Issue 9

BLACK & WHITE the Notts County fanzine

#9 - JUL ‘14 - £1

INTRODUCTION

Better late than never. I’m sure that’s how I started the last introduction actually.

In the end it’s a good thing we didn’t put out the original issue 9 when we’d planned. It was about 80% complete, and was a miserable League Two-bound slog days after Tranmere away. The wait at least ensured we were able to produce a far cheerier, still-League One publication!

The dust has long settled on an ultimately disastrous 2013/14 season, but we’ve done our best to throw glitter on that particular turd. Such was the way Notts ended the campaign that we’re actually able to approach things with a ton of positivity, particularly given some pre-season signings so far! More on them in issue 10.

Sadly the end of the season meant we had to say goodbye to both Callum McGregor and Jack Grealish.

Can honestly say it was a privilege to watch the two boys representing our club last term, a pair of young professionals who truly bought in to the ethos which Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott brought to Meadow Lane.

We were fortunate enough to grab a word with Jack for this issue. Efforts are on-going in the hope that we can get Callum onboard for an interview in issue 10. We might even get that issue on sale in time for the first game of the season if all goes to plan! Thank you to Paul Smith for pulling off another fantastic interview with Jack!

CONTENTS Introduction ................................................ 2 Black & White Fanzine Iain McCulloch interview ............................. 3 with Dave Fells So Long Callum McGregor ............................ 8 Ian Marsden The B-Team Ghost At The Feast ................. 10 Adam Taylor Jack Grealish interview .............................. 12 with Paul Smith The Season Gone By .................................. 17 Jacob Daniel Think Again, Jamal ..................................... 18 Stuart Brothers Away Days: Charlton away ‘93 .................. 19 Sean Redgate Cheap Option Maybe .................................. 21 Nigel Nattrass

Dave Fells’ interview with Iain McCulloch on the page opposite however is a great way to kick off our latest issue. It offers a great retrospective of his career, but also an insight into the mind of Jimmy Sirrel. If you weren’t around when Jimmy was at the club, it’s the sort of thing you can’t afford to miss!

The Ladies Season So Far ........................... 22 Stuart Brothers

On another subject - buy Dave’s book Notts County Football Club’s Forgotten Heroes. His research on our club’s 1894 FA Cup winners is outstanding. I did toy with the idea of a book review. Maybe next issue!

My Notts Confession .................................. 26 Sam Arnsby

Meanwhile, thank you to our contributors in this issue.: Ian Marsden, Adam Taylor, Jacob Daniel, Drew Dennis, Sean Redgate, Nigel Nattrass, Piran LynnSmith and Sam Arnsby, Thank you for your efforts, but also for your patience in me with another delayed issue. Thank you as well to a photographer we’ve used for the first time - Ben Blyth, for his photo of Jess Clarke on page 22.

Also a thank you must go out to Kevin Grealish for not telling us to get lost when we pestered him for an interview with Jack. We got there in the end cheers Kev! If you’ve read this far - thank you. Please take note of the concerns raised in the articles by Jacob & Adam in this issue. The idea of a League 3 littered with Premier League B teams is one that should terrify us all.

And finally, cheers to Richard Ogando for his patience in me finally getting this issue together. Your efforts are more appreciated than ever!

Stuart Brothers

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Six Games To Salvation .............................. 24 Piran Lynn-Smith

Why B Is Bad For Notts .............................. 28 Jacob Daniel AAAAARGH ................................................ 29 Ian Marsden We Did It! .................................................. 30 Drew Dennis

DISCLAIMER

Black & White is an independent release produced by fans and as such has no official affiliation with Notts County Football Club. The views in each publication reflect those of the individual contributors themselves.

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IAIN

McCULLOCH With appearances for Notts County totalling 260 and managing more than 50 goals in the process, Iain McCulloch was recently honoured by Notts County’s Former Players Association with a gala dinner at Meadow Lane.

When the opportunity arose to sit down and have a chat with one of my all time favourite Notts County heroes I grabbed it with both hands.

Here’s what he had to say for himself.

Iain, tell me about your early life and your during the day and then would rush home for training in the evenings. involvement in youth football in Scotland.

Well I was born in Kilmarnock but I was brought up in Prestwick which is about fifteen miles from Kilmarnock.

I played for the school team and was selected for the Ayr and district team and trained with them every Wednesday.

Having joined Kilmarnock in November 1973, how was that first season?

I made my debut in the Scottish Cup in the January and spent the rest of the season in and out of the team but learning all the time – and the team did finish second in Division Two that season. It was the following season when I held down a regular place in the team, playing on the right side of midfield. At the end of that 1974/75 season there was a restructure of the Scottish Leagues as the Premier Division was formed by taking the top ten teams in the First Division – and Kilmarnock missed out by two points which was disappointing.

One Wednesday I remember my dad came and picked me up and took me to see Kilmarnock v Real Madrid at Rugby Park in 1965. That was a great experience watching the likes of Gento and Puskas in their all-white strip. It was 2-2 at Rugby Park but Real Madrid won 5-1 in Spain and went on to be crowned Champions of Europe that season. I also played for the Ayrshire under 18s county side which included a two week tour The following season we finished second behind Partick to America.

Thistle and were promoted to the Premier Division I should have gone for trials for the Scottish Youth team only to be relegated a season later, but we were a at Lesser Hampden but bad weather meant the trial part-time team trying to compete with full-time ones. was cancelled and I never had another opportunity. I My consolation that season was that I was voted then played junior football with Ayr Albion and Hurlford Kilmarnock’s Player of the Year.

United and during that time had trials with Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, Ayr United (my Dad was a coach there) and St Mirren. After the St Mirren trial, I had a decent game and scored the winner, the manager asked me to sign the forms there and then but I said I ought to talk to my Dad first. Anyway the guy was pretty persistent so in the end I did sign the forms and when I got home my dad went nuts at me, but he sorted it all out and the next day Kilmarnock came down and signed me.

Your Dad was guiding you because he had also been a professional footballer hadn’t he?

That’s right. He had a good career with Kilmarnock, Airdrie, Ayr United, St Mirren and Morton. He was a speedy left winger with a good left peg. I guess that is where I got my pace from.

Would a ten year career playing for Kilmarnock have satisfied you?

No, not really, I had always had my heart set on becoming a full-time pro and when I joined Kilmarnock they were only part-time. I was a heating engineer

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Season 1977/78 was when you joined Notts – Yes I think Jimmy had met him previously on various coaching courses and Howard had also spent time fairly were you aware of their interest? locally at Boston United so Jimmy must have been I was suspended for the first three games of that season impressed with what he saw and brought him in as so wasn’t expecting to play in a pre-season game we coach. Jimmy was fantastic as a coach and manager but had against Rangers at Rugby Park. The manager came I think he recognised that to take the team onto the next and said to me that there was someone coming to watch level he needed help on the tactical side – and Howard me play so rather than give him a wasted journey he was that man. Howard was organised, disciplined, very said he would put me on from the start but just for the methodical and very detailed in everything he did. first 45 minutes.

He began changing a number of things about the way The man coming to watch me was Jimmy Sirrel. Jimmy we played, like playing it out from the back and passing did tell me later that he watched me eight times before it through the team in order to retain possession and he signed me. I think he initially started watching me the changes didn’t suit everyone in the squad – but you while he was manager of Sheffield United. It wasn’t just get that with most managers. me that Jimmy was watching, he was also hoping to sign Kilmarnock’s flying right winger Davie Provan. We were By that time hadn’t Jimmy brought in Yugoslavian on a good cup run that season and Kilmarnock made Raddy Avramovic as keeper? it clear that no player would be leaving while we were still in the cup. In the fourth round we had been drawn He had and he was an excellent keeper. When Raddy away at Celtic and after a 1-1 draw we beat them 1-0 first came in he brought an interpreter with him as his at Rugby Park in the replay which was a major shock as English was poor. At training this interpreter would Celtic hadn’t lost to a lower league team in the Scottish stand by the goal and translate any instructions that were directed at Raddy about what he was expected FA Cup since 1949! to do.

