can get 3 points coyr

Definitely clearing up.
http://www.meteox.co.uk/gmapstatic.aspx?zoom=7&type=zoom&x=187&y=258

Not a cat in hell's chance of being on

Snowing quite heavy 10 miles from Scunthorpe so if their match against Donny is a off,we will be top tonight after a resounding 3-0 victory.Flint,Roberts and a Rooney COYR

1-1 with teams around us also dropping points. Flint header and Sheehan free kick. Just writing that feels horrible!
Alternatively, 4-1 town with a footballing display that shows what we're capable of when we get the ball down and play with confidence. I'd like the second option please.

Is there any real danger of it being called off?  I'm getting ready to leave, Checking my route, it's snowing here in Lincs, but hoping it gets better down south?

Swindon twitter page saying game is ON and that they need helpers to brush areas

Are you guys being serious? A few flakes of snow and you panic about the game being off?!

i would be a bit worried if i had to come from a distance , so maybe you can re-assure them ,

It's pretty much reverted to very light snow here, should think the roads are fine.

I went away and we did not deserve to lose!

Scrappy shitty win......just give me three the 3 points please...

Good enough for me!  Hopefully the roads are clear.

Woken up to a fair bit of snow here, not sure weather to risk driving down.

Where are you Langers?

South London, I drove from work at about 8 this morning and the roads were dreadful, none had been treated.

Although, since then the increased traffic looks like it has improved them a bit so I will give it a couple of hours and decide.

Hope someone has got Paolo's phone number so he can clear the pitch, or it will be Admin by Monday due to no income left in pot.

Stopped snowing north of Banbury.
Good covering last night.

Main roads moving so it won't stop me.
Win needed today. See you all later.

Im in chipping norton and its bucketing down.

Fucked if im missing the game though

Anyone any idea what it's like over top by the Air Ballon?

No delays reported but they have had snow overnight so its very likely to be a bit treacherous.

Snow almost stopped now and melting quickly

Three points please, don't care how!!  Won't be easy though and I can see another draw being a likely result.

Still Snowing in Peterborough, although not too heavy.

Just about to leave, so hope all is ok on the way down.

Still heavy in Worcester, gutted but I'm not going to risk it </lightweight>
Fair play to the out of towners that travel .

My feelings too.

Another great preview Shaw Rosso. 2-0 Town, Collins brace, 7,002 (211 Magpies) - 1 coach breaks down on motorway depriving them of 35 other supporters.

Right, 8 wins and we are up:) I don't care if they are the most dire 8 games I've ever seen if we win them.

Mission aborted! Gutted but I never even made the A1, roads were shocking & snow heavy, decided with the family in the car it wasn't worth the risk.  Its nearly summer FFS!

Good Luck today boys!

:( unlucky sleaford. Its a shame because the heavy settling snow here has turned into very light melty snow!

Spot fucking on!

I was pretty confident getting there Batch, but the forecast up here is continuous snow & freezing temperatures, I don't usually get home much before 1030pm, and figured it was only going to get worse.

A game isn't worth the risk, it may be absolutely fine come 10:30 but you can only go on what you know/weather forecasts.

 Hope you can make up for the dissapointment by getting to the Sheff U game instead! Maybe we can contribute to project Wilsonchoke...

Gutted as I don't miss many Saturday games! I'll be there Friday mate & have my ticket for Doncaster as well. Sheffield almost local for me.

Hope it's a great game & a Town win!

Batch can exclusively reveal that Batch Jr Jr (4) has been lined up to play on the pitch at half time of the Oldham game. I'm trying to teach him to goad the Townend after, but he's having none of it yet (and nor is Mrs Batch)

This same weekend last year, I spent the Saturday at my sister-in-law's wedding basked in glorious sunshine and the following day went to Wembley wearing shorts and t-shirt. Today I'm sat here freezing my bollocks off. Stupid weather.

We're going to win again.

Snowing heavily still here but will be going, not going to miss this.

Just got down from Peterborough, roads were fine to be honest.

In the Legends preparing for a home win (hopefully)

Not a drop of the white stuff in SN5, we shall still beat them.

Has draw written all over it

games off :


colchester v Franchise
crawley v crewe
sheff utd v brentford
shrewsbury v oldham


edit : oops sorry  :D

Town: Foderingham, N Thompson, Flint, Ward, McCormack, A Rooney, Ferry, Navarro, Miller, Roberts, Williams.

Subs: Bedwell (GK), Devera, L Thompson, L Rooney, De Vita, Waldon, Collins

KMac being criticised for dress sense and spitting on BBC RS.

