Left Pie-On: September

illustration: Adam Poole

It was an exciting, if slightly random, summer. Having been relegated on the last day of last season, we managed to shed a dozen or so players from the squad, so fans were hoping for half a dozen or so tight signings that would walk straight into the first team squad. But our maverick, new Dutch Manager Ricardo Moniz, had other ideas.

Nineteen(!) signings later and we fans are still trying to work out who’s who out there. It's also a pronunciation nightmare for ageing Radio Nottingham commentator Colin Slater as our signings hailed from seven countries outside of the home nations including Holland (Snijders and Jenner), Belgium (Swerts), France (Audel), Slovenia (Valencic), Togo (Amevor), Curaçao (Sprockel) and Ghana (Aborah).

With such a new squad, you obviously need to give them time to settle in. But no, we got off to a flyer with a 2-0 win at Stevenage, completely spoiling Teddy Sheringham's first competitive game as a manager. Goals from Curtis Thompson and new boy Amevor topped off a good performance, with the only downside being the latter getting sent off for a silly tussle with Stevenage's Tom Hitchcock at the end of the game.

We followed this up with an even more impressive performance in the League Cup against Championship side Huddersfield Town. Two fantastic goals from midfielder Liam Noble  sealed an unlikely 2-1 win. The only downside was that the experienced Swerts got sent off towards the end. See a pattern starting to emerge here?

There was an air of expectancy for our first home game as we faced up to local rivals Mansfield Town in front of a bumper crowd of over 10,000. The winner would go top of the league and it was also a chance for us to win back the thousands of floating fans we've lost from years of poor home form. Unfortunately the Stags came to us with an excellent strategy, totally outfought us for every 50/50 ball and completely deserved their 2-0 win. Three points and local bragging rights to them.

After this, we went to Oxford disillusioned and, despite taking the lead, we managed to lose 3-1. Suddenly we were plunged right near the bottom of the table instead of at the top. Then Accrington Stanley paid us a visit at home (with our home crowd now down to the more familiar 3,800) and, despite taking the lead for the second consecutive game, we had to settle for a draw and yet another sending off – this time for Liam Noble, his fourth red card in 40-odd games for us. Naughty boy!

After three sending offs in five days, it’s fair to surmise that there is a discipline problem at Notts. In isolation none of these red cards were particularly shocking or nasty, but three in five games sets alarm bells ringing. Also, talented as he is, Liam Noble will have to get to the rest of the season without seeing red again before many fans will reconsider their opinions of him as an absolute liability.

Onto more pleasant things, however, and our reward for beating Huddersfield earlier in the League Cup on was a plum tie away to Premier League Aston Villa. We also showcased our new centre forward Izale McLeod, a £150,000 buy from Crawley who has 150 career goals in 450 appearances. It turned out to be a real game to remember as Notts took the lead three times against their bigger rivals, before capitulating in extra time to lose 5-3 – mainly due to the difference in fitness between the teams. But every fan at Villa Park that night will have felt uber-proud of the Magpies and it was a performance that bodes well for the future.

Unfortunately, in typically patchy Notts style, we followed that up with a 4-1 defeat away to Morecambe, which many fans considered to be our worst result of the season. A 3-1 win at home against Mansfield Town in the Johnstones Paint Trophy the following Tuesday did little to alleviate the frustration. 

Where we go from here is hard to say. We currently have a first-team squad of 36, which seems ridiculous for a club of our size. The fact that we’ve signed so many, yet still lack a commanding centre-half is also a cause for alarm. However, respect must go to our Chairman for backing his manager and after initially feeling highly sceptical about the appointment of Moniz I admit that I am starting to warm to his eccentricity, particularly the way he calls out referees and has the balls to play five up front away from home (ala Aston Villa). He just needs a steady string of results to follow now, particularly at home, and lift us from twentieth in the table. If that doesn't happen over the next month or two, I fear we could be seeking yet another new manager before Christmas. At least it’s never boring being a Notts fan...

All videos borrowed from the Notts County FC YouTube Channel 

Notts County FC website