The quarter-final saw us drawn away at Rangers and although we were beaten I had the small consolation of The translator clearly knew his stuff and all went well until every time Jimmy shouted out instructions getting our goal at Ibrox. for Raddy. You would then see the translator really So did your cup exit activate your move to Notts? struggle, scratch his head and look very puzzled. He couldn’t understand a word Jimmy said – and of course Yes it did, within a couple of weeks I was a Notts County the rest of the lads found it absolutely hilarious! player in what I found out later was a record £80,000 transfer. Kilmarnock wouldn’t sell Davie Provan to Notts At the start of the following season (80/81) didn’t Bristol City’s Gerry as well though – mainly because they had a better offer Gow have a dig on the table from Celtic. about your style of play?

Were any Scottish clubs interested in signing you?

Yes, Hibs, Partick Thistle, Celtic and Rangers all showed interest but Kilmarnock made it clear they wouldn’t sell me to another Scottish club.

How was life when you first arrived at Notts?

It was tough at first, I was in digs with my family still in Scotland and I stepped up from part-time training to full-time, which took time to adjust to. I had signed for Notts after the deadline so couldn’t play until the following season (1978/79).

That’s right. We had just played them in the Anglo-Scottish Cup and he told Howard that if we played that style of football in Division Two we would be relegated. Howard just left it with “We’ll see” and stuck with our organised style of play and of course we went on to win promotion.

My first two years at Notts were very much a learning experience and Jimmy would ‘hammer’ me on a regular basis. An example would be that he wanted me to only do ‘tricks’ in the final third of the pitch rather than in the Although losing narrowly to Chesterfield in the middle of the park which I tended to do. He kept on at final of the Anglo Scottish Cup, how was the semime until eventually I was playing the way he wanted final for you, returning to Kilmarnock? me to.

It was a great draw, I was looking forward to going back and determined to show them that I had improved What do you recall of your debut? during my time in Nottingham but it didn’t really work It was the first game of the new season away at West out as I had hoped. I felt terrible on the way up there Ham and although I managed to get my first couple of and wasn’t at my best in the game. We flew up, only goals for the club, we went down 5-2 so not the best about 16 of us on this dodgy flight from East Midlands of starts. We finished 6th that season though so not Airport and it was good to see and play against some old mates but because of the flight back it was a quick too bad. shower and off – so I didn’t get as much time as I would Howard Wilkinson joined the club the following have liked for a bit of socialising – and then I missed the second leg at Meadow Lane through injury. season – how did that change things?

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ISSUE #9

There was a rumour that at the start of that season, before a ball was kicked, one prominent member of the squad went round all the players and collected £10 off each player to place a bet on the team getting promoted at massive odds in the region of 50-1 to win promotion – was there any truth in it?

They were much simpler than you might imagine. All the players received a five year offer which arrived at our homes by registered letter. The basic wage had increased substantially and all the bonuses had also had major increases so I sat down with my wife, discussed the offer for a while then signed it and sent it straight back.

No. Not true. I did hear exactly that same rumour though but I am sure players are not allowed to bet on games that they can have an influence on, so it wouldn’t have been the players – it must have been someone else at the club.

I understand that wage negotiations usually take a bit longer than that these days!

The next three seasons, were spent in the top flight mixing it with the cream of English football.

Let me just remind you of a few of those games (After a pause Iain added) By the way - the odds were and see what details you can recall.

66-1! (This statement was accompanied by a giant grin) Your first game in the top flight, away at Aston At the end of that season promotion was clinched Villa, where I think you headed the only goal of with one of my favourite Notts games of all time – the game. a 2-0 away win at Chelsea to put Notts in the top flight for the first time in 55 years. What do you That’s right. Villa were the reigning champions and they paraded the trophy before kick-off and at the end of that remember of it? season they were crowned Champions of Europe. But I remember we had lost at home to Watford the week that day we spoiled the party! It was also the day that before when the heavens had opened and we played the team learned that we could compete at the top level. in a massive downpour, so we still needed a win for promotion. Masson was injured and missed the game You have doubts when you step up to a new level. It so Harkouk came in off the bench. By that time of the is faster and the required fitness levels are higher, but season we were so well drilled, we all knew what our winning there and getting points on the board nice and early in the season helped to remove those doubts roles were and what was expected of us. and after that game we knew we were good enough to We had a couple of scares but overall we controlled the compete in the top division. game and deserved the win – and it was Harkouk that clinched the game with a brilliant solo effort for the Away at Ipswich, a side that finished 2nd behind Liverpool that season but Notts went there and second goal. won 3-1.

The only moments of doubt came when the Chelsea fans climbed over the fence and invaded the pitch to protest That was the Gordon Mair goal where we passed our way about their own club’s problems and there was obviously down the left side of the pitch, the entire length of the a danger that the invasion might break our concentration field, right from the keeper and the move was finished and our grip on the game, but once the pitch was cleared off by Gordon Mair – I think it was about thirteen passes from the keeper to scoring the goal. That goal probably the lads kept their focus and everything was fine. demonstrated more than anything else exactly what So, now you were all top flight players – what Howard had been trying to achieve since he joined us.

What people don’t realise is that we practiced that very were wage negotiations like that summer? move only two days earlier in training playing against

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the cones.

What about the 3-2 win over Forest?

It was a typical local derby, fast paced, with tackles flying in all over the place. I managed to head in a corner from Chedozie after only two minutes, Forest equalised only a few minutes later, Paul Hooks put us ahead again and they equalised again – and that was only the first half! I picked up a booking after tangling with their keeper and then Trevor Christie scored to put What about the game away at West Brom? us ahead again – only for me to have a disagreement It was a midweek game and we had travelled over to a with Bryn Gunn the Forest full-back and get sent off – hotel close to the ground where we had lunch and then but the lads held on for a 3-2 win. had a couple of hours sleep. I woke up about 4.30 feeling ill. I told Jack Wheeler straight away, I was After I had finished playing professionally I was sweating one minute, freezing the next and my throat assistant manager at Arnold Town with Ray O’Brien for was really sore. We went and saw Jimmy and told him a number of years. Bryn Gunn was also at Arnold at the same thing. He told me we would have another that time and occasionally, on an away trip, the DVD of look when we arrived at the ground. At the ground I that game was shown on the TV on the coach just to was just the same so Jimmy told me to go and have a wind Bryan up – footballers can be such a cruel bunch. hot bath. After the bath Jimmy told me I was playing and the team sheet had been handed in. “Run it off” One question I have to ask is about the morning in March 1984 when Jimmy’s wife died earlier but he told me. he still came in to do his job?

I never got going at all in the first half and we came back in losing by a single goal. “You got a problem?” Yes, we were playing at home to West Brom, Larry Lloyd Jimmy asked me at half time. I told Jimmy he knew was the manager by that time as Howard had moved very well I had a problem. Anyway he told me to go out on to Sheffield Wednesday. In those days, for home and “Get my a**e moving.” So I did and I don’t know games, the players would meet up at Holme Pierrepont whether it was adrenalin kicking in or what but I did at twelve o’clock. As usual we had a light meal and begin to feel a little better in the second half and I really then went into another room to watch the lunchtime got into the game – so much so that I scored a hat- football programme – was it called On The Ball? trick and we finished After that Jimmy and Larry came in and gave us our up winning 4-2. usual pre-match talk and off we went to the ground and everything seemed completely normal. After the game Without Jimmy we went back into the dressing room and Jimmy was pushing me out there sat at the back of the room. it would have been so easy to drop out of the Once we were all in Jimmy just got up and walked out game because I felt of the room and that’s when Larry told us that Jimmy’s so rough. However, wife had died at four o’clock that morning – obviously what Jimmy knew it was a terrible shock to all of us - but that was Jimmy, and I didn’t know the character of the man, his mentality, he had kept it was that Jock Stein, from us all to ensure there were no distractions. He the Scotland team was totally focussed. What a man. manager, was at the game to watch me.

Obviously I can’t do this interview without asking about your career ending injury against Within a few weeks Manchester United in April 1984.

