Our Notts County columnist Julian McDougall, is back with a report on this month's action at Notts County FC and is somewhat confused to see the pies in mid-table...
Could this be the season? The rarest of times?
It is very well rehearsed that Notts County are the most stressful team to support, by virtue of the most ups and downs, as in promotions and relegations. In the last decade, play off defeat in League 2 (to Coventry) was followed by demotion to non-league the year after, then the takeover by Football Radar yielded three successive play-off defeats before the Wembley redemption against Chesterfield took Notts back into the 92. Even the first season back might have ended with a lower mid table outcome, but we were in the play off positions for a long time. Last season, it was back to the play offs, and another defeat.
And so, to 25-26 and all the changes, the ambition to push on for automatic promotion, the new ‘technical board’. All of it. But then, the month of September has been, well, ‘normal’. I mean, normal for most football supporters, but most rare for us. Wins and defeats, good and bad, indifferent and unfortunate. Neither up there, nor down there. Midtable. Most peculiar.
Maybe we all need it. For our collective wellbeing. Ordinary mind. Zen Notts. A wheelbarrow that is neither broken nor very useful. It just is. Notts just are. Just being Notts.
Well, let’s hope not. Let’s hope it ends up being typically intense and stressful and probably ending in tears as we get bullied by a classic fourth tier ‘well organised, physical outfit’ in the play offs, once more. But we are where we are, at summer’s close, as our steps count down the dulling of daylight, from Jennifer Grotz.
Jatta stayed and the prospects ahead as he synchs with the prolific Dennis with a fit Jodie Jones and other new signings coming good are something to savour. But September promised more than it gave.
August ended with hope, as Notts had swept aside Shrewsbury and – so we all concurred - would have hung on to beat Bromley had Jatta’s back stilled. So when Dennis netted again with ‘The Big Man’ on the same pitch to start the month with another 3 points, here was belief. But then began this mid-table form. A classic ‘not turning up’ away at the league leaders, when the momentum was with both teams, but ours was curtailed. But then a swashbuckling 4-0 over Crawley at The Lane and, yes, the ‘complete performance’. The returning Scott Robertson was man of the match and scored a great goal, Jatta rose to the moment with a stunning finish and this year’s Spurs prodigy, Tyrese Hall, came off the bench for a brace.
So, at this point, we’ve only lost once, and to the league leaders, away. Hope restored, now let’s ‘go again’ to build another run. Away to Crewe, our nemesis destination,successive defeats, penalties and late capitulation. That can’t happen again, so with this is going to be the result to put us right back up there. But - it happened again, Literally. 95 minutes, Notts dominating, penalty against us, zero points. And this was very much like the before times. Like last season, the worst parts of it. Good performance, not scoring, gifting goals. So, then, we won, then we lost, then we won, then we lost. Mid-table, neither one nor the other. September was this ‘wondrous strange’.
Off the pitch, well, strange times. After leading on a mixed summer of recruitment, Roberto Gagliardi abruptly departed. Whilst Martin Paterson had promised to ‘stay in his lane’ when questioned about the personnel he has been tasked to succeed with, the fact of his overtly articulating such a willingness spoke volumes, more than metaphorically. There is, at the time of writing, a vacancy for a Lead Analyst. We trust the process but is the data likely to reveal much more than is obvious from watching the team? We hope so. A financial statement has offered clear reassurances about the owners’ long-term commitment. And maybe long term is the way to contemplate where we are. Incremental progression, shoots of hope and setbacks.
During the Robin Hood Half Marathon, a fellow ran alongside me for a while wearing a retro Notts shirt to match my leg tattoo. We discussed County’s fortunes, and he compared us to Brentford’s slow, incremental rise, and look where they are now. In his words, “better to stay ten years in league 2 and then go up than go back out of the league”. I would credit his wisdom but he was faster than me, so he vanished ahead before I could get a name.
He was out of sight. Like Gillingham at the top of League 2. The league we are 12th in. 12th of 24!
Stuck in the middle with Notts.
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