David Cameron Walker

Archive for the ‘Notts County’ Category

County back into play-off contention after Steel City stumble

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

After the win at Charlton, it seemed like anything was possible, that Notts County could keep the momentum going, get results against the Sheffield sides and secure a play-off position. However, this proved a bridge too far.

On a warm St Patrick’s Day at the lane, a bumper crowd of 12,410, including a sold out Jimmy Sirrel Stand packed with Owls fans, watched the Pies lose 2-1 against a resilient and well-organised Wednesday side, Ryan Lowe and Gary Madine netting the away side’s goals and Lloyd Sam with a late consolation for Notts.

An improvement was expected against the red side of Sheffield the following Tuesday; instead, a first-half horror show saw the Pies concede four against United, and even though Alan Judge and Julian Kelly netted two before the end of the 90 minutes, a fifth was conceded and, to make things worse skipper Neal Bishop, already going through a bad patch of form, was sent off after two yellows.

On a positive, the three consecutive games against the titans of the division were now behind them, and a return of three points may have seemed decent enough. However, this left Notts in eighth place on 56 points, with Carlisle and Stevenage into sixth and seventh spot respectively. Even worse, those two teams had two games in hand – the play-offs were theirs to lose now.

A resurgent Scunthorpe side was the next team to face County at Glanford Park, and despite Notts dominating the match, the Iron defence proved just that, and a 0-0 scoreline was the final result. Two more points dropped – had the wheel come off the wheelbarrow for good?

Keith Curle, alarmed at this drop in form, decided to make some personnel changes. Out went the ineffective Ben Burgess to Cheltenham, in came Dele Adebola, Daniel Bogdanovic and Nicholas Yennaris – the former two seasoned Championship-level veterans, the latter a talented Arsenal youth-teamer.

A good performance against Oldham culminated in another late winner for the Pies, Alan Sheehan getting the all-important goal in the 89th minute, while Leyton Orient were dispatched 3-0, courtesy of goals by Damion Stewart, Jeff Hughes and the ever-improving Sam. Crucially, the seemingly unsurmountable Carlisle dropped points at Wycombe; a last-minute Chairboys goal making it 1-1.

On Easter Bank Holiday, despite looking finished two weeks before, Notts miraculously rose back from the dead and ascended into the play-off positions once again. Carlisle dropped two more points, while Lloyd Sam decided to pay tribute to the injured Jonathan Forte by bagging a hat-trick of his own against Yeovil and sealing a 3-1 win. Sixth place was once again occupied by County.

Brentford were up next, away at Griffin Park. A fairly tricky fixture, Notts finished the game with a valuable point, keeping the Bees at bay in a 0-0 draw while Carlisle lost against Charlton, the Addicks sealing promotion to the Championship after an outstanding season.

As things stand after Matchday 43, it’s not quite advantage Notts, because Carlisle still have a game in hand. However, this will be played on Tuesday against fellow play-off chasers Stevenage, who trounced Yeovil 6-0 away on Saturday. All Pies’ eyes will be on the game this Tuesday evening, hoping the Cumbrians drop even more points and with three games left in the season, the saying “squeaky-bum time” has never been more apt.

However, having done so well to claw our way back into play-off contention twice in one season – when Keith Curle took over County while in 11th and again after dropping to 8th after the Sheffield games – it would be a shame not to finish the job properly! So Come On You Pies!

Written by Giuseppe Labellarte, We Are Going Up’s Notts County blogger

Giuseppe tweets at @JoeJonesHome

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Humble Pie: How Keith Curle won over the County faithful

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

Well, I must say I can hardly believe it.

Just three weeks ago, Notts County fans were shellshocked by the announcement that Martin Allen had been sacked by the club. After all, he was a popular coach who helped save the club from relegation last season and was producing decent results. Even more bewildering was the fact he had been replaced by Keith Curle, a manager with an unimpressive record to say the least. However, the results have been completely astounding, and have convinced the County faithful that he’s definitely good enough for the job.

First was the Stevenage game at Meadow Lane. Curle was warmly greeted by the County faithful from the start, despite their doubts and the dark cloud still lingering over Allen’s sacking. Their warm welcome and cordiality was rewarded in the form of a Zona Cesarini goal (Google it: this is the first of several Italian references in this article) from Jeff Hughes. It ended 1-0 County.

