THE NOTTS BLOG

THE LAST 12 MONTHSFrom Carlisle to Sutton United. Via Turin?!

WHAT AWAITS IN 2012/13?Scouting our League One opponents this year

a brave leap from the screen into the world of print issue #1 £2

INTRODUCTIONHello, and thanks for (I hope) buying the first printed copy of The Notts Blog. The idea behind this is purely to see if there’s still a demand for a printed fanzine at Meadow Lane, in the style of the

yesteryear classics like The Pie and No More Pie In The Sky.

This edition has been a solo effort - but if the feedback is good and enough people show an interest in contributing to a future issue

then expect more in the future.

Get in touch at fanzine@thenottsblog.co.uk if you’re interested!

THE LAST 12 MONTHSPutting into words just how much better last season was than the one which came before is no easy task. As the team made the trek north to open their season at Carlisle, you’d have been brave to predict Notts County would still be in the play-off picture come the final day of the season.

Except Notts weren’t just in the picture - were it not for a three dubiously timed Bury substitutions down at Steve-nage then it could so easily have been County that made it to the nPower League One Play-Off Semi-Finals.

We can look back now and think of games that ultimately cost Keith Curle’s team but don’t we do enough beat-ing ourselves up over where things went wrong? Let’s spend the time looking back

over the many, many good times there were!

Reminding that club over the river that they DO care about Notts. The short stopover in Turin. Crushing the eventual Champions on their own turf. The miraculous fightback at Wycombe. Last season is one that deserves remembering.

I hope you’ll think i’ve done it justice over the next few pages.

Stu

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AUGUST 2011Expectations amongst sup-porters at the start of August were relatively low-key going into the first game of the sea-son away at Carlisle. Pre-sea-son results weren’t the most promising, and many weren’t all that convinced with the calibre of Martin Allen’s sign-ings thus far.

But the 500+ travelling fans instead were to see Notts finish the day (joint) top of League One by virtue of a 3-0 win. A debut strike from Jeff Hughes, a Zoko own goal and Lee Hughes opening his account for the season got

things off to the perfect start for County.

Controversy again was to follow Hughesy (the original one) as he needed to be re-placed in the second half for his own protection following a few altercations on the ball. A complete nonsense as ever!

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Just days later in the Carling Cup, we all made short trips across the river in the League Cup’s first round – but not before we cheered the team off as they departed Meadow Lane via the slightest of de-tours past the Meadow Lane Sports Bar.

County were knocked out that night – but heads were held high that evening. Mike Ed-wards put Allen’s side on their way backed up by Craig West-carr’s last goal for the club and another for Lee Hughes.

They weren’t enough though – all wiped out by a swing of the right foot in the last kick of the game from Wes Mor-gan and a penalty shootout.

Hamza Bencherif, Lee Hughes and club Captain Neal Bishop all missed from the spot to deny what would’ve been a most-famous victory.

August 13th’s top of the table clash with Charlton saw Notts lose for the first time this season – that despite Chris-tian Montano’s first goal on loan from West Ham giving Notts hope early in the sec-ond half. The Addicks’ goals both coming via Jeff Hughes errors in the first half.

The visitors that day were to go on and clinch the division quite comfortably – but we weren’t finished with them yet for this year!

Notts’ year was to take a surprising turn the following day. Whilst most were pick-ing apart the previous day’s defeat, the club announced that on September 8th, they would be taking on Juventus at the grand opening of their Juventus Arena in Turin. Sur-real doesn’t even begin to cover it!

Tranmere Rovers visited the following Tuesday, and they went down to a last minute Jeff Hughes penalty (his first of many!). Krystian Pearce and Julian Kelly also got on the scoresheet as we finished with two men more than our overly-physical guests. Ricky Ravenhill in fact ended the night in hospital with a con-cussion – picking up a yellow card in the process really took some doing!

