Our Notts County columnist Julian McDougall, is back with a report of the last month of action at Notts County FC...
Everything in its right place. October 2025. Notts County played four, won three, drew one, lost none. The draw was away at a team who were hoping to win to go top of the league. Notts finished October two points from the top.
No matter that League 2 is, once again, as tight as your simile of choice for a league with few points between teams. As previously reflected in this column, we do binary thinking. One defeat will change the mindset. That precarity hovers, always. But for now, Martin Paterson’s team have followed the near-perfection of October with a statement of conviction to dispatch Brackley in the FA Cup’s opening gambit. No squad rotation. Respect the cup. Go for the run and the riches of a third round jackpot. Notts’ fans stepped into the darkness of winter, where in our daily lives we are forced again to learn to know the love of bare November days, but our team were a ray of winter sun - they aspire hope after struggle.
But then, on the first day of the next month, Brackley. We will come back to that.
Back to those halcyon October days. The Oldham 3-1 at the Lane was described as a ‘cruise’ by BBC Sport. We should pause to enjoy such things, after last season’s steadfast resolution to turn the home of league football into the opposite of a fortress. Tryese Hall was on the ball, as we are now coming to expect, and cometh the hour, cometh the Jatta. Approaching a return to full fitness.
The smash and grab 1-0 at Barnet was in some ways the best moment. They dominated us for 94 minutes. But we defended, brilliantly, and then nicked it. Tyrese again. A consensus was emerging among fans that our coach has made a very big difference in this crucial respect. Possession is nice, but winning is better.
Then on to Swindon, the re-arranged game, and a massive challenge as the hosts knew they would go top. But we led twice, and it was a fair draw. And another goal from AJ. This was a good evening, to follow up the pragmatic win at Barnet with a solid point, which could have been three, at a very strong promotion contender.
Back to Meadow Lane and the visit of Cambridge, who had the kind of game plan that has so often frustrated us, and it did, for two thirds of the game. Until our ‘real time pitch-side technical data team’ advised Paterson to bring on three subs who changed the dynamic and allowed a brace from …. JATTA.
Clearly, the return to brilliance of our centre forward raises more questions for January – waiting for Jatta part 2. But we will cross that bridge.
The smash and grab 1-0 at Barnet was in some ways the best moment. They dominated us for 94 minutes. But we defended, brilliantly, and then nicked it.
Talking of recruitment and retention, off the pitch Richard Montague returned. Like Luke Williams departure, this has been a relatively rare situation, no hard feelings and a warm welcome back from Swansea. After all, Montague’s partnership with Football Radar was in place when we made it back to the league, so we are happy to have him back and in his new role as Director of Football as we head towards another transfer window. Let’s conveniently put aside the inconvenient truth that he was in charge of recruitment for the last January recruitment. We will bring that to the surface if it all goes wrong, again, no doubt. For now it is all good. It's black and white, after all. We are still in October here, mind.
Ah, yes, October. I missed the first game of the month due to a work trip to the south of Italy, so I made up for that with an away trip for the first round of the cup. Old school, standing – “From Bari to Brackley”. And it was going to be good. We would give them no quarter. Paterson said we would be preparing for the game in the same way as we would against Arsenal.
So, at least now we know if we ever play Arsenal we will play really very badly. And Jatta will miss a penalty.
But we will always have October.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
