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=2113025929Notts 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......