Consecutive defeats on the road to Sheffield Wednes-day (2-1, having taken the lead through another Jughes penalty – Bish was also sent off) and Preston North End (in which they also saw their

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goalkeeper Ian Hulme got on the scoresheet) finished the month off on a sour note, ensuring that Notts finished the month off in 15th - the mid-table positioning many thought we’d end the season with anyway!

Of possibly more concern though was the sale of Craig Westcarr to Chesterfield. Having the spent the Sum-mer trying (and constantly failing) to sign a striker – you couldn’t help question the de-cision to sell a pivotal player in both 2009/10’s Coca Cola League Two winning team, and that squad that narrowly avoided relegation last year.

Particularly with no replace-ment lined up!

SEPTEMBER 2011To say September was a spe-cial month in Notts County’s history is somewhat of an understatement. Four wins and a draw in League One – we even had the free time to make a trip to Turin for a game against Juventus. Good times? No, simply great times.

Goals from Lee Hughes, Krys-tian Peace and some superb footwork from Christian Mon-tano started the month off with a 3-1 win at home to Bournemouth to send eve-ryone off to the mainland in great spirits. The visitors had levelled the game at one point, the Notts of the previ-ous campaign would likely

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have buckled under such pressure.

Juventus was a special night for everyone associated with the club – words don’t quite do the emotions felt from Lee Hughes’ late equaliser justice. That the game finished 1-1 was a legitimate high point in the campaign, one that’ll go down in the club’s history.

With the entire squad given a run out, each player will have his own stories to tell from the evening – especially Rob Burch who had the audacity to save a Fabio Quagliarella penalty!

Sure, Luca Toni stabbed home the rebound but it was hard to begrudge them that on an evening where those Notts fans who had made the trip were treated like royalty by

our hosts. How we all hope to return the favour this Sum-mer at Meadow Lane!

Less than 48 hours on from returning home and Notts were taking on and beat-ing Walsall back home. Lee Hughes got our Goal Of The Season in the first half, chest-ing into the air an Alan Judge cross before viciously volley-

ing past a helpless ex-’pie David Grof. Another equaliser followed, before Montano set-tled the game in the second half.

Tired legs after a meaning-less, poorly-timed friendly? Not a chance!

The first draw of the season came the following Tuesday in a 1-1 draw with Exeter, Ben Burgess getting his first goal

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of the campaign to equalise.The same night, Stevenage were hammering Sheffield Wednesday 5-1 at home, which was County’s next port of call. Many sides would be daunted at the task on their hands – not Martin Al-len’s though. After Stuart Nelson’s early penalty save, more goals from Lee Hughes and Ben Burgess lifted Notts County into seventh spot with a 2-0 win.

Allen also picked up the nPower Manager Of The Month award for September too – the icing on the cake for a truly memorable month.

OCTOBER 2011The highs of September were always going to be a struggle to match – October 1st’s jour-ney to Milton Keynes against their Dons was evidence enough of that.

Julian Kelly saw red early on for handling on the line (a great stop in fairness). Stuart Nelson spared Kelly’s blushes momentarily by saving the penalty but it would only postpone the inevitable.

County went down 3-0 – but it was only once the sear-ing heat had taken it’s toll on County’s ten men that the hosts finished the game off late on. Defeat, but plenty of positives to take from the afternoon’s sterile environ-ment – not least the very real attacking threat posed by a previously written off Sam Sodje coming off the bench!

As Martin Allen shuffled his pack the following Tuesday in the Johnstone’s Paint Tro-phy – it was Karl Hawley who was to get back on the scoresheet, curling home a stunning 30-yarder. A sec-ond string Notts though went down 3-1 to Chesterfield who had played much of the game with ten men.

For the first time it was being forced in your face just how little strength in depth there was in the side. With the chance to make it to Wemb-ley missed out on for Notts, the Spireites would go on to

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lift the trophy. Looking at the positives though – they were also relegated from nPower League One.

