Jon Faulkner's: Notts County and Division two review

Last updated : 12 April 2002 By Jon Faulkner
Strict Scott
Jocky Scott a little known manager outside of Dundee was the man to lead Notts County to the first division, Notts were 5th favourites for the title and with the likes of Caskey, Stallard and new keeper Mildenhall a snatch and grab buy from Swindon all looked rosey.

At the start of the season all the hype and optimism that was showed throughout the summer was promply quashed by a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Port Vale. A scrapped victory over the now relegated Cambridge put a small smile on the faces of the magpie fans but the following match would put the whole season into perspective.

Mansfield Town, a young bright squad with a manager who knew how to get the best out of his players and an assistant that could make any player play like a star. The match in itself was interesting from many angles, Allsopp shone in a somewhat poor side grabbing a first half hatrick and a freak goal by the goalkeeper put us in a commanding lead at half time. However Mansfield came out in the second and really showed us where we were lacking.
The midfield was quickly bypassed by direct balls to the wingers and those tore through our very dodgy defence. The final score of 4-3 really didn't tell the full story. Mansfield completly out played us in every part of the pitch. Signs that the forthcoming season wasn't going to be a good was clear to everyone.

At the end of August and beginning of March Notts won 1 game and drew 3 in succession in the league. A good away win at Northampton made the match against Mansfield look like a one-off to some, however poor draws against newcomers Chesterfield and Wrexham brought tears to the eyes of the of all of us.

Stallard is on the scoresheet
To the league Cup and Man City, all the columnist of the papers said that City were going to be a major force in the first division and the odds of them going up were at a premium. Notts did very well that night. It took midway through the second half to show a goal with City taking the lead, Notts quickly equalised through an Allsopp penalty and then 3 minutes later Mark Stallard fired in a beauty to put Notts 2-1 up.

With five minutes left on the clock City equilised through "The Goat" and sent the game into extra time. The stress of the match began to take its toll on the players and with the strength that City had on the bench the game was won 4-2. Notts took some pride out the match and shown us again that they rise to bigger opponents.

Back to the league, a resonable draw at home against Brentford was then quickly followed by another 4-2 away defeat, this time to ex-first division outfit Tranmere. Notts then went on to win the next two games 1-0, London club Colchester first then local rivals Peterbrough, the later was a far cry from last seasons epic 3-3 at the lane. The end of September was a disaster a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Oldham was a day to forget.

Brazil at the helm
October was even worse with Notts only picking up 4 points from 18 and after the first of that run a 1-0 home defeat against Wycombe, Jocky was promptly sacked by the Notts board. His stead fast tacctics that brought him so much joy clearley wasn't doing the job down south and there was little dissapointment to see the Scot go. The rest of the month was no better Brazil who took the reigns for the second time in his career at Notts lost his first match 1-0 at Stoke. An eventless 2-0 win over 3rd division York brought Brazil his first win but the competition is really frowned upon by the supporters as it is just another game to an already long season. An epic encounter with Reading brough another 4 goal reverse this time 4-3, but from the game Notts showed some courage by pulling back from 4-1.

Next on the cards was another old 3rd division team Brighton with the infamous Zamora. Notts were held 2-2 and Zamora was kept quiet by a unusually stong defence, even so it leaked 2 goals and proved to us that our home form was not going to be good this season. Another 4-2 defeat next, at Bournemouth was there a trend forming here?. Most County fans was calling for Brazils head after this game as yet again our so called strong back line with Baraclough, Richardson, Fenton and Ireland was caught napping 4 times.

The next highlight to the season so far (and there wasn't many) was a battling performance at Huddersfield the result 2-2 was very good at a team fresh from the hights of the first division. The FA Cup was now upon us the first round took Notts to already struggling Cambridge United a 1-1 draw brought the game back to the lane where Notts cleared up the tie 2-0. Slotted between the 2 FA cup games were another two draws, the first at home to Blackpool then Cardiff took another 2 points off Notts County

December had Notts showing there problems again and was one of the poorest on record, 3 straight defeats against Bristol City, Oldham and then Wycombe threw Notts into freefall towards the foot of the table, a 1-1 draw against suprise strugglers Wigan and a 3-1 over Swindon was the only respite to a terrible month. Notts threw away the points against no less than 6 sides with Bury, Wrexham amd Chesterfield and to the defeat tally for Notts.