Nice.

JMac has the most stereotypical scouse accent ever.

Rosso deserves a home win,3-1 Williams,Navarro and Rooney

The texts are absolutely pissing me off already :crash:

"We're doomed even if we win all our games!" Was a personal favourite.

Plan was to get to Peterborough services Posh, then make a call.  Didn't even get to A1.

Hope you get a great match!

The notts County commentary is the one with that traditional 1950s sounding bloke. He's ace.

Donny 1-0

Anyone have an STFC Player login? I have one but I am getting "Your login attempts have been exceeded, please contact us for more information."

Inbox me?

Bournemouth 1-0 up

me too please

Me too mate

Bad Times!!

not much happening

Yeovil 1-0

bournemouth 1-1

A draw will put is in the automatics!

Draw not good enough, MUST win this one.

Paul Walsh is watching the game on Sky. He reckons it's all Swindon.

Do they have a player called Tempest? If so that's a cracking surname

Donny commentary on Radio 5 too, nice change from Premiershit.

carlise 1-1 yeovil

Donny 2-0

Donny 2-1

Where iz zee people at?

I would like to see Collins coming on sooner rather than later.

quiet on here.

Very good half from town. Just not opened them up enough.

Pox losing 1-0 to rivals Northampton. There goes the last vestige of their play off push  :bye:

not until the final whistle unfortunately

LOUIS ON FOR mILLER

C'mon Town. 2-1 Yeovil

Just home from a youth match in Newport. What has it been like so far?

Why we are playing 451 at home with no Collins is a complete mystery

Draw at home,win away=promotion form!

Need Collins on asap

If we win at Donny and Sheffield Utd then that's a good theory!

Bring on Collins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOb799cTxM

Ritchie scores for muff

But the 4-5-1 is the reason we are dominating the game

Roberts playing well.  Wouldn't have taken him off personally.  Can't see a goal unfortunately.

Great save Wes!

This is very unpleasant to listen to.

Same old story when we're at home. Dominant in possession but can't score.

As Notts C rattle our bar!!!

Phew.....

Oh ffs - Rooney how did he miss

This has a 0-0 draw written all over it.

Doesn't sound as if it's going to happen, does it?

Collins unbelievable miss according to RS

Keep the faith. Collins will get them

Fancy backing Notts County, sounds like one of those matches, they're now 11/1 on Bet365.

Should have sent off the Bencherif of Nottingham! :D

A win now would be massive!

COYR

Keeper's pulling off worldies now. Same every week at the CG!

we are doing everything but score!

WHY DO WE HAVE NO LUCK THIS SEASON?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Fucking crap.

4-5-1 at home pumping long balls at 1 striker. Neve saw Wes lumping ball after ball up the pitch under Paolo. How we failed to score is a joke. No clinical edge.

People who think Gary Roberts is Champ class... Hahahahahaha.

1 decent late save will mask the fact we never looked a real threat despite having all the ball.

Cold, dull, shit, not bold enough, 2 points wasted.

Carlisle 3-3 Yeovil

FT 0-0

That's really fucking frustrating

5 games in a row without a win at home, and we're second in the league!

I think I'd rather we just went for it at home.

Groundhog Day every home game.

Let's get some perspective, after all we're 2nd  :pint:

How are things in Swansea mate?

You can keep your perspective for mending the dugout.

Frustrating listening to say the least. Still, back-to-back clean sheets, and up the 2nd. It could be so much worse.

Have to agree with this really. Our biggest attacking threat all game was from our left back for christ sake.  Notts County had one decent chance and were dead on their feet at the end, most of their players collapsed to the ground.  Totally and utterly wasteful again today.

11 points dropped in the last 5 home games is not good enough, especially considering some of the teams they were against.  It's a shame our next game is at home, I can't see us winning at home again this season tbh, which will probably put us out of the auto race.

Flasheart managed to sum it up better than the other two for me. And he wasn't even there!

I won't be slitting my wrists just yet.

 This time last season,most people would have settled for 2nd place with the leaders still to play with 7 games to go.We have been magnificent.Plus,we have stemmed the flow of goals against.Everything is looking good.

I like this post :nod:

How nice it is to read something positive on here.

Yes its frustrating but we have had 2 defeats in 19 games, we are 2nd in the league, we still have to play the team at the top, we have a goal difference of +34 with 7 games left.

If you said that to me before the season started I would have snapped your hand off.

Sorry I am being too optimistic again......gets back to flagellating himself in the corner to wallow in doom and gloom.