The Sky Sports cameras were in town the following week-end for the visit of Hartlepool for a Sunday evening kick-off. And what a display they saw! Two more for Karl Hawley and Christian Montano’s last before turning to West Ham (needed in their squad, yet pushed out to Swindon al-most instantly by Fat Sam) showed the armchair viewing public just what Notts were capable of. A 3-0 win was no less than County deserved in an afternoon they utterly dominated.

A week later and we were back on the road for the short sojourn to Chesterfield for a 3-1 win with 2,000+ travel-

ling fans. Ben Burgess, Alan Judge and Sam Sodje at the death saw everyone going home very happy with the afternoon’s efforts.

That though was to be the last league win for more than a month. Successive draws at home to Brentford (a Jeff Hughes penalty cancelled out by Summer target Clayton Donaldson’s screamer just ten seconds into the second half) and 2-2 away at Bury (two more Jeff penalties!) still offered no indication of the 4-2 mauling that was to come away at Colchester though!

Sam Sodje and a Heath own goal were Notts’ contributions in Allen’s heaviest defeat so far in charge – but the month still ended with his side now in 6th place a point ahead of Stevenage.

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NOVEMBER 2011The month of October prob-ably couldn’t have started much better! With Wycombe Wanderers the visitors to Meadow Lane, Ben Bur-gess’ header in the very first minute against a side strug-gling at the lower end of the table would hopefully be enough to set Notts off for the afternoon.

In front of a populated Sirrel stand thanks to a Kids For A Quid offer though, Wycombe equalised in the last minute. Two points definitely dropped you thought. Like so many sides that inflicted misery on Notts in the early months of the campaign – we weren’t done with them though.

With league form slightly on the wane, there was a timely distraction for Notts in the shape of the FA Cup’s first round and the visit of League Two’s Accrington Stanley. Incidentally, Stanley were the only side to win at Meadow Lane in the title-winning charge of 2009/10 so it might not have been the easy tie it appeared at first on paper.

No such fears though when another superb Karl Haw-ley brace sandwiched goals from Alans Judge and Shee-han en route to a 4-1 win. The reward? A tricky visit to non-leaguers Sutton United in round two the following month.

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Another league defeat fol-lowed though, away at Hud-dersfield Town on the day they celebrated breaking the record of unbeaten league games. Conveniently ignoring a play-off final defeat (and a 4-1 stuffing a week before at Swindon Town) we were num-ber 43 on their list – despite Neal Bishop’s late, late conso-lation strike.

The month was to end on a high though at least – even if it was in somewhat for-

uitous circumstances at home to Scunthorpe United.

Leading through a Krystian Pearce header, Notts were pegged back by goals either side ofhalf time. At 2-1 down, the visitors had a man sent off for a challenge just off the halfway line. The sort of foul you want to see punished – yet would be outraged if it was from one of your own!

Notts never looked back. Firstly, Jeff Hughes came off the bench to grab the equal-iser, before Julian Kelly found himself running into the Iron’s area unchallenged be-fore rifling in the match-win-ner with just eight minutes remaining - enough to ensure we ended the month again still inside the top six!

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DECEMBER 2011The FA Cup Second Round tie away at Sutton United kicked December off in a fairly pro-fessional manner. Again the TV cameras were on hand for the Sunday evening kick-off, with ESPN and many neu-trals hoping for a famous cup upset.

And they nearly got it – with Stuart Nelson again being called upon for penalty saving duties. With embarrassment avoided, this time though it was Jeff Hughes with two goals that helped seal a tie in the next round away at Don-caster Rovers of the Champi-onship.

Back to nPower League One business the next week, and the trip to Yeovil wasn’t much fun for anyone. Having been quite comfortable for much of the game despite not break-ing the hosts defence down, a late goal ensured Notts they’d be heading back up the mo-torway empted handed.

It all would’ve been so differ-ent had Alan Judge’s volley from outside the area can-noned in – but we’d find our-selves saying that quite often for the new few weeks!

