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Post by suedehead on Aug 9, 2023 18:18:25 GMT
Chesterfield fan I saw when he went last January said he wasn't the same tbf. But obviously that's a subjective view, could have been bitterness at him leaving. Not sure though, Paul Cook didn't seem to be in love with him. There was talk of the toys being thrown out of the pram when Birmingham tired lowballing Chesterfield at the last minute over something in his medical and Chesterfield told them where to go. It's still not a bad scoring rate for someone in and out of the team. Apparently we did want him when the Birmingham move fell through 12 months ago. There was phone calls and movement to try and make it happen, but logistics just couldn’t make it work with so little time.
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Post by nottsfan81 on Aug 9, 2023 23:09:49 GMT
Hi all, Notts fan here with a question.
We may have seen we haven't had the best start to the season and our fans are in a bit of a meltdown.
I know you guys had a slow start last year including red cards (we have had 2 in 2 games)
Did your fans manage to stay level headed and what turned it round?
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Post by Philcounty on Aug 9, 2023 23:31:43 GMT
Hi all, Notts fan here with a question. We may have seen we haven't had the best start to the season and our fans are in a bit of a meltdown. I know you guys had a slow start last year including red cards (we have had 2 in 2 games) Did your fans manage to stay level headed and what turned it round? As with most clubs, our fanbase is a broad church. Some kept their heads, some were concerned and others completely lost their sh1t. We turned it around by continuing to do what had made us successful the previous season, by tightening up at the back, by cutting out the red cards and by clearing out some of the players that turned out not to be quite good enough for the step up. It took us a while to adapt to the new level. I suspect it will take you and Wrexham a while too. I do wonder if both of the teams promoted did so well because of an incredibly poor rest of the NL. Time will tell how much adapting you need to do.
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jkb9b
Contributor
Posts: 1,477
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Post by jkb9b on Aug 10, 2023 6:54:40 GMT
Hi all, Notts fan here with a question. We may have seen we haven't had the best start to the season and our fans are in a bit of a meltdown. I know you guys had a slow start last year including red cards (we have had 2 in 2 games) Did your fans manage to stay level headed and what turned it round? Philcounty has covered most of it, but to me the biggest difference was the speed of thought and action in L2. It took a while to get used to and accounted for most of the red cards.
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Post by Barmy Blue Army on Aug 10, 2023 7:25:50 GMT
Hi all, Notts fan here with a question. We may have seen we haven't had the best start to the season and our fans are in a bit of a meltdown. I know you guys had a slow start last year including red cards (we have had 2 in 2 games) Did your fans manage to stay level headed and what turned it round? As with most clubs, our fanbase is a broad church. Some kept their heads, some were concerned and others completely lost their sh1t. We turned it around by continuing to do what had made us successful the previous season, by tightening up at the back, by cutting out the red cards and by clearing out some of the players that turned out not to be quite good enough for the step up. It took us a while to adapt to the new level. I suspect it will take you and Wrexham a while too. I do wonder if both of the teams promoted did so well because of an incredibly poor rest of the NL. Time will tell how much adapting you need to do. The red cards (inc. suspensions) really hurt us - I think it was 5 in our opening 13 games then we didn't have one all season? But the big factor for me was DC going back to what he knew / was successful at NL level. We had all these shiny new signings (plenty have gone on to be successful, but some were dross) but we shoehorned them all in - most notably on that opening day without a holding mid and being 3 down to Barrow in 30-odd minutes. Croasdale returning to that holding role was a massive factor. We had an entirely new back 3 and keeper trying to gel. It was definitely a learning curve too. Defences are better, there's no pushovers and the players are lot more "clever" but at the same time it's not an entirely different game. We were definitely the architects of our downfall by changing too much (yet still not recruiting a proper LCB which was the obvious gap with JJ retiring!) and losing our discipline. Personally I think you'll both do well. I'm a little surprised Wrexham haven't spent more, especially with Mullin injured, though. Their away form will be key for them. Relatively speaking they have struggled away since the takeover with the Racecourse being an absolute fortress. It's also nice not going into every game thinking it's an absolute must win!
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Post by timberwolf on Aug 10, 2023 8:00:09 GMT
Losing your first two games just stands out more than losing a couple mid season.
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Post by hedleyverity on Aug 10, 2023 8:01:40 GMT
The thing about there not being much difference between the teams at the top half of the conference and the general standard of league two turned out to be a myth, we’d steamrollered teams for fun the year before, but probably only managed it last year once (at Hartlepool), the rest of it was a grind
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Post by timberwolf on Aug 10, 2023 8:29:03 GMT
The thing about there not being much difference between the teams at the top half of the conference and the general standard of league two turned out to be a myth, we’d steamrollered teams for fun the year before, but probably only managed it last year once (at Hartlepool), the rest of it was a grind There are div.2 clubs that really know they will not be promoted now but think they have a real chance to avoid relegation. In the NL their will be a quarter of the sides playing at their highest level with safety their only priority. The gap from top to bottom is much wider in the NL with far less shock results.