Fail to see how the formation was to blame. We created more than enough chances to win. Bad finishing and poor final balls to blame rather than the way we lined up

I swear every other text after the game to BBC Wilts was talking shit about having blow our chances of the autos. How is that possible when we are in the autos!

Also we are playing 4-3-3 as much as it is a 4-5-1 yet these contributors are all dribbling on as if its a rigid 4-5-1. It's clearly a flexible formation depending on whether are defending or attacking.  

Fucking happy clappers putting things into perspective again.

What we need is to boo them off like some cunt behind me today. I mean - really?!

I now turn off the radio the second final whistle blows

Booed them off? what the actual fuck? thats pathetic.

What we need is some MinusIQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9pD_UK6vGU

I know! He did get told, by more than one I might add. Wanker!

Well that was disappointing result wise.  We played well enough and everybody put a good shift in, Macca easily the mom.  A combination of a lack of efforts on goal, the woodwork and superb saves thwarted us!!  Thought we lost a bit of shape in midfield when Miller went off, Navarro had a good game, Ferry put in lots of effort but his final ball was lacking.  Wes had to make a couple of saves and looked comfortable.  Home form is worrying.

That's ace, I want one :clap: 8)

Frustrating result, should have won, home form worrying but up to 2nd in the league.

I doubt we'll ever win at home ever again....ever :cry:

The County Ground is hexed, and has been since 1957. I think we should play our home games at Supermarine. Problem solved.

Navarro played well today I thought.

Stand out players were Alan Mac (deserved MOM, game of his season) and Alan Nevarro. Most played well, but Ferry slightly disappointed from his normally high standards.

We dominated for 85 minutes, but Wes had to be alert and County inept when they had a man over but played it all wrong.

This was 4-5-1, but it was not as negative as a Heart 4-5-1. It gave us plenty of ball and with Mac gesturing from the sidelines we pressed the opposition and tried to press on.

However my opinion:

4-5-1 just doesn't give us enough in the final third. Blame it on the personnel, or whatever, but we struggled for most of the game to create clear cut chances. When we switched to 4-4-2 we didn't pepper the goal, but the chances came..

Collins probably should have hit his shot more cleanly, and the blocked shot that spooned up to Collins just wouldn't come back down again quick enough..The keeper has made 3 or 4 very very good saves, but I wouldn't call them worldies as some have.

So all in all probably the best performance at home for a while, but we needed more going into the final third. That said, on another day we'd have won that 1-0 and everyone would have been happy!

I'm a big fan of Macdonalds one armed windmill on the touchline, which he seemed to do every time we got possesion.

If we had cutting edge upfront then we'd walk this league. Forget formations new manager excuses and all that bollocks. We can't kill teams off when it really matters at times. An Austin,Cox,Parkin would have seen us home with ease.

Navarro best game he linked the midfield / defence well and kept it simple. How Collins missed at the end with the shot the goalkeeper saved with his feet. The referee should have sent off their forward for a second yellow after he tried to decapitate Louis Thompson.  
Unless the embargo is lifted next week, I think injuries and suspensions will count against us in the run in...... would be so frustrating if at the end of the season if the off field stuff messed up the promo push.

Just got back, the weather seemed to make the roads really quite, which was nice.

Very frustrating afternoon, totally dominated a horrendous county side, who were a horrible team, constantly fouling and time wasting.

I thought we played well, passed the ball well and created good opportunities, we just need someone to take the chances! If we had that, we would walk this league.

Navarro excellent, as was Macca. I saw no problems with the formation, we weren't negative and got plenty of players forward. Some of the chances we missed were unforgivable.

Still, a positive game in my opinion, if we can just get rid of the cunting embargo and get one or two players in then we are in with a real shout.

 :no:

There were a number of eye-gougingly dull long-ball battles at home under Di Canio - Leyton Orient, Sheff Utd, Macclesfield, Colchester - even in our better performances Wes was clearly instructed by Di Canio to pump it safely up the pitch towards Ritchie or the striker instead of playing it out from the back.

We're playing it on the floor a lot more under Kmac than Paolo, we're just lacking the cutting edge that could see us into the autos, blunted by a combination of the sale of Ritchie and William's poor form when they were previously our greatest attacking threats.

Should still have won today.

Two Alans excellent, McCormack looked electric flying from full back down the wing and Navarro did the simple things brilliantly to put to bed the horror-show v Bury. Roberts also did well first half and most of the players put in a decent showing bar Williams.