Another league defeat was to follow on December 17th when Leyton Orient took three points home from Meadow Lane. A late goal from Lee Hughes kept the pressure on, but Jeff Hughes’ late miss from the penalty spot (his only miss from 12 yards of the season) meant County lost the game 2-1.

For a third time already in the campaign, a Notts game was to be beamed to people’s television sets when Sky TV aired the away game at Shef-field United’s Bramall Lane just two days after Christmas.United unfortunately weren’t in festive mood, coming back from a goal down to win 2-1. Alan Judge’s free-kick in the first half was all Martin Allen’s team had to show from an afternoon in which they were very rarely outplayed by their title-chasing counterparts. Ishmel Demontagnac’s late dismissal only added further salt to the wound.

The last fixture of the calen-dar year came at Boundary Park, where Oldham inflicted a fourth defeat in four games for the month. Despite taking the lead twice through both Lee Hughes and Neal Bishop, a 3-2 defeat had Notts drop-

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ping down to ninth in the table.

The play-offs were still in sight – but the gap was four points and only getting big-ger. If getting out of League One was to remain realistic, Notts and Martin Allen really couldn’t afford to lose further ground. After four straight defeats, Allen was walking a tightrope – Paul Ince was sacked following five losses on the bounce after all.

JANUARY 2012Notts County kicked off their 150th year with a home fix-ture with Huddersfield Town. The afternoon kicked off a parade of club legend’s before the game all in anticipation

of witnessing the game that would get a faltering promo-tion push back on track.

Notts youngster Haydn Hollis made his competitive debut and looked quite accom-plished all afternoon when faced with League One’s most prolific striker, Jordan Rho-des. That not to mean Hud-dersfield weren’t worthy of their 2-0 lead though.

But once more the Notts squad’s resolve shone through, when goals from the Hughes’ of Lee and Jeff rescued a late point – halting in the process a run of four straight league defeats.

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Championship were put to the sword a week later. And who else but Jeff Hughes was again on hand with both goals in a quite comfortable afternoon at the Keepmoat Stadium.

A trip to south coast a week later saw Notts return from Bournemouth with no points on the board. Despite tak-ing the lead through a Hamza Bencherif thunderbolt on five minutes, his first goal in black and white wasn’t enough to prevent a 2-1 defeat.

Back to Meadow Lane a week later, and some of the best football we’d see at home all season came as Notts secured a 1-1 draw thanks to another Jeff Hughes penalty. MK Dons had taken the lead that af-ternoon, but Martin Allen’s substitutions saw County grab a much needed point against our fellow play-off chasers in a thoroughly dominant sec-ond period.

In truth, the Dons were fortu-nate to escape with a point!

So with everyone on a high from that, Preston North End at home the following Tues-day promised to be a decent evening. But it was with some disappointment that the visitors had managed to walk away with a 0-0 scoreline in one of the poorest perfor-mances of the season – we’ll never get an explanation as to why Martin Allen changed so much of his team having looked so strong the previous weekend.

That was followed days later by defeat at Stevenage Bor-ough in the FA Cup Fourth Round. No great riches from this year’s cup run – but still it was the first time in over 100 years that the club had reached Round Four three years in a row. Progress, but little consolation for Damion Stewart’s 12th minute own goal that put Notts out.

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The month ended on a high though at least, as Lee Hughes was again the thorn in Walsall’s side when his volley from the edge of the box inside three minutes was enough to take three points and secure a first nPower League One win in two whole months.

The ship was momentar-ily steadied on the field with mid-table obscurity on the horizon. This being Notts though, there were a few gi-ant plot twists still remaining!

FEBRUARY 2012The big freeze in the weather meant Notts had two weeks off before the next game, and it suited them well consider-ing the 2-1 win that followed against Exeter City at Mead-ow Lane.