I was turning out for Scotland against Yes myself and the United ‘keeper Gary Bailey both England in the UEFA Under 21s championship semi-final at Hampden Park as an went in for the ball fully committed and I came off over-age player and again in the second leg at Maine the worst. It was a complete accident, I was just Road a week later. A narrow aggregate defeat of 2-1 unlucky. The next year was one of frustration and daily and England went on to beat West Germany 5-4 in the treatment. There were complications as the leg didn’t knit together properly and eventually the specialist told final. me that although the leg would eventually heal it would You were also included in the original forty names never be strong enough for me to play football again at selected for the 1982 Scottish World Cup Squad. the top level. I was devastated when he actually told me but deep down I suppose I knew it was coming.

That’s right but I knew that when the squad was reduced to 22 it was extremely unlikely that I would be in it. So you officially retired a year after the accident When you look at the quality of forwards that made the in April 1985 and in the October Manchester trip like Kenny Dalglish, Alan Brazil, John Robertson, United came to Meadow Lane for your testimonial Joe Jordan, Steve Archibald and Paul Sturrock I was – how was that night? always an outside bet - but I was absolutely delighted to be included in the original forty as it was recognition Yes it was great that they agreed to play, they obviously of the work I had put in and the improvement I had get lots of requests to play in games so I was delighted they agreed to come. It was a very emotional night. made while I had been at Notts.

Howard made sure we practiced moves like that day after day. It was all about making yourself available to receive a pass so the team could keep possession. It didn’t always go to plan though, most of the time we beat the cones but occasionally they would beat us!

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Ironically, I remember you were once linked with a move to Manchester United – were you aware of interest from any other clubs during your time at Notts?

with an injury to my shoulder.

It was Ron Atkinson that tried to sign me for United and I found out later that Everton also tried. We played Everton in the quarter final of the FA Cup at Meadow Lane in 1984 and I was suffering

I was given an injection and was doing a few laps of the pitch before the game to see if it would be ok. It did ease off a bit so I was able to play. I was unaware, but while I was jogging round the pitch, Howard Kendal was in Jimmy’s office putting a cheque on the table for £130,000 and wanted me to join Everton straight after the game. Jimmy refused, mainly because we were fighting to avoid relegation. None of us knew of course, but a month later my career would be over.

Jimmy would think nothing of flying off to Holland to watch a game on a Saturday evening, then another on the Sunday but he was always back in time for training on a Monday morning. Similarly, he would jump into his car on a Tuesday after training, drive up to Scotland to watch a game and be back for training on the Wednesday morning. Amazing. He must have watched a game nearly every day during the season.

What are you doing these days?

I am driving for a living during the day and have been involved in non-league football ever since I left Notts.

My leg healed enough to let me play and coach at Plessey for about eight years. I then joined Ray O’Brien at Arnold as his assistant for about ten years before having a spell with Mick Leonard in his early days of setting up the Notts County academy and while I was there I passed my UEFA ‘B’ licence.

I was then manager of Radford FC for a couple of years before Les McJannet the Carlton Town FC manager invited me to join him as assistant manager earlier this season. I am enjoying it there as I get on well with Les and we have a couple of good lads from the Notts County youth team playing for us – Alex Troke and Kameron Campbell.

Who was the best defender you played against in your career?

Ok Iain, let me finish off with a few random Have to be Billy Bonds at West Ham, he was very tough but played it fair. I have a lot of respect for the guy. questions.

How do you think your ‘aggressive’, ‘in your face’ Who was the best player you played with during style of play with opposing defenders would fit your career? into today’s game?

That would have to be Don Masson. Not always the The game has evolved a lot since my day – if I am easiest guy to get along with but he had my utmost respect for his ability, his determination, his focus and honest, I wouldn’t last five minutes! what he achieved in the game.

Who were the biggest influences on your career?

What were the three goals you scored that you My dad, Willie Fernie and Davie Sneddon at Kilmarnock look back on with most affection? and Jimmy, Howard, Jack and Don Masson at Notts They would have to be the ones at Aston Villa (first County. game in the top flight), the one against Cambridge (last What was it that made Jimmy a successful game of the promotion season) I chested the ball down as I ran in and planted a left foot shot into the corner of manager? the net and finally, and probably my favourite, chipping It was a combination of things. One thing Jimmy the England keeper Ray Clemence at Spurs from 40 always did was to try to ensure there was nothing off yards – and for some reason, no one ever believes me the field affecting the players, like on the day his wife when I say that! died as I explained earlier. When I first came down from Scotland I had given up my day job as a heating And finally, the best three games you played in? engineer and then my wife stopped working because They would have to be the Aston Villa game, the Chelsea she was pregnant with our daughter. promotion game and as a Scotsman, my favourite was So there I was having moved down to England to play wearing the full Scottish kit and walking out to play for full-time football and I was actually worse off than my country at Hampden Park – it just doesn’t get any better than that! when I was playing part-time football for Kilmarnock!

Anyway, without going into the details Jimmy could see it was bothering me and he went off, saw the chairman and within a few days they had come up with a solution to solve the problem. His enthusiasm and passion for the game and his knowledge of players was second to none.

JUN‘14

Dave Fells

@MagpieDave Dave’s book - Notts County FC’s Forgotten Heroes is available right now from the club shop at Meadow Lane.

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SO LONG CALLUM McGREGOR

When I had heard we had signed a young player from Celtic, I was overjoyed! I should explain, I’m a Notts County fan from birth, but I have been a Celtic fan since a young age, fascinated by the Hoops and the history of the club, so although I do realise it is frowned upon having two teams, I don’t care! there mingling with us and I got a hug off Callum McGregor! My day was complete!

But anyway, Notts were signing a young player from Celtic! I went over it in my head who I hoped it would be, but when I heard it was Callum McGregor I was well pleased. I’d heard good things about him through the Celtic View and various other Celtic sources - I knew we had signed a very good player.

He scored on his debut. He’d only signed that day but was thrusted straight into the first team that night to play Fleetwood Town in the League Cup and he scored a cracking goal that night as we beat the League Two side 3-2. It earned us the right to go to Anfield in the 2nd round.

We played Liverpool away in the League Cup 2nd Round, and Callum didn’t look out of place surrounded by the pretty much full strength team that Liverpool had put out. His energy was infectious as he played the role just behind the lone striker for the full 120 minutes, running himself into the ground, harrying and tackling Steven Gerrard et al as if they were just Sunday league players. Notts came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 and send the game into extra time. We lost 4-2 in the end but Callum that night won the fans over and we have been in his corner ever since.

Callum finished as our top goalscorer, 14 goals in all competitions, he was on 13 for a very long time, and suffice to say the second half of the season wasn't as good as the first, but you could tell that this club had got under his skin. When his first loan had ended he stayed in Nottingham and trained with the team - such was his desire to stay - and despite his form dipping and him being on the bench a lot in the run-in, he was mostly the first sub that came on to go and turn the game. But one moment will stick in the memory of all the Notts fans who were there. The goal that in the main was the goal that kept us up, the goal that will be seen as a turning point in this clubs history.

He returned on loan to us officially in late January, just before deadline day and he scored on his second debut an absolute worldy free kick.

Unfortunately we were 5-0 down at the time so it didn't matter but still a great goal! That was his last goal up to end of April as the squad and team were shattered of any kind of confidence and losing games aplenty.

New boss Shaun Derry tried to stamp his ideas on the club, some of the squad had had their nose put out of joint and were asked to leave, others just weren't good enough. But Callum stuck with it and even in those games that I don't want to remember, such as the 6-0 defeat away at Rotherham In League One, defenders tackle, hard you could tell he actually was trying and proper, no messing - I believe which in that team, at that time, was it’s proper football compared to the an achievement in itself. pampered softness of the Premier League. The skilful players at this level It has been his first full season in have to earn the right to run with the league football, and he is still a young ball, but Callum does that and some of lad so it was obvious that his form his goals have been absolute class! He would dip, but he kept his head down has a coolness under pressure and he and he got on with is such a great talent, it truly has been it and his reward for a privilege to watch him play these past all that perseverance few months. was that goal!