Free-kick specialst Alan Sheehan meanwhile :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

The fact their No. 10 is in the player of the year list ahead of their goalkeeper, alongside Ritchie and Leon Clarke  :yikes: says everything about the ridiculous bias that gets shown in these sorts of things towards attacking players.

The ref was a bloody disgrace. Sheehan should have been booked on at least 3 occasions before he was (one of the most obvious ones was in the 41st minute he deliberately flicked the ball up so that he could head it back to the keeper). How the ref and the assistant 8 yards away didn't give him a yellow and award an indirect free kick is beyond me.

I thought you could flick it up to head it back! Still you are the ref..

How on earth is Notts County number 18 Hamza Bencherif is a professional footballer I never know? What a giant fat bastard.

Yep, fucking useless. How on earth was he not at least booked for that challenge on Thompson?

For a 0-0 I enjoyed it. Macca was immense, especially second half.

Glad to see Navarro have a good game.

The only thig that got up my nose was getting back in the car to hear some numb nut saying we should get rid of KMac as he doesn't know what hes doing.

What chance do we have with twatslike that!

Haven't read through but my take on it...

Notts County Anti Football.
 
We battered them for 90 mins but didn't put the chances away so from that point of view we can't complain, but the towel would have come in early doors if that was a boxing match.  Their keeper earned them a point today, but if I was a Notts fan I would hang myself watching the spoiling tactics and time wasting just to be happy with a point.
 
The ref did well first half but must have read a book at half time of how not to referee, shocking.
 
One last thing, the fat twat that came on as sub for Notts (18 i think) how the hell did he get a professional contract?  Overweight and clueless, and should have been sent off after already being booked for gobbing off to the ref and then forearm smashing Louis Thompson without even looking at the ball.  Worst player I have seen this season in this poor league.
 
We are a couple of decent strikers away from having a chance of being promoted IMO.  The game would have been over after 15 mins today if we had somebody that can put the ball away.

His main aim once on was to block and foul Flint every set piece...and why does every ref seemingly let it take place.

He was a big fat lump.

Also why Notts County came for a point today (suggested by tactics and time wasting) when they have nothing to lose by going all out for a win and possibly something still to gain this season. Shockingly negative for a team in that position.

Sorry, but you can't as this is a deliberate trick to circumvent the law - See page 115 (117 if you include the cover etc...)
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame%5f2010%5f11%5fe.pdf

If you're able to do that, then that's fine isn't it? How can there be anything wrong with that?

I can't see how that can be defined as a trick. I'm guessing the ref today couldn't either.

What do you reckon to Collins' yellow the other night? The final whistle clearly blew before he took his shirt off so he shouldn't have got a yellow should he?

It's classified as a "trick" as the player is deliberately engineering a way to back-pass to the keeper in a method that is trying to get around the law.  

If you back pass and the keeper picks up it is a free kick, but by trying to be a bit "cute" or "clever" by flicking it up and heading it back it is seen as unsporting behaviour and a yellow card as well.

That is what annoyed me, for a referee it is real noddy stuff that you learn on Manington Rec on a Sunday morning, so fucking that up is less excusable than the blocking number 18 got for his foul towards the end.

This. For a team 6 points off the play offs I thought their whole gameplan was pathetic. A point is no good to them at this stage of the season.
   Navarro was excellent today & has changed in my estimation from somebody to fill a gap on the bench to somebody who could be crucial in the closing stages of the season. It was nice to finally see the Navarro we thought we were signing in the summer. Macca was superb, only criticism was his failure to cross early on a couple of occasions rather than cut back onto his right and let their centre halfs get a bit more organised. Def the best player on the field though & that is a huge compliment for somebody who wasn't even playing in any of his favoured two positions. Some of the clowns on the radio after the game really annoyed me though. Esp the ones moaning about the formation, which I thought worked extremely well & the idiot who said we should get rid of KM!!!!

OK, in that case I accept the ref got it wrong.

In my opinion though, the law is wrong (notice I called it 'law' rather than 'rule'...'laws' of the game - 'rules' of competition - I used to work with a ref ;))

To flick the ball up in order to head the ball back to the keeper is relatively skillful and if you can do it, I would have said it's fair enough. It's up to the attacking team to be putting the defender under sufficient pressure so that he doesn't have the time to do it.