The weekend game, against local rivals Chesterfield, was a fairly open affair which could have gone either way, again settled by a late goal, this time from on-loan Southampton striker Jonathan Forte.

Tuesday the 28th brought win number three, with Hamza Bencherif netting in injury time – in the first half on this occasion – to grind out another 1-0 win. Lee Hughes’s red card after 89 minutes, combined with five minutes of injury time to play tested the Pies to their very limit, but they hung on. Three wins, three goals scored, none conceded. The word catenaccio springs to mind! Comparisons to Steve Cotterill, engineer of 14 wins from 18 games in 2010 en route to the League Two title, were already being made.

Win number four came at home against Carlisle United. Amazingly, there was another clean sheet for County as they put two past the Cumbrians courtesy of Forte and Alan Sheehan.

Cruelly, Zona Cesarini (that’s injury time if you’re still wondering) proved County’s undoing away to Tranmere. Jamaican international Damion Stewart netted his first for the club after five minutes, but holding a lead for that long often proves a huge feat and in the 93rd minute, Tranmere captain John Welsh broke County’s hearts with a header past County keeper Stuart Nelson. Even though four wins and a draw from five is nevertheless an amazing feat, it is truly frustrating to be denied the even grander achievement of five wins from five with none conceded right at the very end of the fifth game.

The following three fixtures would have struck fear into the heart of any fan of a League One team: Charlton Athletic, runaway leaders of the division, away, then home games against Sheffield Wednesday, third in the table and Sheffield United, who are currently second.

What happened in the Charlton match was beyond the wildest expectations of not only every County fan, but everyone interested in the Football League. Judge opened the scoring on 16 minutes, then Forte scored with his right foot on 18 minutes, followed by his left on 35. Then with his head on 40 to complete a 22 minute hat-trick.

4-0 up, Against runaway leaders Charlton. Away. In the first half. Even if you use the strict German definition of hat-trick, which involves three goals scored by one player in one half of a match, with no other scorer in between, it fits. Truly a perfect hat-trick, and a perfect first half to cap off a near-perfect first three weeks in charge for Keith Curle.

Predictably, Charlton gaffer Chris Powell have issued some stern words to his players at half time, who duly came out all guns blazing in the second half. Bradley Wright-Phillips netted on 51 minutes, and four minutes later came a second, as Scott Wagstaff headed past Nelson. County, however, survived the relentless pressure and finished the game 4-2 winners.

So there we have it. Six games, five wins, one draw, ten scored, three conceded. That’s championship-winning form. Of course, talk of promotion is still very much premature. The two teams below the Pies, Carlisle and Stevenage, have two and three games in hand respectively, while the MK Dons are six points ahead in fifth place. Much rests on County’s following two games and those in hand of the teams below. Cementing a play-off position is a realistic objective and definitely back on the agenda, one thing is for sure though; County have the ability to split the League promotion race wide open if results go their way against the Sheffield clubs, which potentially could make for an amazing finale to the season.

And here’s a little more trivia; Forte, the surname of Saturday’s hat-trick hero, means strong in Italian, and is colloquially used to describe brilliance or affection – “sei forte!” translates to “you’re great/ace!” It stems from “forza” which, again, literally means “strength” but can also be used to mean “come on!” You may recall it from the name of bunga-bunga expert Silvio Berlusconi’s political party, Forza Italia, which has roots in traditional Italian football lingo, such as “Forza Juve!”

And who are County playing in pre-season this summer for their 150th anniversary? Why, only Italian giants and eternally grateful black-and-white-striped kit loanees Juventus. It’s very clearly written in the stars! So here’s to an exciting run-in and…. Forza County!

Written by Giuseppe Labellarte, We Are Going Up’s Notts County blogger

Giuseppe tweets at @JoeJonesHome

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Mad Dog’s swift demise

Monday, February 20th, 2012

Life. You could be getting on with things as normal. Business as usual. Steady. Ticking on. Same old, same old. Then, all of a sudden, something happens so quickly that, once it’s taken place, you think “what just happened?” Like the time I was temping for a company many moons ago, and I made a small mistake on the job. The manager spotted it, called me to her office, and told me she was letting me go. There and then. At 3pm on a Wednesday. No notice. One minute I was in, then a blur, then I was out.