At 4:50pm on Saturday May 3rd, Boundary Park Oldham, the Notts County Great Escape was completed, we had got the point we needed and finished 20th, just above that dreaded dotted line and had stayed up in League One! At 5:00pm, I was on the pitch with most of the 3,500 Notts fans who had made the trip and the players were

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went 1-0 up in the 9th minute. The rest of the game is a blur to me, just so tense and horrible. Swindon then had two players sent off at the end of the game as they had lost their heads and then in the 99th minute, a Swindon free kick, their keeper came up for it, a last throw of the dice. But it was cleared to Jamal Campbell-Ryce and he saw Callum racing up next to him - the pass was perfect.

Callum controlled it and just inside the penalty area, he placed it into the open goal, and at our own Kop end as well! The crowd went absolutely wild as Callum raised his arms! It will be a moment in years to come that will be seen as a turning point as I hope we don't ever have a season like this one again. The fact that all of the team went to him to celebrate the goal showed the new togetherness that had been put in the team. But it showed how important that goal was and how pleased everyone was that it was young Callum that had scored it.

In my opinion he is definitely good enough to play at a much higher level than this. He could definitely fit in in the Celtic squad. Whilst at Notts, he has gained Scotland U21 honours which was great both for him and for Notts as well as his confidence raised and you could see he was buzzing from it.

I hope he can go on and earn full international honours, as being a small club, it is always nice to see the young players we have had go on to have a great future in the game and boast that we had a part to play in that. I truly believe that young Callum is destined for a great career. I just hope he remembers us when he’s scoring the goals for Celtic in the Champions League!

Thank you Callum, Hail Hail!

Ian Marsden

@IanMarsden76

At home to Swindon Town, our last home game of the season, they still had a mathematical chance of the play-offs so it was a hugely important game. We

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PROVIDING PEOPLE TO INDUSTRY

NOTTS COUNTY GOLF SOCIETY We play eight qualifying games a season – one per month - beginning in March and playing through until October.

Playing at eight courses throughout the Notts area, games alternate from a Sunday in the first month, to a Wednesday the next and so on. We start with tee times in the morning moving over to after lunch in the Summer then back to mornings.

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Anyone wishing to join irrespective of your handicap is most welcome, all details on our web site.

www.nottscountygolfsociety.co.uk

THE B-TEAM GHOST AT THE FEAST

A week is a long time in football. Preserving our League One status on the last day of the season in front of a huge away following will undoubtedly come to form part of the rich tapestry that depicts a life following Notts County. Yet with the post-Oldham hangovers barely cleared, a new threat of greater significance than the snakes and ladders of league football emerged, with the League 3 recommendation of the Greg Dyke led FA Commission, to be populated in part by Premier League development sides.

As FA Chairman, Dyke is in effect chief custodian of the national game and it is disappointing that he has presided over the drawing up of a manifesto that essentially seeks to destroy a football pyramid only recently venerated as a cherished institution during the FA’s 150 year anniversary celebrations.

Indeed the future direction signposted by the commission raises a number of questions to be considered from a Notts perspective; not least how best to protect ourselves from the medium term possibility of competing in what would effectively be a rebranded Pontins Reserve League.

Involving non-‘football people’ such as Dyke in the governance of the game is often an interesting experiment, with mixed results. It is especially entertaining to enjoy the reluctance of the red tops and commercial radio stations to give any kind of credence to ideas not formulated by someone who left school at 16 to kick a ball around.

A few years ago that darling of the football press, Harry Redknapp, was left baffled as to how Rugby World Cup winning coach Sir Clive Woodward could possibly add any value as part of Southampton’s back room staff. How Fleet Street guffawed at Arry’s tales of Woodward seeking to

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improve player’s peripheral vision through eye coaching, much better to take the team to Spain for some warm weather training and have ‘a raht auld knees app’.

This reticence remains today. Dr Steve Peters is one of the preeminent figures in sports psychology, having achieved significant success previously in UK cycling and in snooker with Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Nevertheless Roy Hodgson’s decision to invite Peters to help with the England team was met with widespread consternation, typically by those who played the game in a bygone age and now struggle to formulate relevant opinions on it. Peter’s ideas were simplified to such an extent that anyone driving a white van for much of the day could tell you he theorised about keeping chimpanzees in boxes, about as likely to bring the World Cup home as Eileen Drury touching Paul Merson’s head.

With Greg Dyke though things risk being different. Sport generally, not just football, has changed beyond all recognition in the last 20 years due to the increasing power of broadcasting networks to project sponsors into front rooms all over the planet; making potential consumers

out of us all. Having cut his teeth in commercial broadcasting, Dyke understands this better than anyone and will appreciate the commercial advantage of the clubs themselves strengthening their own brand.

The equation here is simple; the stronger the brand = the more potential consumers.

The more potential consumers = the more fizzy lagers, gambling websites and unscrupulous money lenders seeking to pay handsomely for the privilege of association.

Herein lies the problem. Whilst the football family is inherently reticent to consider ideas from outside the inner circle, when it comes to preserving the financial interest of the top table it seems any hair-brained scheme will find willing ears. The Premier League was formed solely to stem the (then modest) flow of TV money trickling down the divisions, despite claims at the time that a shorter season would benefit the England team in major tournaments. Following Notts’ final game of the season in League 1, this year’s champions of the self-anointed ‘most exciting league in the world’ played two further league fixtures, eating into England’s World Cup preparation and making a mockery of the good intentions that helped form a mandate for change in the early

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1990s.

The bright idea a few years ago was the Elite Player Performance Plan, nothing more than legitimised poaching by the top clubs of the best young players around the country, again under the guise of benefitting the national team. Jermaine Pennant represents an excellent example of the risks in this approach, lured from his local community at a young age by the promise of bright lights and a fast buck only to run into a succession of well publicised problems which prevented him reaching his potential, obvious even during a fleeting cameo as a 15 year old at Bramall Lane.

Whilst Pennant was never a choir boy, he remains the only Englishman to have played in a European Cup final but not represented the national side.

Fortunately the Dyke suggestion of B-Teams competing in the football league is unlikely to happen in its proposed format, the logistics of which don’t really stand up to scrutiny. Nevertheless the big teams will continue to get bigger and a cuckolding FA that has grown fat from suckling on the fiscal teat will continue to dream up new and inventive ways of preserving the status quo, thus consolidating the English football brand and underpinning its platform for generating revenue. Sooner or later an equally insipid plan will be formulated by the FA brains trust that will forever keep the smaller clubs under the jack boot of the grey men in grey suits.

So where does this leave Notts then?

Following the Oldham game Shaun Derry suggested that the club was more than just a badge on a shirt, it was a whole community.

This represents the very antithesis of the emotionally numb harlot-forhire that the game has become, indiscriminately pimped out by the FA to anyone prepared to pay. Derry and Abbott are a formidable pairing but they are unlikely to trump Marx and Engels in overthrowing market forces, therefore it is imperative that Notts strive to be back in the room where decisions dictating the future direction of the sport are made, or at least down the corridor. Certainly not milling around in the carpark with the Stevenage, Crawley and Dagenhams of this world.

To get ourselves back in from the cold will require significant effort from all parts of the club and the early signs are that Shaun Derry, if given the right backing and patience, will offer at least a fighting chance

JUN‘14

of eventually getting into the Championship where our voice can have more influence. Indeed our manager is the very embodiment of commitment, however to achieve this objective requires backing from the board and it is fair to say that the vigour of the chairman has come into question from some quarters following last summer’s was it/wasn’t it 30% budget cut.

From a position of being enthused in 2010; to the point of buying seaside drinks for a seemingly comparable number of fans that were stood directly behind Don O’Riordan’s screamer, Ray Trew, it has been rumoured, may be losing interest.

Whether or not this is the case is difficult to gauge and it is doubtful that too many internet messageboard contributors are party to the inner musings of the chairman. What is undeniable though is the relationship between those on the terraces and in the boardroom is somewhat less rosy than it was four summers ago in Torquay.

Prior to ‘Moron-gate’ the Trews had embraced social media as a means of engaging with the average Eddie Punch-Clock on the terraces.