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Post by 1994hatter on Aug 10, 2023 8:34:59 GMT
Hi all, Notts fan here with a question. We may have seen we haven't had the best start to the season and our fans are in a bit of a meltdown. I know you guys had a slow start last year including red cards (we have had 2 in 2 games) Did your fans manage to stay level headed and what turned it round? Realising that there aren’t really too many terrible teams in the league. Everyone has a bit of quality, compared to NL which is a dreadful standard once you get below 10-12th. Faster paced, more tactically astute teams and you’ll get punished if you’re sloppy in defence. Just re-adjust your expectations of battering everyone week in week out and you’ll find yourself much more relaxed!
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Post by Imposter on Aug 10, 2023 8:42:48 GMT
The thing about there not being much difference between the teams at the top half of the conference and the general standard of league two turned out to be a myth, we’d steamrollered teams for fun the year before, but probably only managed it last year once (at Hartlepool), the rest of it was a grind I don't think that's necessarily untrue. The thing was that the top 6-8 teams from National League would hold their own in League 2 fairly comfortably, and that is still true. The three differences were - 1) The idea that teams could come up from the National League and saunter their way straight through to League 1 - that's not true and hasn't been for a while. 2) Any sort of idea that the rest of the National League could come up and fit in League 2 - anyone about 8th-13th would be in a huge relegation fight, anyone below would sink like a stone straight back down. 3) There are virtually no "easy-peasy" wins in League 2 - for the top 5 or 6, and certainly top 2 or 3 in the National League there's pretty much the best part of half the division who you treat as whipping boys and expect to get wins against usually pretty comfortably, in League 2 apart from maybe the odd game (us at Hartlepool last year), or the odd 1 or maybe 2 clubs having a spectacularly bad season, those easy-peasy thrash the whipping boy wins aren't available, it's a slog even against teams that are 21st in the league.
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Post by mattyovrio on Aug 10, 2023 8:42:56 GMT
The thing about there not being much difference between the teams at the top half of the conference and the general standard of league two turned out to be a myth, we’d steamrollered teams for fun the year before, but probably only managed it last year once (at Hartlepool), the rest of it was a grind There are div.2 clubs that really know they will not be promoted now but think they have a real chance to avoid relegation. In the NL their will be a quarter of the sides playing at their highest level with safety their only priority. The gap from top to bottom is much wider in the NL with far less shock results. We steam rollers the road kill, not the top 7. There wasn’t much difference between top 7 the year we went up and the bottom third or even half of L2. We started off last season with too many newcomers, no fixed system, no RCB or LCB cover and picked up a load of reds. It all changed when Wright moved to RCB and Croasdale got a run. Aided by the arrival of Hussey.
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Post by Imposter on Aug 10, 2023 8:51:46 GMT
I'd also say, for Wrexham in particular, defences are better.
Wrexham's defence in the past two seasons hasn't been great, they knew they could let in 3 or 4 in a game and still steamroller to a 4-3, 5-4, 5-3 win.
In League 2 if you let in 3 or 4 goals in a game then 95% or more of the time it'll be a case of if you can somehow battle your way to a point.
There'll be a lot less of this "well we'll just score five then" nonsense.
Not sure how Notts compare to Wrexham in this respect, but this is one of the reasons why I think Wrexham won't get things as much their own way as they think they will this season.
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Post by timberwolf on Aug 10, 2023 9:05:43 GMT
I'd also say, for Wrexham in particular, defences are better. Wrexham's defence in the past two seasons hasn't been great, they knew they could let in 3 or 4 in a game and still steamroller to a 4-3, 5-4, 5-3 win. In League 2 if you let in 3 or 4 goals in a game then 95% or more of the time it'll be a case of if you can somehow battle your way to a point. There'll be a lot less of this "well we'll just score five then" nonsense. Not sure how Notts compare to Wrexham in this respect, but this is one of the reasons why I think Wrexham won't get things as much their own way as they think they will this season. Plus wrexham will be the team every club want to beat and it will add even more pressure on them. You can hear it now from some clubs messageboard that get relegated saying something like although we have gone down at least we beat wrexham.
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Post by Stranded Hatter on Aug 10, 2023 10:27:48 GMT
I'd also say, for Wrexham in particular, defences are better. Wrexham's defence in the past two seasons hasn't been great, they knew they could let in 3 or 4 in a game and still steamroller to a 4-3, 5-4, 5-3 win. In League 2 if you let in 3 or 4 goals in a game then 95% or more of the time it'll be a case of if you can somehow battle your way to a point. There'll be a lot less of this "well we'll just score five then" nonsense. Not sure how Notts compare to Wrexham in this respect, but this is one of the reasons why I think Wrexham won't get things as much their own way as they think they will this season. How tight defences were, this is a low scoring division, and the speed of thought in this division were the big two factors. Once we adapted we were the best team in the division for the remaining games. Wrexham need to clue up at the back if they want to make a serious push at promotion. Tozer is going to struggle without pace around him and someone solid screening from the midfield.
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Post by countyblueforever on Aug 10, 2023 10:42:57 GMT
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