I remember sitting in my car for a while afterwards, not so much disappointed at the situation, but bewildered and shocked by just how quickly it happened. This is the feeling Notts County fans are experiencing now. Martin Allen was managing the club quite admirably. Though it had been a while since talk of automatic promotion, the team sits 11th in the table and, although they suffered a poor 3-0 defeat away at Jeff Stelling’s Hartlepool, previous results had been decent and, all in all, things were steady.

Then, on February the 18th, a notice on the Pies’ website: “Notts County wish to announce that Martin Allen has been relieved of his duties with immediate effect.” What?

Just like that, he was gone. A manager everyone thought was getting on ok and had turned County into a steady, top half League 1 club, no longer there. And while the dismissal of a manager usually leads to several days, if not weeks, of finding a suitable replacement, a new manager had been brought in within 48 hours. Not Steve Cotterill, who, despite his woes on the red side of the Trent, would have been a popular choice at Meadow Lane based on his previous County spell, but Keith Curle.

Yes, Keith Curle…What?

An eccentric, popular manager, who was liked and respected by his players and who actively strived to raise the team’s profile in the city, dismissed and replaced with one whose previous posts are limited to Mansfield Town, Chester and Torquay United – and let’s be honest, they weren’t exactly flying high with him in charge. Mad Dog was there on Friday, gone by Saturday and replaced by Curle on Monday. It’s like some twisted surreal footballing version of a popular Craig David song. It does not make sense.

But despite the madness, rational thinking is needed. One thing to take into account is that Neil Warnock has just been appointed manager of Leeds United, and could have attempted to recruit Curle to his backroom team at Elland Road, as he did at Crystal Palace and Queen’s Park Rangers, so County owner Ray Trew may have wanted to move quick to secure Curle’s signature. The fact that Curle and Kevin Pilkington were at the Exeter game should have raised eyebrows. This, combined with the speed of Mad Dog’s dismissal and Curle’s swift appointment, are tell-tale signs that changes may have been in the pipeline for some time. By the looks of it, there were some serious backroom problems which we don’t know about – a Nottingham Post interview with skipper Neal Bishop hinted at “irreconcilable differences” between Allen and Trew.

So, as things are, where should the fans stand? My opinion is that, as a County fan who remembers nearly dropping out of the Football League altogether, not to mention the crazy financial doping period, complete with Trainspotting-style comedown which had Portsmouth, Leeds United and Gretna written all over it, Trew’s tenure has so far been a success, bringing much needed stability to the club, and thus, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and get behind the new manager. Like I said, there may have been good reasons for Allen’s dismissal. We don’t know. However, animosity at this stage is not beneficial.

Curle has not managed a club since 2007, but has been a coach at Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers (who, let’s not forget, were promoted the Premiership) under Warnock, so let’s hope this will reflect positively in his managerial tenure and that this Keith won’t end up a lemon. So, let’s see how things get on, onwards and upwards, and as always, COYP!

Written by Giuseppe Labellarte, We Are Going Up’s Notts County blogger

Giuseppe tweets at @JoeJonesHome

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On-form strikers propel Magpies into play-off position

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

It’s been six weeks since that friendly against Juventus. You’d have been forgiven for thinking that Notts County would have slumped into apathy and discontent following that magical night in Turin, much like someone who’s just returned from a great holiday and has to report back to their miserable, mind-numbing job the following day, and for their focus to slip in the following several weeks.

Instead, the Pies have been in scintillating form. After the impressive 2-1 victory against Walsall, a midweek game away to Exeter ended in a 1-1 draw which, bearing in mind it was the Pies’ third game in six days, and (a long way) away from home was more a case of a point earned rather than two lost.

Three whole days without a match followed, before another away game ended in a 2-0 win for Nottingham’s bianconeri. The game following that must have felt like a huge relief to County’s by-now-surely-exhausted players, as it came a whole week after the last one, and back on home territory. Rochdale were dispatched 2-0, Lee Hughes and Sam Sodje getting the goals.

October began with a 3-0 defeat away at Milton Keynes, the Dons playing against ten men for all but four minutes of the game. A bad result for County, but playing a team which Martin Allen has tipped as this year’s League One champions at their own ground, was always going to be hard with a full team, never mind a man down. This blip continued into the next game, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy clash against rivals Chesterfield. Three more goals conceded by the Pies in a single match, this time in front of the County fans, meant the Spireites would progress in the competition at their expense; another rival team beating them in a cup clash this season. Here’s hoping County don’t get Mansfield in the FA Cup.