In days gone by the only way for the common man to converse with those holding the decision making dice was to write a letter or make a banner. If you were lucky the chairman would respond in kind (‘I want Roeder too’ – liar!). Technology has quite literally changed the game and during the early part of their tenure it was refreshing to see both Trews merrily engaging with the general public, getting their new message across following the smoke and mirrors of Munto.

Unfortunately this open-book approach was only going to end one way. Social media is a double-edged sword to be handled with extreme care; despite all it adds to the world in assisting the exchange of videos featuring cats riding tortoises and as a means to organise civil unrest without the need to set one’s self alight. The major drawback is that it provides an arena for those rarely listened to in real life to trumpet their opinions, free from the moderating influence of common sense and basic manners.

It is easy to imagine why the Chairman’s patience may have been tested. With the club levitating over the trap door for much of last season a distinct anti-Trew movement with highly ambiguous aims and objectives began to gain traction.

Facebook groups purporting to save Notts County started to appear, driven by individuals who openly admitted to not attending games since Lee Hughes left. Likewise ill thought-out opinions and crackpot theories espoused on messageboards (drunkenly, mischievously or otherwise), found an increasingly receptive audience with a kind of ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ mentality.

Fortunately efforts on the pitch helped to hose down the rabble. It can now be hoped that the shared experience of unexpected survival has gone some way to building bridges and reinvigorating the board’s enthusiasm (were it needed), ready for the upcoming battle in resisting attempts to overhaul the league structure.

The voting mechanism hinted at by the FA Commission would make Vladimir Putin blush and the financial ‘incentives’ likely to be on offer for clubs to gobble and vote for Christmas are intended to liquidate resistance amongst the remaining ghettos of the lower leagues.

As with EPPP, opposition is futile and the real fight to save Notts County can be bolstered by the board backing the manager this summer. Anyone with one foot in the real world is not expecting marquee signings, simply that Derry is given licence to bring in the right type of characters who can then be encouraged to run through the brick walls necessary to mount an offensive aimed at dragging us out of the doldrums and into a division where our voice can be heard.

Last season was a failure masquerading as a great success.

Continued poor results strained relations amongst and between supporters, players and board members like never before, yet the club somehow managed to weather the storm. In order to now move forward and protect the club from the self-serving interests of those trusted with governing the game, the lasting legacy must be to capitalise on the momentum of the Great Escape™ to make a concerted effort at breaking into the Championship and the larger podium it offers from which to represent our interests. Whilst the changes muted by Dyke and co are unlikely to be realised in their current form, the wind of change is certainly in the air and, as any Tetris enthusiast will testify, the inevitable can only be resisted for so long.

Adam Taylor

@Adam3663

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JACK GREALISH He arrived as an unknown teenager thrust into a side destined for a season-long battle against relegation and went on to leave having made a significant mark in another remarkable Notts County season.

Loanee Jack Grealish made his first league start in a 5-1 hammering at Leyton Orient in September, and ended it at the home of the soon-to-be Premier League champions Manchester City, making his debut for boyhood club Aston Villa.

In between, his was a season of personal triumph and assisting Notts’ Great Escape with five goals in 39 appearances. Paul Smith caught up with Jack after the dust had settled on the season for his final Magpies interview, exclusively for Black & White.

Jack, it already seems an age since that Oldham game on the final day of the season, yet while Notts’ fans have been football starved your season seems to have gone on and on - what have you been up to?

I obviously went back to Villa and managed to get into the first team and make my debut against Manchester City which was amazing.

Then after the season, I went away to Cyprus with my girlfriend but came back and had an Under 21s tournament for Villa in Hong Kong. We managed to win a little trophy there and I scored a few goals. I got six goals in six games so it was a good experience for me.

And a great way to end what was quite a season for you?

It was probably the most important season of my career so far going into it and I reckon it will end up being the most import season I will ever have.

I’d had that step up playing Under-21 football week in week out but to then play professional football for Notts County in League One was massive and the best thing for me.

I enjoyed every minute of my time at the club.

You came after the season had got underway and joined the club under Chris Kiwomya.

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How did the move come about?

game. He did little one on one stuff with me. When he left I was injured and didn’t have the time to say I’d been told by the Under 21s manager at Villa a goodbye, although I did text him. few times that they’d had some interest from clubs looking to take me on loan, and then one night I Then Shaun Derry came in so it wasn’t a bad thing. got a call telling me I was going out on loan to He’s a great manager and he’ll do very well for the club in the future.

Notts County.

The next day I went to Bodymoor Heath Training As a player inside the camp was it the right Ground and went straight off with Enda Stevens decision to sack Kiwomya? (another Notts loanee from Villa) to Notts County.

It’s not really for me to say but it’s obviously been It all happened very quickly. a good thing because Shaun Derry kept us up. But So it wasn’t actually your decision to come to I’m not saying Chris wouldn’t have done the same.

I got on very well with both of them.

Notts?

No, the decision was made for me really. Maybe the In a struggling side you and Callum McGregor gaffer at Villa spoke to someone at Notts County quickly became the leading lights. As a young lad in a new team, when did you think you’d and thought it was the best club for me. stepped up and become a senior player?

You made your debut as a sub in a 3-1 defeat at MK Dons. What are your memories of that? When you’re a young lad like me you have less pressure on you and both me and Callum were just I wasn’t actually that nervous to be honest. I told to express ourselves in every game and that’s thought I would have been considering it was my what we tried to do. I got on really well with Callum first ever professional game. It wasn’t the best and luckily it all paid off in the end. of results and then we played on the following Tuesday and lost 5-1 at Leyton Orient, which again Did you ever feel like walking away from the wasn’t a great result! So it didn’t get off to the best club given we were in a relegation battle from of starts but after that we won a few games against day one?

Tranmere and Crewe.

No way, not at all. Not even in January when my I suppose when you look back, they were first loan spell ended I still wanted to be at Notts such vital wins as they came against sides we County. There were clubs at the top of League One and the Championship showing an interest but I ended up fighting relegation with. said all along that I wanted to stay at Notts.

That was the main thing. You’d rather be beating Tranmere and Crewe than Leyton Orient because it Was your relationship with the fans a big part was those sides that were around us in the league of that? and we rose to the occasion when we played them, The fans are a massive part of Notts County. That’s and luckily ended up staying up. the one thing Notts County has is a big togetherness Chris Kiwomya was in charge when you with the fans, the staff and all of the players. That’s arrived, but it wasn’t long before he was what is so great about Notts County. sacked. What did you make of him as a You mentioned Shaun Derry is a great manager? manager. How far can he take Notts?

I’ve got a lot of respect for Chris because he brought me to the club and he helped me with my It shows doesn’t it when you think he came in and

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had six or seven months to change it around and he did it. He brought us together and it’s what the club needed. Because Shaun Derry is from Nottingham he knows what is needed and he’s got that passion for the club.

with your dad in the stands – how did that feel?

Definitely. I can see it from his point of view. I had a season ticket at Villa since I was four years old and now I’m 18 and still there and playing for them now. It’s massive for Shaun Derry to manage his boyhood club – you need to have a lot of passion to do that and he showed that last season.

Were you happy with your overall goals and assists tally?

I think Notts will have a good season next time.

You can see already with the players he’s brought in like getting Jimmy (Spencer) to sign on – that’s massive. Obviously a few players have left like Gary Liddle and Jamal (Campbell-Ryce) and they will be a big loss, but he can bring his own players in now and he’s got Jimmy so I think Notts County are going to do well.

Going back to March and a 3-2 defeat at relegation rivals Tranmere with a late goal we were bottom of the table, seven points from safety and having played a game more.

Everyone thought we were down – did the players?

It was a bit of a shock because I wasn’t expecting to score when I picked the ball up. The main thing was we were winning and for me to get the third You know yourself as a Villa fan now playing goal was great for me personally, and to celebrate like I did. for that club what it can do for a team.

To be truthful I would have liked to have got more, but for my first season in professional football as a young player I will take it.

No. We all had belief. That’s the one thing Shaun Derry brought to us. Even after we lost that game Hayden Mullins has also returned to the club. we all still believed. Shaun had belief in us and that How much did he and the other experienced meant we believed we could do it as well. players help you?

