Blarney

Match Four from Meadow Lane it's Langstaff's world, I'm just livin' in it Harrogate went down a man late in the first half and never really recovered. We relentlessly attacked them in their half with shot after shot. I'm almost upset we only put 3 in as we hit the woodwork 3 times and Langstaff missed a penalty shot as well, but you won't see me complaining about a win.

Transfer Day News In A fringe player that cost me 2.5k per week..... but we needed a little extra depth, the squad was complaining about it. And quite honestly he'll most likely be a starter over Gill - who's younger and still needs a little seasoning. Out Vincent was another guy that wanted out and when other clubs came calling we listened and took the best deal. Reviews The Independent: Not a lot of movement on transfer day for Notts. They have already lost a few players this season and brought in a few others so we assumed there wouldn't be much business done today. Francis Vincent was sent to Portsmouth for 100k and Paul Glatzel - a 22-year old winger that has the agility to play multiple positions - was brought in on a free transfer. Eddie Sirrel has already said he'll split time at the center-attacking position. All in all the club lost a few guys that probably didn't mean much to their future - other than Cedwyn Scott - and brought in a lot of new, young faces to replace them. Time will tell if the moves have worked out but squad depth is something that was sorely lacking last season, so if nothing else the players will get much more time to rest this year when needed. Nottingham Post: There was a flurry of moves this season from Eddie Sirrel. In his own words they needed to increase squad depth and wanted to get younger. They definitely accomplished that as the average age of Notts County players is now just over 20 years old. Did they go too young? Did they lose too much experience? Much of the core group of players that won the Vanarama National League last season have moved on as larger clubs came calling. But Langstaff, Kirby, Baj and Dinzy remain... and with Langstaff up front, playing like he has been, it's hard to say that Notts doesn't have a chance of repeating their excellent season.

August in Review Schedule Disregarding the friendly match, we had a successful August in league play with 2 wins and a draw. We did lose our Carabao Cup match... but we're more focused on the league than any tourneys this season. Table It's early but we'd rather be up than down. Wycombe - who were "heavy" favorites in our cup match are winless in league play. League Two Team Stats We're scoring goals... or at least Langstaff is. Our average possession has been horrible. League Two Player Stats Langstaff has been unstoppable.... we hope that doesn't change because we're in real trouble if he goes into a slump like he did last season, unless someone else steps up. Financials Small loss this month.

Match Three from Vale Park, Stoke-on-Trent defensive battle Neither squad got much off here although Port Vale shot more than we did. They also had a huge possession advantage as well.

Match Two from Meadow Lane convincing win Langstaff gets a first half hat-trick. We held a small possession advantage but Grimsby just punished us with shots... but we only let one get past us.

Carabao Cup from Meadow Lane penalties let us down Wycombe came in as heavy favorites in this match. We played them as tight as we could for 2 halves and scored late to tie it up. Unfortunately we couldn't stop them in penalties and missed our 7th shot. Privately, I'm not too concerned. I didn't think we'd go that far in this competition and it saves us from another match, even though the money would have been nice.

Match One from Broadfield Stadium, Crawley held on for the win Heck of a first half for the good guys. And then we sort of fell apart in the 2nd half and we had to sweat out the win. Langstaff puts 2 in to continue where he left off last season. We had a huge possession advantage in the first half and then just couldn't stop them in the 2nd half.

Great match. Probably my 2nd favorite stadium (not counting Meadow Lane of course)... only behind Tott's which I think is just beyond gorgeous. Disappointing end to the season but you're still very young and have a lot of cash at your disposal to continue growth. You're right in the thick of things, just a little patience required to continue pushing toward the top next year.

Tactic We're going to change it up from last season where we played 2 up front, 2 in the middle and 5 back. My thinking is we need a little more defense so we're going to put an extra man up front and pull everyone else back. We'll go with one primary attacker in Langstaff with 2 attacking-mids and then everyone else will sit back and be primary defenders. This isn't necessarily our first 11 as we'll have a lot of choices and be able to mix and match guys until we get a good idea of who deserves the most starts. It'll be a big change from last season where we had zero depth and everybody pretty much played every game until they fell down from exhaustion.