Whatever words Mad Dog administered to the players following that cup tie must have worked as three proved to be the magic number again against Hartlepool – luckily it was Jeff Stelling’s boys picking it out of their net, courtesy of two from Karl Hawley and one from the brilliant Cristian Montano, who unfortunately is no longer at Notts, having been recalled by West Ham before being loaned out to Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon.

Redemption against bitter rivals Chesterfield came quickly, as County smashed another three (with a little help from a Drew Talbot own goal) against the Spireites at their own ground. The Sheffield derby the following day meant Magpies fans couldn’t brag about being in the top three for too long as Wednesday moved above them in the table, but nevertheless, the club are sitting comfortably in the play-off positions, which is a welcome relief from last year’s struggles. Last weekend the Pies earned another point in a game against Brentford, courtesy of a penalty from the other great Hughesy in the team, Jeff. So impressed is Mad Dog with the Northern Irishman, he’s declared to the media for him to be recalled to the national team.

Just over two months into the season, it’s a good time to be a Pies fan. The football is attractive, the strikers are all scoring, the atmosphere both in the team and at the ground is buzzing and the results speak for themselves. Although I’m still very cautious at the moment, should the team keep playing and notching up points the way they are – and manage to cement ourselves in the play-off positions – then this season could definitely be a memorable one! I’m a few weeks too late to talk about swapping leagues with our great rivals Forest, but wouldn’t it be nice to get the chance to play them in the Championship next season? We’ll see how things get on!

Written by Giuseppe Labellarte, We Are Going Up’s Notts County blogger

Giuseppe tweets at @JosephGoodart

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Glamorous reunion with long-lost Old Lady galvanises Pies

Monday, September 12th, 2011

Imagine. You work long hours in an unglamorous, unattractive environment. It’s a bit of a slog. It’s not pretty, it’s not big, but it’s got to be done. Supports your nearest and dearest. You live in a pretty big pad, but it never lives up to its full potential; at public occasions it’s no more than about a third full. You have to share with a gruff tenant who often ruins the carpet when his lot come round.

Then out of the blue, your distant cousin, who you were close to when you were very (and I mean VERY) young, and who is now top of his field, rich, glitzy, glamorous with accolades and titles to boot, invites you round to his brand new gaff for an evening of entertainment. For one night, you’re no longer mixing with the other has-beens and never-weres that you have to deal with on a weekly basis. You’re the guest of honour at one of the biggest housewarming parties of the decade! And even though you have work less than 2 days later, you still go along with it, because it provides a glimmer of joy in an otherwise mundane existence.

Notts County Football Club are in the above boat. The great Juventus, not forgetting the contribution made by John Savage over 100 years ago who arranged for the Pies’ black and white strips to be shipped over to Turin, invited County to play at their new 41,000 seater stadium this week. They could have invited pretty much anybody in the footballing world. Barcelona? Real Madrid? Ajax? Boca Juniors? Even a European or World XI? All of them would have been privileged to be the first team to face Juve at the new home. But they decided to recognise the club which gave them the legendary black and white strip, with whom they share a distant, ill-maintained but strong, unforgettable bond. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity allowed County to forget, for one night, their status as a mid-table League One team (that said, as many fellow County fans know, it was so much worse just a few years back, when our very league status was on the line).

Occasion aside, many thought Notts County would get destroyed on the pitch by a world-class team featuring the likes of World Cup winners Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Andrea Pirlo and Luca Toni. However, after falling behind courtesy of a Toni rebound from a well-saved Fabio Quagliarella penalty, the ever-reliable (Forest penalty miss aside!) Lee Hughes smashed in the equaliser three minutes from time and the game finished a very respectable 1-1.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against a rival one division higher who has made the Championship play-offs in two years is one thing; however, a draw against one of the top teams in the world (away, no less!) is another. Snippets of history were made by County – Rob Burch saved the first penalty at the new Juve stadium, and Hughes scored the first goal against the home team there. Everyone connected with the club was clearly buzzing after the game.

And even though there were plenty of cynics claiming the friendly would impact negatively on the Walsall game back home two days later, in the plodding reality of League One, it proved the opposite. Two minutes into the game, Cristian Montano struck the Walsall post, and a Hughes header was just wide. After 37 minutes, a brilliant volley from – who else – Hughes made it 1-0 to County and despite a sloppy start to the second half which culminated in an Andy Butler equaliser for Walsall, some great play from skipper Neal Bishop set up Montano, who scored past Walsall keeper David Grof, guaranteed the three points and capped off a truly momentous week for the Magpies.