We might have lost to Tranmere, but we stayed up Hayden was a massive influence on the team in the in the end and they didn’t. To win six of the last second half of the season. He came in and scored a eight games was brilliant for us. To stay up on the very important goal and then he dropped back into last day was unbelievable and one of the best days of my life. defence and was brilliant for us.

I think if he wasn’t there we would have struggled How did you feel before that final game at quite a lot, but with his experience he helped us Oldham? What was it like in the dressing room knowing what was at stake and with all all out of it. those fans behind you?

Your first goal came against Gillingham in a 3-1 home win and you memorably celebrated A few of the lads were a bit nervous before the

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game, but the main thing was that we had to get the win or draw. Even when we went 1-0 down, because of the belief Shaun Derry had put into us, we still thought we could come back and we kept believing and got the goal and stayed up.

with?

Just over a week later came your Villa debut at Manchester City on Monday Night Football.

What was that like for you?

Honestly. Every single training session he was the best player and his first touch was brilliant. I promise you he could play for a Premier League team, that’s the honest truth. He came up against Messi for Trinidad the other day and I saw a picture of him trying to tackle Messi! Boucs has so much skill!

That was unbelievable playing for my boyhood team. My dad came to watch me and he couldn’t catch his breath! He was over the moon. I didn’t think I’d come on so it was a big thanks to the manager.

Weren’t you one of the players trying to chase Yaya Toure as he ran through for his late goal?

There was no point trying! He was too quick!

What was the highlight of your time at Notts?

Scoring my first goal was great but staying up on the last day – nothing could beat that. We went out afterwards and I think we deserved it to be honest!

And the worst moment?

There weren’t too many bad moments to be honest. Probably just when I got dropped for a few games in March. I got dropped around that Tranmere game but after that I got back into the team. It’s not nice to be dropped but obviously at the time the gaffer thought it was the best thing for the team.

What was your best game for the club?

Probably Brentford at home (1-0 defeat). It was one of the games I got Man of the Match in and I think it was my best individual performance.

Who was the best Notts player you played

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Andre Boucaud. (pictured - with Lionel Messi!)

Really?

What do you think will happen to you next season?

I want to be pushing for the first team at Villa and the manager has told me that’s what I need to be doing. I already know about four or five Championship clubs who are interested in taking me on loan so I could always go back out, but the main thing is to be pushing for the Villa first team.

How do you think you’ll deal with the expectation on you now given the season you had and how much your profile has increased?

It’s a privilege really. I’ve got to keep doing what I did last season and hopefully better stuff will come for me.

I’ve come along as a player and I’ve got to deal with any talk and just show what I can do on the pitch.

Paul Smith

@psmithyjourno

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THE SEASON GONE BY

Looking back on the 2013/14 season is a largely gruesome job, but someone has got to do it.

If the obvious metaphor to make is that of an earthquake, however, we can at least end with that heart warming image of a dog being pulled from the wreckage to be reunited with its owner. Somehow, when all appeared to have collapsed around us, Notts pulled it out of the back on that memorable last day of the season at Oldham Athletic, but getting there really wasn't all that much fun.

It all started back in August on a balmy Friday evening in Sheffield as Notts travelled to Bramall Lane for the opening game of the entire league season. The eyes of the nation were on the Magpies, so starved of football had they been up to that point, but in a neat foreshadowing of things to come, the evening quickly began to unravel. Gary Liddle was sent off within fifteen minutes for an inexplicable, studs up lunge at a United player's chest before Notts fell behind to a Kevin McDonald goal. A brief rally from the most unexpected source, Enoch Showunmi's right boot, followed – but Harry Maguire continued his bizarre run of scoring against us every time we play United to condemn the Magpies to opening day defeat.

Disciplinary problems continued in the week but the 3-2 win over Fleetwood Town in the League Cup earned a trip to Anfield in the second round, whilst the first league home game saw Notts thoroughly outclassed by an excellent Peterborough side.

ending in defeat at Carlisle United, a long season of struggle was already looking to be on the agenda.

October started well, with Notts producing comfortably their most complete display of the season so far to see off fellow crisis club Crewe Alexandra, loanee striker Marcus Haber making a huge impact, whilst a penalty shoot-out win at Wolves three days later in the JPT gave some hope that Kiwomya was finally starting to turn things around.

Three successive defeats to Swindon Town, Gillingham and Preston North End left the Magpies back at square one, however, and the 1-0 reverse to Preston proved to be one frustrating home loss too many and Ray Trew moved to pull the trigger, still warm from Keith Curle's dismissal.

As Danny Wilson emerged as the early favourite to take over, caretaker boss Steve Hodge saw his side take a vital three points at home against Oldham Athletic.

Hodge's second game in temporary charge was less successful, ten-man Notts seeing Haynes sent off before they crumbled to a timid 3-0 defeat against Coventry City. This left new manager Shaun Derry, assisted by former Carlisle boss Greg Abbott, with one almighty mess to try and clean up. With relegation looming increasingly largely on the horizon, cup defeats in Derry's first two games were perhaps a blessing in disguise, but the manner of the FA Cup loss at League The league form was becoming a real concern, however, Two side Hartlepool and JPT evisceration at Oldham Athletic were massively concerning. with Kiwomya's summer signings Successive 1-0 defeats to Wolves and Shrewsbury Mustapha Dumbuya, Town followed, leaving Notts adrift at the foot of the Danny Haynes and table and Derry with four straight defeats to kick off his Mark Fotheringham managerial career. A hard-earned point at Bradford City all struggling to make offered some respite, but another 1-0 home defeat, this a real impact on the time against Brentford, left Notts entering December first team for differing with a winless manager reasons.

The only and bottom of the table. real bright rays of sunlight through an The home game against increasingly blackened Gillingham was already sky for Kiwomya were looking like a must win, two loanees, Callum McGregor and Jack Grealish, the latter making his with Derry eventually having his loanees to debut in defeat at Milton Keynes. thank as brilliant late Notts made progress in the Paint Tin Kickabout Cup goals from McGregor against Burton Albion, but when they were demolished and Grealish sealed a 5-1 by early leaders Leyton Orient, Kiwomya looked to 3-1 triumph. When his be on the brink. A 2-0 win over Tranmere at Meadow side finally put together Lane was enough to save him, but with September back-to-back wins a By the time his team had taken just one point from games against Walsall, Stevenage and Rotherham United, manager Chris Kiwomya was already under heaps of pressure – despite a wonderful night at Anfield where Notts battled back from two goals down to take the game to extra time, with Adam Coombes' equaliser to remain one of the season's biggest high points.

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week later, inexplicably going to Colchester United and demolishing the Essex side 4-0, Notts finally looked to be turning the corner. Even a 1-1 draw at home against fellow strugglers Bristol City was greeted favourably, such was the nature of Alan Sheehan's late penalty equaliser. The momentum didn't last, though, and Notts rounded off a dreadful 2013 with successive defeats at Port Vale and Crawley Town.

There were no bleary-eyed hangovers on show on New Year's Day, though, as Notts continued their solid form at home with a 3-0 win over Bradford City, before following it up ten days later with a tense 2-1 victory against Sheffield United.

Despite losing their top scorer McGregor as he returned to Celtic after his loan spell, when Notts went and ground out a 1-0 win at Stevenage in a massive six-pointer, Derry seemed to finally be making a real difference.

Derry and his side right back into the mix. Suddenly there was posters being printed off in their hundreds, theme tunes played before kick-off and genuine belief coursing through black and white veins.

Defeat at Brentford was frustrating but not unexpected, Notts failing to respond after an early Haydn Hollis red card, but a pulsating 4-2 win over Port Vale at Meadow Lane showcased all of the team's new found belief. They fell two goals behind early on but responded decisively, Jimmy Spencer and Jamal Campbell-Ryce scoring two each in a vital win. A heartbreaking defeat at Bristol City would follow, though, as Notts failed to make their domination at Ashton Gate count. The Magpies went into their final three games knowing that their room for error was all but non-existent, with at least seven points likely to be needed for survival. It started well, albeit nervily, with Notts holding out for a priceless 1-0 win over Crawley, before again clinging on to beat Swindon Town 2-0 at Meadow Lane, McGregor adding the second deep into injury time against nine men.