Lee Hughes capitalised on a goalkeeping howler early on before yet another Jeff Hughes penalty gave Notts a 2-1 victory.

With two wins on the bounce and only one defeat to show for 2012, things appeared calm going into the away game at Hartlepool. Sadly though, our hosts inflicted exact revenge for their 3-0 humbling at Meadow Lane via the same scoreline.

It cost Martin Allen his job, relieved of his duties later on that same evening before you’d imagine the team bus had even arrived back in Not-tingham!

Ray Trew and the board acted quickly to secure the services

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of Keith Curle who had been working alongside County legend Neil Warnock at QPR during their Championship winning run last season, and the Premier League this.

Has there ever been such a poorly received manage-rial appointment? You largely found yourself in one of two camps – those who wouldn’t give Curle the benefit of the doubt, and those who would back him out of hope rather than expectation.

The impact was felt immedi-ately though, County’s form was about to go through the roof.

Curle and his backroom of Colins West and Lee, Chris Kiwomya got off to a flyer, starting just one day after their arrival when Jeff Hughes last minute winner over Ste-venage set about winning the Meadow Lane crowd over.

The following weekend, Jona-than Forte’s second half win-ner in front of the Kop earned victory over Chesterfield before a midweek trip to old friends Rochdale saw Hamza Bencherif’s header bring home another victory.

Three wins in three under KC’s stewardship had put Notts County right back in the play-off picture at a time when some had already began to look towards the wrong end of the table. His arrival was a timely interven-tion by the club’s board – but things were still to get better.

What we had seen so far from a Curle-led Notts County was nothing yet.

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MARCH 2012Having started his reign with three straight 1-0 wins, that run was to come to an end when Notts kicked off March with a home game against Carlisle.

This time though, via a 2-0 win. First, Jonathan Forte directed Alan Judge’s cross in for the first goal, before moments later a sublime Alan Sheehan free-kick rounded off the scoring.

The winning streak was how-ever to end at Prenton Park the next Tuesday when a last minute equaliser cancelled out Damion Stewart’s early opener. Disappointing at first

but an away point against one of the tougher home records in the division was nothing to be sniffed at.

Four wins and a draw in his five games in charge – but what was to come next caught the entire Football League off guard, let alone the Notts County supporters, even the manager himself!

On Saturday, March 10th County travelled to London and The Valley, where Chris Powell’s Charlton Athletic side were running away with the League One title having only suffered the one league de-feat at home all season. Until this day.

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Alan Judge set the team on their way with a 30-yard-drive, right before Forte grabbed an astonishing first half perfect hat-trick. 4-0 at half time away to the even-tual champions – this was dreamland! The expressions of the travelling County fans painted a picture in itself, no one could believe this hap-pening.

Charlton came out and threw everything at Notts in the second half but could only pull back two consolations as Notts’ backline weathered the early storm. Charging towards the play-off posi-tions and sending out a warn-ing shot to the rest of the division, the 4-2 win was an amazing effort.

Full page spreads awaited in the Sunday tabloids the next day, each with Teams Of The Day dominated by Judgey and Jonny Forte – no place for three-assist Jeff Hughes though!

Unhappy to sit back with what he had in his squad though, Curle began to really bolster his attacking options. First with the signing of Lloyd Sam from Neil Warnock’s Leeds United.

With the nerve to be look-ing higher up the table than simply sixth place, Notts’ mo-mentum was abruptly halted through a Sheffield double whammy. Firstly by Wednes-day who took a 2-1 win in spite of Lloyd Sam’s first County goal.

In response, Dele Adebola came in hours before kick off against Sheffield United and made his first appearance that night at Meadow Lane. It wasn’t one to remember though as the visitors inflicted a 5-2 humbling on Curle’s side, finishing with ten men thanks to Neal Bishop’s red card. Judge and Julian Kelly added some respectability to the score, but it was little more than a futile response to four first half goals from the Blades.