Meet the Squad The Front Line Langstaff is the key here. As he goes, so goes our club, at least that's how it was last season. Of course last season he had his partner-in-crime, Cedwyn Scott, by his side - who lead the club in assists. We're using a different tactic this year (next post) and putting 2 more people up in the center-attacking position to hopefully make up for Scott's absence while lending a little more bite to our attack. Miles is a good looking youngster but Langstaff is still the man and our depth behind him - beyond Miles at least is..... meh. Midfield Attackers Miles and Gill will fill out our attacking front line, playing at attacking-mids behind Langstaff as our primary forward. Roberts and Vincent will back them up. Defensive Midfielders We won't be using center-mids this year... just 3 up front in attacking roles and then 7 playing back. Kirby, Mahovo and Bajrami (who can also play on the defensive line as he did last year) will probably split time at the def-mid position. Dreher and possibly Palmer (if not dealt) backing them up. Robinson can also play there but we think we might like him better on the defensive line. We've definitely created more depth this year compared to last so we'll be able to rest players and mix/match as we need to keep players fresh. The Defensive Line We increased our depth here and much like with the defensive-mid position... we have a lot of flexibility here with guys that can play different positions. Bajrami is fully able to play defensive-mid or center-back... as is Robinson. Mahovo is young and can also play both although he looks like maybe better suited to a defensive-mid role for now. McClelland, Dinzy, Aljofree, Jones, Mellors.... lots of depth here now as we try out a bunch of kids and see who develops. Keepers We tried to sign Mair after the excellent season he had on loan with us last year but he wanted way too much money. So we ended up hitting the wires and signing Kovacevic and Bishop who will probably split time while we find out true #1. At least we have options.

First Match Preview The Independent You're on the road to start the season. Does it matter to you whether you're on the road or at home for your first match of the year? Does it make any difference? Eddie Sirrel In the end, not really, but if you're asking my preference I'd prefer to be at home. I'd like to start the new season out in front of our fans. I think playing at home is a boost to the players and starting out the new campaign in front of your home-town supporters is always going to be better than going on the road. But in the end you play the same number at home and away and you have to win regardless where you play and who you're up against. Nottingham Post A lot has been made of your record setting campaign last season. Do you think that puts added pressure on the players to go out and do it again this year? Eddie Sirrel Pressure is a personal thing. You only allow it to affect you if you allow it to affect you. It's kind of like fear. Fear is always going to be there, self doubt is always going to be there... but that doesn't mean you have to let it get to you. What we did last season is last season. You can't look at that and assume you'll replicate it this year or even care about whether you do or not. You just go out and play your game and everything else that surrounds that is just noise. Nottinghamshire Live You've made quite a few moves bringing in more youth to the club while letting a couple of established players go, is this by choice or necessity? Do you think that will make your club stronger or weaker this season? Eddie Sirrel A little of both, I think... as far as choice and necessity go. Look, we're just fresh out of the National League. We're in the 4th tier now so it's not like we're an established club in the scheme of things. So in my opinion what we do now lays the foundation for who we are 2 or 3 or 4 years from now. Personally I look to the youth to be that foundation, that's nothing against the established players - as you put it - and certainly there is something to be said for experience. But my job is to meld that together, while looking to the future and trying to create something here that can last.

Season Predictions Final Table Well... the pundits think we're going to be a playoff contender. I'd settle for a mid-table finish, in fact I'd prefer that. Scratch that, I wouldn't mind making the playoffs our first season and building our reputation but privately I think it's best if we stay in League Two for a couple of seasons to build our club up rather than go back-to-back and put pressure on our kids. Of course if the fans ask we're all about winning! It is nice to see we've turned some heads though. Top Player Langstaff is getting some well deserved attention also after back-to-back seasons where he's won Player of the Year and the Golden Boot. Golden Boot And he's picked to win it again this year. If he does it again... there's no way we can keep him around even if we get promoted, I think. He's going to demand way too much attention. Of course that will drive his asking price up as well.

Youth Facililities Upgrade Board accepted my proposal to upgrade our youth facilites. First move toward making us a better club and more favorably positioned for the future.