A crazy game at Peterborough followed, Notts going 2-0 up early on before losing Ronan Murray to a red card and the match 4-3, but they entered February in reasonable shape despite a bizarre 5-1 loss at home This sent it to Oldham, with Notts needing just one point to Walsall, McGregor scoring on his return after an to complete the greatest of escapes. 3,500 travelled agreement was reached with Celtic. to Lancashire ready to party, but from the opening whistle at Boundary There were just four games in February – but the final Park things didn't really one of them seemed to be the one that would have go to plan. Within ten the most profound impact on Notts' season. Following minutes Crewe and a tepid display in defeat at Preston with a comfortable Tranmere had taken the home win over Coventry and loss at Wolves, Notts lead, meaning that one hosted Shrewsbury Town in another huge game goal for an Oldham side knowing that three points were vital to keeping their who were dominating survival bid on track. It started well, Notts taking a 2-0 proceedings would send lead inside ten minutes, but as at Peterborough United Notts down. they self-destructed. Jimmy Spencer inexplicably elbowing someone in the face to earn a red card as the Some respite came Shrews came back to win it 3-2. when Tranmere were reduced to ten men in When his side were beaten 6-0 at Rotherham just a the first half, but visiting Bradford sounded like they week later, everyone were doing little to break down the door. Notts got it bar Derry thought that to half time but not much further, falling behind when the game was up. They Adam Lockwood's looping header sent them crashing responded reasonably down into the relegation zone. In some ways this well, grinding out a 0-0 would prove to be the shot in the arm that the Magpies draw against promotion needed, with Sheehan equalising from the penalty spot chasing Orient, but ten minutes later to send the travelling fans wild. successive defeats to Milton Keynes and After Bradford scored twice at Prenton Park to confirm Tranmere – the latter Tranmere's relegation and County's survival, the fans being a heartbreaking flooded onto the pitch from behind the goal to greet late striker in another their players and a clearly emotional Derry. I'm still not huge match at quite sure how they pulled it off, but Derry stood on the the bottom, it was steps of Oldham's Main Stand, arms in the air, was our impossible to see how Notts could come back. Seven dog-from-the-rubble moment. Now let's just hope they points adrift with just nine games remaining, never let it get quite that desperate ever again. surely the dye was cast? Apparently not. Notts ended March with three straight wins against fellow relegation candidates, with the nine points taken from Carlisle @JacobNCM United, Crewe Alexandra and Colchester United hauling

Jacob Daniel

JUN ‘14

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THINK AGAIN, JAMAL

play-off candidates to mid-table alsorans. We can only hope we never have to endure a time like it again – players with a cob on for months on end because their soft touch of a manager had been given the elbow. Chris Kiwomya should certainly never have been appointed – but his treatment from the likes of JCR, Dean Leacock and Andre Boucaud was a disgrace.

Few Notts fans will ever forget the night JCR trudged off the field after 20 minutes one evening because he didn't like the booing he was receiving from Preston North End fans? We were the That word shambolic, as any reading home side. There was only just over Notts fan would attest to, is putting it 300 travelling fans even there! lightly. To put a number to how many games passed Jamal by would be to Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott on arrival court insanity. Countless blind alleys took a sledgehammer to the Notts ran down, strikers inundated with over- squad upon their November arrival. hit crosses, or defenders left to deal Out were the likes of Yoann Arquin, with limp deliveries that couldn't even Danny Haynes and Enoch Showunmi. get beyond the first man – this was the Had Jamal joined them, very few stuffs Notts County career of Jamal Campbell- would have been given.

Ryce for so long. A performance under Chris Kiwomya at Tranmere Rovers will It's still quite early in the season and take some beating if anyone is to put there's a new buzz phrase going around in a worse shift in our club's colours. I Nottinghamshire. You see apparently swear I saw him fly through the air, as we don't call players bone idle anymore if he tripped over his own laces, with no – we call them “not Derry's type of one within a good ten yards of him. If player”. Jermaine McGlashan, Craig the gaffer had said after the game that Westcarr, even our own Mustapha he'd been on the ale on the bus ride to Dumbuya have had this label attached Birkenhead, it wouldn't have come as a to them. Jamal Campbell-Ryce however is the epitome of “not Derry's type of surprise at all. player”.

But it all started quite well for Jamal, eventually. The start to his time But by the turn of the year we were at the club began with him injured finally able to appreciate just what it on the sidelines (Keith Curle, the was that saw Keith Curle bring him to genius) before he found his way the club. Seemingly out of nowhere we onto the Boundary Park pitch for his had a player with an end product. His debut. Sparking into life not too long individual brilliance to open the scoring after coming on, he sprinted half the at home to Bradford on New Years Day length of the field before his mis-hit will rightfully be looked back on as a delivery (oh the irony) sailed over the high point in a too-often disappointing goalkeeper and into the back of the campaign. net.

Given the form he was showing by the He was one of the bigger end of the season, I'm gutted we've disappointments of the post-Keith lost him. We had a genuine menace.

Curle sacking toxicity that took us from It's only a few weeks since he in Jamal Campbell-Ryce has made me quite angry. It's not so much the leaving Notts County, it's the manner in which he has done so. Footballers are little more than mercenaries at the end of the day and by now we should all be at ease with that. At the end of the day these people's careers have a short shelf life so of course they're going to chase the pound signs. But did we as a club – or Shaun Derry as a human being – deserve better from a player so shambolic until the final months of his deal at Meadow Lane?

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fact put in one of the best individual performances I've ever seen as he set up Jimmy Spencer for two goals, and scoring a brace himself as we came from two goals to beat Port Vale 4-2.

The impact he had for us going forward is considered a massive part as to why we're still a League One club. Less heralded though was his usefulness defensively, offering us a great outlet to run the ball out of our own third to take the pressure off a tiring defence.

So given the great faith shown in him by his latest managers after so much mediocrity – what right did Jamal have to preach about wanting to be paid “what he deserves” by our club, and via the local media no less?

When you look at the course of his two years at Meadow Lane, claims that he “deserved” some kind of ludicrous increase in pay is just absurd – a claim I can have absolutely no respect for. Even more so when you consider Derry's words in an interview with The League Paper with the season just completed: “These players have to take a very close look at themselves in the mirror this summer.

“They have to say ‘Hang on, have I done everything – absolutely everything – to warrant being called a success?’ And if they’ve got high standards, they’d have to say 'Probably not'.”

Words that should most certainly have been heeded by Campbell-Ryce. I can't imagine anyone will remember fondly the entirety of his Meadow Lane career, a time mostly spent surprised that he was still here at all! We're of course grateful for his turnaround in form and where it landed us next season, but for him to think a move to Sheffield United on good money is something he deserves is quite staggering.

Stuart Brothers

@blackwhitezine

ISSUE #9

AWAY DAYSCHARLTON ‘93

In the wake of the Bradford Fire Disaster, after its safety was criticised by the Football League, Charlton did not have enough funds to revamp The Valley to meet safety requirements, thus were forced to leave and for the next 6 years to ground share.

However, In December 1992 they returned to a three-sided Valley to play their games. Three As mentioned earlier, The Valley was currently three weeks later on January 30th they were pitted sided, the massive East Terrace was still standing derelict ready for redevelopment. So maybe if we against Notts. could find a vantage point over looking the terrace Back in the 80s and 90s all ticket games or buying all might not be lost. Behind the terrace was a row tickets pre-match was a rarity. Unless you were of houses who’s gardens backed on to the ground. either Man Utd or Liverpool, away teams were never So off we set up the hill and started banging on going to sell out an away ground. So off we set on doors and cutting deals with the locals, in exchange the trek down to South East London in anticipation for money, to watch the game standing on their of chalking off a new ground and seeing Charlton garden walls or up their trees in the back gardens.

Some of them even put the kettle on and made back at their spiritual home. drinks for their paying guests at half time.