Just my opinion. With the law being what it is, the ref obviously got it wrong. Maybe he just forgot? I mean, it's not like it happens very often is it? And there's a lot of laws to remember. Has it ever happened to you rich? Honestly? :hmmm:

Technically he was correct as Collins was in the process of celebrating his goal (If you watch it again, he actually removed his shirt AS the referee was blowing for full time).  If he had a bit of nouse, the ref would have booked Collins, restarted the game at 2-0 and then blown up after something like 5 seconds.  That way he has done everything "by the book" and there is no controversy.

IF I was insistant on blowing up there and then like the ref the other day, then personally I would have ignored it (and run the risk of taken a hit on my assessors mark). 

In short, he was correct but the way he went about things didn't do himself any favours!

Didn't think you'd be incorrect, but I'd have gone mad had I known the law!!!

Yep totally agree. We have scored so many goals even without a natural goalscorer.
If we had one I agree we would have killed off so many teams.

We actually played well today but simply failed to score.

If you'd sat through the last 5 home games, you'd get what I mean.  There's pressure on the players from the start, because our form at home form isn't great of late, this becomes more evident as the game goes on and chances are missed.  The groans become louder and people start to get on the players backs, which causes more errors.  It's only going to get worse as the games tick down and points become more and more precious.  We need a win at home to break the cycle.  Saying that, I thought the crowd was as supportive as I've heard it for a while, although there was a strange almost silence when the final whistle went.

This particular type of incident has happened to me, and yes I did caution the player (who kicked off at the time but appologised after the game saying "I didn't know that" when I showed him the same page that I just linked).  

I agree that he should have been under more pressure so that he didn't have the time to do it, and that it is relatively skillful to get away with it, but the fact that BOTH the ref AND the assistant both forgot or missed it is not excusable.  They are both very experienced having worked their way through the leagues over many years, and it is only 17 laws to remember!

What are they?

Would be great if you could list them, if you don't mind!

1 – The Field of Play
2 – The Ball
3 – The Number of Players
4 – The Players’ Equipment
5 – The Referee
6 – The Assistant Referees
7 – The Duration of the Match
8 – The Start and Restart of Play
9 – The Ball In and Out of Play
10 – The Method of Scoring
11 – Offside
12 – Fouls and Misconduct
13 – Free Kicks
14 – The Penalty Kick
15 – The Throw-in
16 – The Goal Kick
17 – The Corner Kick

Download this pdf...  http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2010_11_e.pdf

 :zzz:

Cheers Rich


They could make them sharpened, pointed, barbed posts. That could liven things up a bit.

I don't think Roger Milla would have agreed with you!

Would stop time wasting in the corner I suppose- who would want to dribble vaguly near it and stand over the ball if they ran the risk of impalement?!


The 'shirts stay on rule' is there purely for sponsorship reasons (cynicsm alert). It was a televised game, at the moment when that sponsor is going to appear on national TV. Given the context, he would have had to be seen to yellow him, whether it 'counted' or not, or Sky/Samsung would be calling for his head.

Not that I support that rule of course. Just trying to explain the ref's odd way of going about it.

Anyone notice when the ref had to bollock that big lump that came on as sub he also called over another County player to act as interpreter - if he'd sent him off, as he should, he wouldn't have needed to bother.

Shame really, cos I thought the ref had a good first half.

Totally agree.  When it was intorduced, FIFA came out with some bollocks about insulting people by showing flesh and covering heads, but showing the sponsors logo is the only reason it was really introduced!

It was the captain he called over.  You can guarantee the ref said something like "I'm giving you a final warning here.  I don't want to send you off, but if you so much as fart and you will be having an early bath!  Captain, now you know what is happening, keep him in check!"

OST, I had the exact same thought however I'm sure Yeovil kicked off after the goal, so the match hadn't finished straight after Collins' goal. I could be wrong, but I think the ref got that right, by the letter of the law.

No, just watched it again and Collins' goal was the last kick of the game. The ref blows for full time a fraction of a second before he pulls his shirt off. He got it wrong.

[quote [email protected] link=topic=51075.msg1177856#msg1177856
Download this pdf...  http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2010_11_e.pdf
[/quote]

This one surely, its 2012 -13 :) Bet its no different..

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/footballdevelopment/refereeing/81/42/36/lawsofthegame%5f2012%5fe.pdf

Another opposing keeper on a mission. For all the possession we had in the 1st half we rarely looked like scoring except I think for a free kick low to their keepers right. 2nd half was a combination of Good keeping and them throwing themselves in front of any shots and a couple of poor efforts by Rooney with his header onto the post and Collins with the rebound. My mate was the big lad who won a season ticket and a signed ball for the shoot out thing at half time so he went home happier than I did. actually thought we played some Good football for big parts of the game and if we create the same amount of chances Friday night I'll be suprised if we don't get that elusive home win.