Housekeeping Transfers Out Signed It was difficult losing Scott and Cameron but with Cameron it really was about depth. I have enough there now, younger and cheaper that when the offer was made and he said he wanted to go, it was an easy decision. With Scott.... harder decision made but his contract was up this season and I had already turned down 2 other offers and he was getting upset and demanded he be allowed to go play for a larger club. I'm facing somewhat of the same problem with Langstaff. I've fielded at least 4 or 5 offers which I've turned down and Langstaff has requested that I let him go, he wants to play in the Championship and 2 clubs have made offers. He is under contract for 2 more years though so I've held him off and have been trying to get him to sign a new contract with us... but he wants a lot of money and I don't know if it's the right move. Most likely I will hold out for the year and see how he does and at the end of the season if I get blown away with an offer and he still wants to go I may take it then, but for now he remains. Palmer has also attracted some interest and I would let him go but the money has to be right. As far as recruiting... I've brought in a few youngsters to bolster the squad but the one big signing was Sam McClelland to help on the defensive line. This depth will allow me to pull Bajrami off the center-back position and move him back to his more natural spot at defensive-midfielder. I actually do have some money to spend.... around a million in the transfer budget and another 15k or so in player salaries, so there is room to make moves but I'd rather go through this season without having to touch any of that and build it for the future. Right now we are VERY young so hopefully we can play out this year to a mid-table finish and continue to get stronger as the season progresses.

The Independent Reports Sports with Trent Crimm The season is officially over and Notts County has finished a successful campaign which saw them take the National League by storm - scoring the most points and the most goals in the history of the league and earning an automatic promotion to League Two. After 4 seasons they are finally back in the Football League. We sat down with Eddie Sirrel and asked him to talk about the season that was, off-season plans and thoughts on next season. Trent Crimm You've talked about this a little but now that the season is over, looking back, when did you know that the league was yours and that nobody was going to catch you? Eddie Sirrel Honestly? After the first couple of months the way we were playing I knew then that if we kept that up it was going to be difficult for anybody to catch us. There were a couple of clubs that stuck with us for a time but we just kept winning and eventually started to put more distance between us. I certainly don't mean to disrespect any other clubs but we just put it all together and put up a monumental season. We deserved to go up. Trent Crimm As good as the season went for you are you disappointed that you didn't get the double? Wrexham - who ended up not getting promoted again - really turned it up in the FA Trophy final at Wembley. Were you surprised? Eddie Sirrel You know we had handled Wrexham pretty easily in our 2 league matches but I said before the final that it was hard to beat a club 3 times in one season and I knew they were going to come to play. I hate to suggest that they wanted it more than we did because I don't think that's the case... but they definitely played with more passion. They deserved the win. Trent Crimm: So the off-season is around the corner. What moves can we expect Notts to make? Reinforcements coming in? Transfers out? Eddie Sirrel The supporters can expect us to be active. We ran a little low in depth this season and we definitely need to bring some warm bodies in. That doesn't mean we'll make moves just to make them but we've identified a couple of players that we think could make us better. There has also been some interest in a few of our guys and I imagine we'll have a few conversations and see what works or doesn't work. Trent Crimm Any big names moving on that the supporters would want to know about? Eddie Sirrel We just came off a pretty successful campaign and there were a lot of eyes on us from other clubs. Langstaff has won back-to-back Player of the Season awards and Golden Boots. Scott has had 2 consecutive great seasons. Palmer, Bajrami... and several others had very good years. Whenever that happens inevitably you're going to get phone calls asking about availability. That's just the business. And here's something that the supporters may not want to hear but I'm not going to ever lie to them... sometimes it's very hard to hold on to a player that doesn't want to stay or gets tempted by a larger club. I'm not saying this to suggest we want to move any players or will just let them go, but we're going to do the best for them when we can if it makes sense for us. Trent Crimm It sounds a little like you're setting the supporters up for someone leaving that they're not going to be happy about. Eddie Sirrel Not at all, at least I hope not. But I'm not going to sugarcoat the way things are. We've already had a number of calls during the season about some of our bigger players and turned them away but I expect that they will continue. In the end it is a business as much as the fans wish it wasn't. Heck, sometimes I wish it wasn't but this is my job now to navigate what's best for the club and to try and keep my players happy. That doesn't always mean the player gets what they want if it's not good for the club but in the end it's better to have a bunch of players here that want to be here than disgruntled players that don't want to be, heck nobody wants disgruntled employees around in any business. Trent Crimm Okay, so looking ahead. Four years out of the Football League but finally back in League Two. Any early thoughts or predictions on next season? Back-to-back promotions? Playoffs? Eddie Sirrel I'm not a big prediction person... or at least I usually just keep that to myself. I'll say what I always say and that's that I will back my boys. Just like this past season we're going to work hard and go out there and give everything we have at all times. I feel confident that we can stay up if we play our game.

End of Season Awards and Records 20 unbeaten record goals most goals in a season record low losses record points - for Notts and the National League Player of the Season Golden Boot Manager of the Season Notts Season Stats

Final Standings We earn automatic promotion. Chesterfield earns a well-deserved playoff final against Woking - who have to be very disappointed after a very good season - to also go up. Wrexham and Gateshead made it to the semi-finals but both lost and will try again next year. Oldham, York, Scunthorpe and Dag all are going down.

