Dearden Lets Rip

Dearden, as we know, is desperate for the shackles to be taken off as he battles to drag the club away from the relegation zone.

Dearden says that despite pulling off an excellent 1-0 win at Oldham on Saturday, he should not have to work on such restrictions again.

Despite earlier hopes, at the time of writing Notts are not yet out of administration, with takeover talks continuing today.

"We won but we shouldn't have to keep coping like this," Dearden told the NEP.

"We have had to cope with these conditions for too long and it has to stop."

Poor old Bill had to cope without suspended trio Tony Barras, Darren Caskey and Ian Baraclough, as well as injury victims Michael Brough and Steve Jenkins.

While Willis Francis ws on the bench, despite injuring himself during the warm-up and Danny Livesey played despite a hamstring problem.

"We had three players, Tony Barras, Darren Caskey and Ian Baraclough, suspended" said Dearden.

"Steve Jenkins failed a pre-match fitness test and Willis Francis was injured in the warm-up.

"He was not fit to play and would not have been able to come off the bench if he was needed but we had to have him on the bench because there wasn't anyone else.

"Michael Brough is injured and Danny Livesey had to play despite having a slight hamstring problem."

Dearden added: "We have only got one set of first-team kit. We are struggling to get shirts with players' names on them. No one should have to cope with things like that."

NCM Opinion

You can't really say what Dearden's saying is untrue, but we've heard it all before, and by now, he should know the state the clubs in.

Hopefully by Wednesday we'll be out of administration, so at least the threat of extinction will be gone from over us.

Dearden will still have to deal with severly restricted resources, though, and I can't see Joyce looking on too favourably on outbursts such as this one.