Left Magpie: November 2026 - In Finneran’s Wake

During the Football Radar years, perhaps the single most impactful element of the data driven recruitment model has been the loan deal talent pipeline into Meadow Lane from Premier League clubs. Rory Finneran is one of this season’s crop in this pivotal genre and he is ‘next level’.  

On loan from Newcastle, aged 18, the question already is whether we can keep him for the whole season. That seems the most likely, as Newcastle, even in their current form, would be ill-advised to throw him into the Premier League, and if they were to recall him to loan out to a Championship club he would be stretched to ‘get the minutes’. A full season at Notts, then, ten months of physical assault, the absence of VAR and ‘mixed ability’ team mates is the best option all round. Another Jack Grealish and even Roader-esque in our feelings towards him. 

October was a month of two halves; the textbook ‘positive split’.  Oxford were way more superior to Notts when they visited. More so even than the Bradford home defeat before it, we looked ‘off the pace’ and out of our depth in this higher division, for the first time. The scoreline flattered County, courtesy of a fine 92^nd minute strike for his first league goal by Mr Finneran.

The 5-1 dispatch of Forest in the EFL Trophy was obviously a good thing. If you squint so the ‘U21’ fades from view, it’s a nice dream. But then it was back to the core business and a serious wake-up call for everyone. Wycombe ‘did an Oxford’ but in a more alarming way since they were down there with Notts at the start of the game. Four defeats in a row in the league. One goal scored. Big reality check. Martin Paterson was untypically downbeat, making less than subtle references to ‘personnel’ and ‘this level’. Had the wheel fallen off the data driven analytical recruitment barrow? 

Eleven days were a long time in County’s October. Sheffield Wednesday and Stockport descended on the home of league football and were well beaten and matched respectively. Both Notts performances were superb. ‘Patto ball’ is in full effect. Intense, pressing, moving the ball, ‘box entries’, bodies on the line in our box. Loan striker Daniel Kanu was finally off the mark with a penalty. Scott Robertson was back and making a huge difference, but – notwithstanding his own prowess - it is his new partnership with Finneran that stands out as a game-changer.  

The month ends with an old school ‘football special’ to Mansfield, via rail and real ale en route at Hucknall. Expectation was mixed. Momentum was with both sides, and we have hardly covered ourselves in glory at Field Mill (sorry, the One Call Stadium) for a couple of decades. Well, it was a wonderful day. 

"Notts away, we like it” rang out for most of the match as an over-stated understatement. The away masses surely concurred with James Joyce – “One great part of every human existence is passed in a state which cannot be rendered sensible.” Cal Roberts scored a genuine worldie. Kanu scored in open play, a lovely striker’s pounce on a loose pass, predatory, exactly what we have been missing. Stags never laid a glove. Nigel Clough in a post-match strop at his ungrateful supporters rendering his Stags a disgrace to lose to us. Our manager, by contrast, agrees that it was “as good as it gets” and that the most important thing is that the fans enjoy it. We did. 30p Lee, your boys took a hell of a beating!!

But there is the thing. With all this taking place, the carnage in the away end, the scenes and limbs, a frenetic local derby…. there he was, not too flamboyant, not standing out, but there, in his own zone of certainty, with a perfect centre of gravity, in himself a level above our next level, turning and gliding, passing and moving. He gets knocked down, but he gets up again.  

Through all of this most happy event, the nagging doubt is there – “Thinking always if he go all goes.” Rory Finneran, leaving October’s dark first half in his wake.