The big occasion may now be over, but County’s players, managers and staff have, for one night, lived the dream, proved their worth against one of the world’s premier teams and have proved wrong all those who mocked them for playing a friendly two days before a league game. Here’s hoping the Pies can build on this crazy (in a good way, unlike other crazy weeks we’ve had at the club in recent years) week and climb up the table.

And for anyone who’s wondering, a return fixture is scheduled for before the start of the 2012-13 season at Meadow Lane as part of the club’s 150th anniversary celebrations. We have an away goal from the first leg, so come on Pies, let’s win this tie!

Written by Giuseppe Labellarte, We Are Going Up’s Notts County blogger

Giuseppe tweets at @JosephGoodart

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A Massive Wind Up?

Friday, August 19th, 2011

I think someone might be taking the piss.

Silly things are happening at Meadow Lane; and were it not for the fact that he is currently dead, I almost expect Jeremy Beadle to jump out and announce that it is all a big hoax – that Notts County’s proud 149 year history is actually just one massive ‘long con’, leading to a series of punchlines that this may only be the start of.

Football-wise, things are alright. We looked clueless against Charlton, but have shown a degree of quality and spirit against Carlisle, Forest and Tranmere, to make us think we might not be fighting the drop come May. This is thanks mainly to new signings Jeff Hughes and Alan Sheehan, who both look clever buys: Hughes is a player who wants to get on the ball and make things happen, whereas Sheehan’s set-piece delivery is so good that we don’t really miss Ben Davies anymore.

It is not what is on the pitch that is the issue though – it is what is going on off it that is ludicrous.

Firstly, we are playing Juventus.

The actual Juventus – the Old Lady of Italian football.

Now, it is no secret we gave them their black and white kit back when they started out, but the likelihood of them wanting us to go over there for a friendly to celebrate their new stadium opening just seems daft. Will the Juve fans be bothered? Will ours be bothered? Will the return fixture at Meadow Lane even feature any players from Juve we might have heard of? Is it worth playing a vanity game two days before we play Walsall in the league?

I don’t know.

But that was not the only odd thing to happen at the Lane this week.  I am still not sure if this other one is a genuine wind-up or not (I am only just getting used to the eccentricities of our manager Martin ‘Mad Dog’ Allen – a man who once took a training session in the middle of a roundabout because the team bus broke down).  Anyway… the issue is this:

He used the club’s website to advertise for someone to teach him to whistle.

“Good afternoon,

I am desperately trying to find somebody that can teach me to whistle. This may sound like a joke but I can assure you it’s not. This is not for my dog, this is for me to whistle from the technical area.

Any ideas please let me know asap via media@nottscountyfc.co.uk.

Regards,

Martin”

This was on the club’s website. The official website.

What in God’s name is going on?

Why does he need to whistle? Is he planning on signing a sheepdog before the transfer window closes?  Will we end up with a contingent of shepherds jostling for position in the technical area, trying to get Mad Dog’s instructions to the players?

Why can he not just shout anyway? Or semaphore? Smoke signals? Why not whack a bloody great lighthouse in the dugout and flash Morse code at whichever disinterested full-back he is having trouble trying to contact during crucial moments of the match?

So much nonsense; so many questions; but the one I would ask is this:

If Mad Dog had put his advert for a whistling teacher on the club’s website a week earlier, and Juventus had seen it… would they still have invited our club round to such an historic occasion in their history?

Our striker Lee Hughes laughed as we went out of the League Cup to Forest.

I think other people are laughing at us now… lots of them – and I should know, because I’m one of ‘em.

Written by Dan Dawson – We Are Going Up’s Notts County Blogger

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Hughesy’s Giggle

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

Lee Hughes walked back from the penalty spot towards the halfway line, having shanked his penalty into the Trent End, and missed the chance to give Notts County a second consecutive win over Forest – albeit 17 years apart.

He was laughing.

I wasn’t.

I wasn’t doing anything… just staring.

Well, staring and trying not to swear at the 10 year old boy who was sat infront of me and making faces – after my mate had got me a ticket for our big local derby game in with the Forest fans.

It had been an amazing match:  2-2 at full-time; Notts 3-2 up until Forest’s hopelessly lumbering centre-half Wes Morgan (a man who I can only assume took up football because he was rejected from WWE Wrestling for being too much of a meat-head) smashed in a 20 yarder with the last kick of extra-time; then 3-3 on penalties when our legendary striker Lee Hughes stepped-up to win the match.