Sorry, Technically?  He took his shirt off after the final whistle.  It's a stupid rule, but never the less, he got it wrong and could have done himself a bigger favour by walking down the tunnel and not booking him.

What did you think of the pull back on Roberts today when through on goal, that we ddin't even get a foul for let alone a freekick and a possible red card, and also the forearm smash on Thompson by the fat lad who was on a yellow?

The referee was a twat today, especially second half.  The second half turned into all about the ref, which for me is the first sign of a bad ref.  The best refs you don't see and don't impact the game, this one did.  Foul throws, pulling the ball back 2 inches and talking to the players like kids (which I clearly heard "I'm not going to tell you again!") absolute knob, and everything that is wrong with our referees today.

I didn't even think Collins yellow card was questionable, plenty of players get red cards after the final whistle and as removing your shirt is a bookable offence the yellow seemed the right decision whether the whistle had gone or not?

So every player that removes their shirt after the final whistle should be booked?  In an international 22 players would be booked when they swap shirts.

This season comes down to whether the embargo gets lifted in time or not. The current squad won't take us up without a few additions. We played well today but we lack a cutting edge.

Be a problem if we do create the same amount of chances on Friday night . . . . we kick off at 3 pm!

Fuck it, I assumed it was an evening KO as well. Need to re-arrange some plans

Good performance overall. I've not read the thread but the reaction to the formation on twitter by some was staggering. I don't have any issue with it, it's not like we're playing it in a defensive manner and it's no coincidence that Navarro had his best game for us, in the position than made him so popular at Brighton. Once again Bialkowski earns Notts points that they didn't deserve.
Still very confident we can finish the season strongly and with success.

Nothing wrong with the formation IMO ,  it was the best we've played since  Coventry . At one stage we had 3 strikers on . Just cant score .

and those that have already been booked will be sent off - crazy  ;D

Was it more than just saying we look more threatening in attach with 4-4-2? Which I think is a valid thing to point out, even if not everyone agrees.

Hi all, Notts fan in peace.  I think the introduction of bencherif, had most of our fans with their head in their hands.  Especially when we had Zoko on the bench.  It's a tactic Keith Curle used to use by sending him upfront as a sub. (as a battering ram?).  Also the person who said why didn't we go for it since 1 point is neither here nor there is spot on.  What difference does it make if we finish 8th 10th or 12th, we might as well have gone all out for a win.  Things are tough at the club at the minute.  Our attendances are massively down after watching our team play pretty football round the back four until we either lose the ball (usually) and put ourselves under pressure, or lump it upfield (where there is no one to receive it so it comes straight back).  Paul Walsh on SNN yesterday had it spot on and summed it up within 15 mins, that we were bringing the danger on ourselves.

With regards Judge, the majority of our fans wouldn't have him in the top 3 Notts players let alone the top 3 in league 1 this season.  Last season he was our player of the year.  This season it will be Bart, Leacock or Liddle.  He's got one eye on his 'big move' in the summer anyway, although in fairness he's one of the players who always gives 100 percent.

I noted the discussion on your strikers.  Try living with ours.  We are absolutely toothless, which is probably the reason we concentrate on defending.  We seem to be hard to beat, but Bart must have earned us between 12 to 15 points this season alone.  He's been that outstanding.  I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we might still be looking for the 50 point safety mark without him.

I notice someone mentioned the pink kit.  They are because of the Juve link as the OP has mentioned (great summary btw).  We gave them the black and white kits, and it's our 150th year so our away kits have reflected the kit we played in when we formed...the orange/black hoops, and the pink kit juve played in.  I don't like either of them, but appreciate the reason we have them!

Anyway, hard luck yesterday, you must be wondering how you didn't win that!  Best of luck for the rest of the season with your promotion push.

I like pie.

Yeah I'm not disputing that but it was more branding it negative and defensive and how we didn't threaten AT ALL whilst using the formation. One guy called me clueless and in the next tweet praised Navarro for his performance but seemed incapable of understanding why he had such a good game...

Funnily enough, that happened with Ritchie.

PotY in our relegation season, he didn't get a look in by the Town fans last season, who gave the award to McCormack...but Ritchie was given L2 PotY by the 'so-called' experts.

Where's the pie?

When come back, bring pie.

pie.

Visiting Pie is a fantastic business idea. At the press of a button pie is delivered to you, and if you don't finish it they come and collect it, because it's only visiting.