New year new start, Billy Dearden from Mansfield Town whose side showed us how to play football took over from Brazil on the 7th of January with Gary taking the assistant managers position at this early stage there was talk of Billy's assistant Watkiss also moving to the Lane but later Watkiss was to take the hot seat at Mansfield. Unfortunaly Billy didn't have a very good start to his career at Notts. A 2-0 away win at Cambrige had the optimism rising amonst fans but there would be no quick fix to the mess that had been left behind. Notts shipped in 5 goals but conceded 17 over the month with the list of defeats increasing. Port Vale, Swindon, Wycombe, Nothampton, Oldham and Reading all won in succession against the Pies and Now Notts were in real trouble of dropping out of a division most pundits thought we would stroll though. The last defeat at Reading seemed to show an impovement, many Reading fans actually said that they had played one of the best teams in the league that day, perhaps there was something happening to a side in complete shambles.

Notts then begain to steadly improve week after week, they still only managed 2 points from the next 4 games but this time against teams fighting for promotion - namely Brentford and Stoke.

On the 2nd Of March 2002 (mark it in your diarys) Stuart Garden took over from Steven Mildenhall who took a knock in the previous game. The side to visit the Lane was Tranmere Rovers who themselves were looking to make a last ditched attempt on the Playoffs at this time Notts was sat in 23rd place in the 2nd division starring relegation in the face. The Final score Notts County 3 Tranmere 0 sent echo's around the league, was Notts County finally getting their act together??? even so it surely was too late to save us from the drop??? In a word "NO"

Notts then proceded to demolish every team in there path, the team looked like they had been told by Billy that if they didn't play, they would be out. It was like one of those horror films "Jekel and Hyde".

Fans poured in to Meadow Lane
The most remarkable part of this run is that the clowns so far this season, namely the back four and keeper managed to keep 4 straight clean sheets. After the Tranmere game Notts beat Peterborough 1-0 away, Bury 4-0 away and Play off candidates Bristol City 2-0 at hoime infront of the season best 9,000 fans. A very good 2-2 draw against top of the table Brighton away was only marred by Bobby Zamora getting injured after a Stone challange, the injury wasn't the real problem this was caused by the Brighton Fans who seemed to then immediatly put Notts County at there number one position for hated teams, even Dearden got hate mail. Notts then got back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Bournemouth.

April and the run came to an end at Loftus Road, QPR. Notts had taken a 2-0 lead up to the last minute of the first half when Rangers scored, the second half shown us one of the best displays ever to be seen in a football match. QPR eventually pulled out in front and won the game 3-2. But again praise came from the Rangers fans that not many teams had visited Loftus and attacked them.

A home tie against Blackpool saw Notts attendance figure at 7,700 a very good crowd for a lower placed club with a solutary goal from Allsopp from a penalty the only goal in the game.

So now Notts face Cardiff City a team who came up through the division like Brighton and are challanging well in the play-offs. The mission is to take a win from the remaining 2 fixtures. Are the team upto it, is the manager up to it, are the fans up to it for that matter. We certainly hope so.

The rest of the division

Looking at the rest of the league, like every season there are some suprises. I think the main one being Brightons promotion so quickly after coming into the division. Zamora has been the main man in the side but is Brighton a one-man team. It will certainly tell over the summer months especially if he leaves to a money bags premiership side. If he stays then I can see them finishing in the middle of the 1st. Reading are up there again this time they are in a better position and will hope to go up through the automatic spot rather than the lottery of the playoffs like last season. Huddersfield are the only team from last seasons 1st division who could possibly return at the first time of asking, QPR and Tranmeres seasons effectivly ended a couple of weeks ago and only have a slim chance of the playoffs.

Stoke City are in the playoff area yet again but the fans don't really think there manager is upto the job, as a prediction I don't see them going up this season. Cardiff City, another team who came up last season are the strongest of the playoff candidates, but unfortunatly there fans have yet again become under the spotlight especially after scenes in the FA Cup win over Leeds United. Brentford look good in 3rd place and are my second bet for the playoffs and it looks as if it will be a toss up between the Bluebirds and Brentford for the remaining place in the 1st.

There are no real big suprises at the bottom, looking at it the clubs with the least amount of money are all there, Cambridge relegated years ago (thats how it feels) and Bury, who like ourselves have had seriously bad financial problems. Wrexham who always looked relegation candidates this year have already gone as well. The big suprise this season at the bottom is Bournemouth, last season they pipped Notts to 7th place so you would have thought they would have at least been mid-table. But as the saying goes "Its a funny old game" (wonder if Jimmy Grieves has a copyright on that??!), I mean who would have thought Notts County would be fighting for there lives 9 months ago.


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