Except he didn’t.

And he laughed.

What did it mean?

Was Lee merely chuckling at the absurdity of how 20,000 people could be so emotionally invested in this one simple act of kicking a ball, whilst the country seemed to be ripped apart by riots?

Did it take a man with a different perspective on things, someone who was banged-up for killing a man through drink-driving, to show that this simple game was not as important as the Nottingham police station currentlybeing firebombed a couple of miles down the road?

Maybe he just farted as he kicked the ball… I don’t know.  Hughesy strikes me as the kind of guy who would be greatly entertained by that.

All I do know is that if that penno had gone in, I would not have to put up with all my Forest-supporting mates’ smug condescension towards me for the next God-knows-how-long til we play next.

But you know what?  It doesn’t matter, because us Notts fans can handle it – we’ve been bred to.  We will forever be in the shadow of the two-time European Cup winners over the river.  Whatever victories we earn over them will be few and far between, and will be far outweighed by the defeats we suffer.

But when it does happen, like Sir Charlie Palmer Day (12.2.1994), when our own lumbering defender won the game with a superb header, it tastes sweeter than anything Forest fans will ever know.  I know they love beating Derby County, but they will never be the underdogs against the Rams – we always will be against Forest… and so when we win, it is amazing.  I have been savouring the sweet taste of Charlie Palmer’s winner for 17 years, and I may have to wait another 17 for a similar feeling.

But we will wait, and it will happen.  Maybe Hughes was right to have a giggle… he knew that by missing that penalty, he was delaying Magpies fans’ delirium for another decade or two – but that when it happens, it will be even more magical.

Hughsey, you cunning genius, you.  I still love you.

Written by Dan Dawson – We Are Going Up’s Notts County Blogger

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TILES

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Tiles.

“White, square, dull, bland, horrible tiles.”

They are the reason Notts County have been trudging round the lower reaches of the league for many years now.

I know – because the new boss says so. They are his own words quoted above.

Martin “Mad Dog” Allen scraped together enough points in the last six games of the previous season to keep us up, and is now charged with turning round a club that has barely caught its breath from a sham Middle-East takeover scandal.

The way Mad Dog sees it, we are the oldest league club in the world; Juventus nicked our kit; we have sat at the top table of football (for a bit…and a long while ago); but looking round Meadow Lane, you would never know it… and that translates to the players.

I’ve been watching Notts for 20 years– I’ve seen us play in the top flight; I’ve seen us beat Forest; I’ve seen us when we were crowned the richest club in the world (if that was based on imaginary Disney-dollars from equally-imaginary Middle-Eastern backers, instead of actual money); I saw us storm to the League Two title only a couple of seasons ago – but I still never harbour any wild hopes or expectations about our beloved club anymore.
There are just too many obstacles in the way. We have little or no money, no youth system to speak of, and cannot keep hold of the few decent players we do get. Notts fans are some of the most pessimistic I’ve ever come across – the sort of doomed resignation that only comes from decades in the shadows of the bottom two divisions. Even the talk of us possibly signing Marlon Harewood (after all, a fringe player in the Premier League’s gotta be big for a third division side) has not aroused much more than a shrug from most fans I speak to, usually followed by, “yeah but he probably won’t come anyway, will he, duck?”

So maybe Mad Dog’s right. Maybe we all need a kick up the arse – to be reminded of what this club once was, and what it can be again. He came out with his rant about the tiles in a 20 minute rambling interview on the edge of the pitch – you could literally hear the workmen banging away in the background while he bemoaned the lack of inspiration around Meadow Lane:

“There’s nothing in the history of Notts County FC, oldest club in the world. There’s no logos, no banners, no sayings, no pictures, no statements, no mission statements.”

This year, that changes. Mad Dog is the man to change it. We will batter Forest in the first round of the cup; Harewood will sign and score 40; we will be champions of League One by April; and we will begin the long process of restoring not only this club’s status as one of the greatest in the world, but also restoring the belief of a disaffected portion of the finest city of the East Midlands.

This is the year, Notts County is the club, and Martin Allen is the man.

How’s that for a mission statement?… stick it on a tile, quick.

Final league position predicition: 14th

Written by Dan Dawson – We Are Going Up’s Notts County Blogger

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