This was the night which was to end the season of Forte when he was hospitalised with facial fractures for a second half elbow which went unpunished. No question Notts would go on to end the season missing his goals.

The deal for Curle’s second striking option was completed days later with Maltese Inter-national Daniel Bogdanovic

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signing on loan from Black-pool.

A goalless draw at Scunthor-pe where Curle’s men did everything but score stead-ied the ship somewhat. That was ahead of Oldham’s visit to Meadow Lane when Alan Sheehan made the most of great Sam hold-up play to bury a last minute screamer to finish the month on a high thanks to a 1-0 win.

Back up to 7th in the league, but four points behind 6th place Carlisle United and with them having a game in hand on us – had the run been left a little bit too late with just over a month left to go and six games to play?

APRIL 2012The penultimate month of the season began on Good Friday with over 600 fans head-ing back down to London for Leyton Orient with revenge in

in mind for a 2-1 Meadow Lane defeat earlier in the campaign.

A 3-0 victory went some way towards making amends as Damion Stewart, Jeff Hughes and Lloyd Sam all struck late in the day. Better still was the news of a late Wycombe equaliser against Carlisle United in 6th right as Notts were pushing for their third goal! County were hot on their heels.

A year on since a late Brent-ford equaliser at Meadow Lane dragged Notts County back into a relegation dog-fight, a 3-1 home win over Yeovil was lifting us into the division’s top six. Lloyd Sam’s slightly controversial hat-trick, capped off by a spec-

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tacular solo effort in the last minute cemented his place as one of the most important players at Keith Curle’s dis-posal for the run-in.

A goalless draw away at Brentford the following week-end was invaluable. The Bees were one of the division’s form sides, to hold them back for 90 minutes was enough to keep the chasing pack at bay that little bit longer.

Away from Meadow Lane a few days later – both Ste-venage and Carlisle were to play out their game in hand against eachother. Stevenage won- a win would’ve moved United above Notts, but the win would certainly come back to haunt County by the end of the season though as it would turn out!

With everything seemingly going in Notts’ favour though they buckled at home to Bury. The visitors capital-ised on County’s indecision on their way to a 4-2 win. A Lee Hughes equaliser at the beginning of the second half had dragged us back into the game before Bury regained their lead moments later. A Mike Edwards consolation proved futile on the day in

which Stevenage regained 6th place with two games remain-ing.

It’s easy to look back now on the importance of the free header which Lee Hughes sailed wide after 16 seconds.

The following week hun-dreds of Notts fans, many in fancy dress made the trip to Wycombe for the final away game of the season in a must-win game with Wy-combe themselves fighting against the same drop that we so narrowly avoided last season.

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And what an afternoon it was. Our hosts led within a minute before being pegged back shortly after by Daniel Bogdanovic’s first for Notts. A soft penalty restored Wander-ers’ advantage before Alan Judge’s most ferocious strike yet put the teams level going into half time.

The dangerous Stuart Beavon was put his Wycombe side in front for the third time in the game and for all intents and purposes as we approached injury time – you thought the season was due a premature end.

But that’s hardly the Notts way, is it? A last minute equaliser, and another first goal for the club this time from Dele Adebola and anoth-er simply World class strike from the edge of the area from Judgey sealed an enor-mous win for County. Unbe-lievable scenes at the finish.

The play-off dream lived on for another week – for Wy-combe, they were heading back to nPower League Two.With the pressure firmly on Stevenage going into their evening kick off at Sheffield United, they raced to a 2-0 lead – the ultimate damp-

ener on our celebrations. The game would finish 2-2, both Notts County and Stevenage Borough were going into the last day of the season level on points with only goal dif-ference to separate them, with Carlisle one point behind waiting for a slip.

MAY 2012Knowing that all they had to do was better Stevenage’s result, Notts raced into a 3-0 half-time lead at home to Colchester. Goals from Jeff Hughes, Daniel Bogdanovic and another Alan Judge belter got the afternoon off to a perfect start whilst Stevenage held a slender lead at home to Bury.