FA Trophy Finals from Wembley tough loss If Wrexham had played like this all season long they may have gone unbeaten. Nothing we did worked. They harassed us every single time we touched the ball. They didn't get a lot of shots off because our defense was good as well, but they hit 2 long shots that were just untouchable by our keeper. We only got 8 shots off total and 2 on target and otherwise put together nothing that put them in any danger. We held more possession - which we've done all season long - but possession means nothing if you don't do anything with it. This was an impressive win by Wrexham.

FA Trophy Final Preview from Wembley The Independent You're facing off against Wrexham in the FA Trophy final from Wembley. It's the culmination of a great season for your club. How are the lads feeling? Eddie Sirrel They're sky-high. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a lot of players. Playing at Wembley is what every English football player strives for. And as you said it's just the icing on the cake which these players have worked hard for all year long. Nottingham Post Wrexham is going to be on a little bit of a low after losing out in the semi-finals of the playoffs and once again failing to earn promotion. Do you think that gives you an advantage? Eddie Sirrel Oh I think Wrexham is going to come out there and give us everything they have. I'm sure they're very disappointed to have not gone up but that won't have anything to do with how they play this game at all. In fact they may play even harder because of it. Nottinghamshire Live You matched up against them twice this season, including 2-0 at their house just a few weeks ago and then 3-0 back in April at Meadow Lane. Is that going to be motivation for them even more than failing to earn promotion? Eddie Sirrel It means we can't get complacent. Yes we're handled them in 2 matches but that's got nothing to do with the one coming up, it just shows we can, so it's something we can look at before the match and hopefully build on. But if we think they're not looking at the same thing and trying to come up with a different approach, then we're kidding ourselves. As far as motivation, I don't think any club wants to lose to someone 3 times in one season. So whether it's that fact or the fact they didn't earn promotion that they'll be using as bulletin board material against us... they have plenty to be motivated about. And we're motivated to finish the season strong and earn our double as well. The Independent You have dominated Wrexham this season as was mentioned, not allowing a single goal in 2 matches. What's been the secret to your success against them? Eddie Sirrel You want me to give away trade secrets? *laughs* Actually credit to our defense and my coaches for putting together a great plan which we've executed all season long. If I'm being honest I had some questions about my back line going into the season. I thought we didn't have much depth there so it was a matter of emphasis in our coaches meetings to come up with a good tactic and a plan of attack on how we were going to handle our opponents attacks. I think we've done a really good job of implementing those plans.

April in Review Schedule Ending the season the right way, with 20 straight unbeaten (which set a new Notts Record btw). We didn't let up and our offense and defense were both playing at high levels to end the season. Table Chesterfield ended up taking the 2nd spot from Woking. Yeovil, Wrexham, Gateshead and Solihull will all join them to fight it out in the playoffs. National League Team Stats We pretty much ran the table in all offensive cateories. We finished first in goals scored, average possession, shots on target ratio, conversion rate and pass completion ratio. And average attendance. National League Player Stats Langstaff wins the Golden Boot. Cedwyn Scott has the highest average rating per game and is 6th in goals scored. What a duo. Financials Big profit month. We needed it.

Match Forty-Six from Meadow Lane poor York We were at home to finish the season and we let our starters go out with a bang. Langstaff and Scott both played a half and put in 3 goals between them. They were substituted at the end of the half to a roaring applause from the home-town supporters. We went on to a dominating 5-0 win over York - which ultimately put them in the drop zone. Sorry York.

Match Forty-Five from Gallagher Stadium, Maidstone oh they pushed us Another match we probably had no right to win. We held a small possession advantage but Maidstone pounded us with shots and got 7 on target, 2 in. We shot well ourselves as neither defense was on top of their game in this one. We'll take the win, but I think we escaped with this one.

Match Forty-Four from Meadow Lane keep on rollin' It's surprising we gave up 2 goals since that's all they even put on target, but these things happen. Overall it was our stifling defense that held them to 5 shots and we put in 4 ourselves as our offense is rolling again.

Match Forty-Three from The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham dominating Dominating defense again. Wrexham had no answers and couldn't get shots off, especially on target. Hopefully we can carry this over to our match at Wembley.

Match Forty-Two from Meadow Lane not letting up Wealdstone got 2 in despite not shooting well but we really put pressure on them all game long. This wasn't really close.