Kieron Freeman’s first goal for the club rounded off the day, and the season’s scoring though as Bury conceded two late goals to ensure Steve-nage would finish in sixth. A late Colchester consolation did nothing to take the shine off a proud afternoon though when all Notts could do was win and hope for the best.That’s not to say the final whistle didn’t sting just a little though.

Days later the players would convene back at Meadow

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Lane for the annual Player Of The Year Awards night in the 1862 Suite.

Judgey unsurprisingly took both the Player’s and Fan’s Player Of The Year following his most tenacious of cam-paigns in a Notts shirt. Jeff Hughes, top scorer in his first season at the club collected his Golden Boot trophy whilst also being Keith Curle’s Man-ager’s Player Of The Year. Lee Hughes (unsurprisingly) picked up the Goal Of The Season award for his finish against Walsall way back in September.

Ultimately, the season ended in relative disappointment considering how far the squad had come – but finishing sev-enth, and only just missing out on the play-offs due to goal difference?

That’s something you’d have been foolish to predict back in July when losing at Hinckley United in pre-season!

Curle started his rebuild for next season almost imme-diately by releasing the vast majority of those who found themselves out of contract. Most notably leaving were ever-present goalkeeper

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Stuart Nelson, and defender Liam Chilvers who’s return to the side had played a key role in the end of season form.

Notts were to receive a boost of sorts in the news that the sexual assault charge on Lee Hughes had been dropped in place of an accepted charge of common assault. The jury had believed Hughes’ version of events - that of an act of horseplay gone awry.

Still a guilty verdict - but a recently-distracted Hughes was at least free to focus on his pre-season preparations instead.

Hopefully his first goal under Keith Curle won’t be far off!

Of all the players released

by Notts, Ben Burgess was to first to find a club as he made the leap to Tranmere Rovers.

Having acquitted himself so much better in League Two during a loan spell with Chel-tenham it was a surprise to see Big Ben land at another League One side.

With Euro 2012’s tournament fast appearing on the horizon, Jeff Hughes earned himself a recall to the Northern Ireland squad for a friendly as part of The Netherlands warmup preparations.

Jeff didn’t feature in the match though - no bad thing though as the Dutch ran out 6-0 winners, the Irish’s sec-ond worst result of all time!

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With the nation seemingly on a high on the back of the Royal Jubilee celebrations (or the Queen’s Birthday if your name is Will.I.Am) the more important celebration took place at Meadow Lane on June 7th as the club hosted it’s 150th year celebratory gala on the Meadow Lane pitch.

JUNE 2012

The night even featured video speeches from such esteemed luminaries as FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Juventus head honcho Andrea Agnelli amongst others.

Less than 24 hours later and it appeared Notts had their first signing of the Summer in

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Gary Liddle who had just a few weeks ago been released by Hartlepool having played nearly 250 games for them.

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WHAT AWAITS IN 2012/13?So what happens next? Well for one, hopefully League One will be more of a level playing field now we’ve seen the backs of Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday and play-off victors Huddersfield.

You would say right off the bat that in itself offers cause for optimism amongst many other clubs in the division as well as ours.

In their place, we now have Doncaster Rovers, Coventry City and Portsmouth - three clubs riddled with off-field un-certainty who will do well just to possibly consolidate. Plym-outh and Scunthorpe United have shown in the last two seasons how tough a division this can be coming down from the Championship.

The Towns of Swindon and Crawley have spent big in the close season, looking to make a bigger impact in their first

years in the third tier. Last season saw Chesterfield sent down having been promoted the season before, with Notts themselves only surviving on the final day a year before having promoted as League Two winners.

But what’re the mindsets of all of our opponents this year? I plucked 23 different supporters from our rivals and posed them a small set of questions to gauge their opinions on the season that lies ahead in League One.

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w w w . t h e n o t t s b l o g . c o . u k