For this trip we had decided to go on Acko’s coach rather than either drive or get the train as any trip Ive been following Notts now for 40 years and this to London is a nightmare, less having the added away day still lingers long in the memory. Not for the result, but for the sheer bloody mindedness stress of navigating the Blackwall Tunnel. and lengths Notts fans will do to see the match.

For those familiar with Acko’s away days, if you The Sunday papers will show that the official get to the ground before kick off it was considered attendance was 8,337, but that doesn’t include the a failure. His philosophy was and probably still is 40-50 Notts fans clinging on to branches watching “Why waste time sat on a coach when you could a Charlton team eventually run out 2-1 winners. be in the pub utilising valuable drinking time?” So pulling up adjacent to Floyd Road SE7 at 2.55pm, Dyer gave the our “hosts” the lead on 56 before a in his opinion, would have given us plenty of time Mark Draper equaliser gave the ‘Pies parity. Soon to disembark the coach and enter via the turnstiles to be Premier League manager Alan Pardew was the difference though, hitting a winner from the ready for kick off. penalty spot.

However, the major oversight for many notts fans that day was the local demand to see the game. For those interested, we did make it into the ground Reaching the turnstiles we were met with “Sorry for the last 5 mins when the gates were opened to lads its sold out” from the safety stewards on hand. let the early leaving brigade out.

Apparently shortly after 2:30 they had locked the gates due to reaching capacity. So after a short period of trying to flash £10 at stewards to let us in @Seanystaxi we had to find a plan B.

Sean Redgate

JUN‘14

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Wishing both Notts County FC and Black & White all the best and hoping both the fanzine and Shaun Derry’s Notts take us all the way to extra time and penalties this year!

electricaloptions.co.uk

LuSam

Photography -Wedding-Portraiture-Nature-Architecture07446 118177 facebook.com/lusamphotography I also sell framed photos of the Meadow Lane Stadium, with 10% discount for Notts Co. fans (just quote Black&White when ordering)

CHEAP OPTION MAYBE

BUT WHAT A BARGAIN!

Let’s be honest. Few if any Notts fans jumped for joy back in November when Shaun Derrys’ appointment was announced. The one thing we didn’t want after getting rid of Chris Kiwomya was another cheap rookie.

Danny Wilson had once again reportedly been on the shortlist of applicants, so why the **** hadn’t he been offered it? We needed an experienced old head, not another former Magpies player looking to take his first steps in Football League management, and using Meadow Lane as a sand-box to practise in.

Greg Abbott was hardly an inspiring appointment for me personally, either. Having heard a couple of his post-match interviews with BBC Radio Cumbria during his spell as the manager of Carlisle United, I considered him to be as dull as dishwater. If he was like that in the dressing room and on the training ground, no wonder his team were struggling. Then again, minutes after a couple of very comprehensive home defeats by Notts, he was highly unlikely to be a bundle of fun to listen to.

But at least Shaun was a local lad, and a lifetime Notts fan. He understood what being a Notts fan was all about, so he already

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had something of an affinity with the crowd. In any case, underwhelmed as we were, we had no option but to stick with it, get firmly behind Shaun and his team, and give them a chance.

Aren’t we glad we did?

Six months later Notts are still in League One. The Great Escape II, which looked so unlikely before Christmas, has been accomplished with only a few casualties, and the season has ended in relief and celebration, leaving a very positive buzz around the club, which will remain for most of the summer.

Hopefully that’ll be sustained into next season and we can get off to a flying start.

It’ll be very interesting to see how Shaun goes about reshaping and tweaking his squad during the close season. We all have our own opinions on who should be kept and who should be shipped out, but of course it’s never as simple as that. I’m sure there’ll be some financial backing from the board to a sensible level, but

much of Shaun’s work will involve having to wheel and deal to make space in the wage bill, and also using his contacts in the game to dig out another long-term loan or two to help us out. I think his toughest task will be finding adequate replacements for Jack Grealish and Callum McGregor.

Whatever happens, I believe Shaun is the right man for the job in the longer term. He clearly has the right temperament and approach in order to lead, teach, inspire, drive, and motivate everyone around him. You can’t learn that from coaching courses… it’s something you either have in your character or you don’t.

The board of directors should be doing all they possibly can to provide him with the backing he needs, because his stats won’t go unnoticed and it might not be too long before they’re doing all they possibly can to persuade him to stay at Notts when one or two bigger clubs come calling.

Nigel Nattrass

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THE LADIES’ SEASON SO FAR

I’ll start this article by placing my cards on the table. Prior to this season, I had no experience whatsoever with women’s football in this country. Sure I’d watched a few games over the years when there was nothing else on. “You’re that desperate for football are you?” the missus would ask – and quite frankly, yes I was.

I’d watch games intently enough, sometimes in the company of others who couldn’t resist that time honoured quip about swapping shirts at the end of the game. That one will never stop being funny. But I must admit to being more than surprised with the quality that Notts Ladies have had on show so far in their first ever season.

It’s been nearly 30 years since we were about to talk about Notts rubbing shoulders with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool in the top flight. But whilst it might be Notts County Ladies competing however, the level of competition is more than worthy of your time.

On these first few month’s impressions, it would appear that coach Rick Passmoor has assembled a fine squad. Jess Clarke has been rampant both in scoring and setting up others, it’s seemingly impossible at times to shake Dunia Susi off the ball, whilst team captain - and Nottingham’s very own - Sophie Bradley is never anything less than rock solid defensively.

Not that impressions were quite so favourable straight away you understand! After a season of thumping sides in pre-season without even conceding a goal, the competitive season started at home to Coventry City in the FA Cup. What followed was far from a classic. The ladies won 2-1 to kick start a journey to the tournament’s semi-finals. The contest was not the advert the NCLFC board would have wanted – a typical 11 bodies behind the ball punctuated only by long balls up field to a striker nowhere to be seen. Notts struggled to break it down but were resilient throughout.

Thankfully it was a fairly meagre crowd which

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turned out for the game. Word of mouth would not have been in the club’s favour on this occasion.

The first ever FA Womens Super League season got under way days later with the visit of Arsenal Ladies to Nottingham. Clarke would be on the score sheet and right now is the top scorer in ladies football by some distance. Her side’s impressive start to the game however couldn’t be maintained, and the visitors were level five minutes into the second half with a wonderfully drilled finished from the edge of the area. The game finished 1-1, the full time whistle was greeted by a standing over ovation by the thousand and half people in the Derek Pavis Stand.

Helped by free entry to season ticket holders for the men’s side, it was a crowd of 1,583 – the actual figure likely to be considerably higher given that a large number of those with men’s tickets didn’t even have their cards scanned on entry. This game would certainly have more than matched what curious eyes would have wanted to see.

Two wins on the bounce would follow – firstly in FAWSL1 away at Everton 2-0 in a game later to be implicated in match fixing allegations. Confusion reigns though given that it was reported that Notts were allegedly the home side. This is a story that’s likely to run. This was backed up with a 5-0 trouncing of Aston Villa back at home in Notts’ first Continental Cup match. Clarke notched four goals, Dunia Susi two and Caitlin Friend with another. A draw at home to Bristol Academy slowed things down just slightly ahead of (just a month into the campaign) an FA Cup semi-final!

ISSUE #9

They wear our colours (currently purple owing to a colour clash with the referee’s) with pride, representing the club as well as we could hope. Sure the FA Cup semi was an unfortunate, undeserved low point but aside from that there’s been little to complain about. Injuries to Ellen White and Anna Green have ruled each out for the season which certainly won’t have been in the script – in fact you’d wonder the impact White could have had in Katie Hoyle would get a goal back from Notts in any of the four games drawn so far. a second half which became one-way traffic. An equaliser was not forthcoming – in spite of Clarke’s Silverware is very much within County’s grasp in magnificent effort from 30 yards swerving onto the this inaugural Notts Ladies season. In Jess Clarke woodwork, bouncing agonisingly across the goal they have a player who is looking to prove a point line. Heartbreak for our ladies side, but elation having perhaps not fulfilled the sort of potential for an Everton team which would lose in the final that has seen her play in a World Cup, and the against Arsenal at Stadium MK. No great loss if we London Olympics. She’s a match winner, and is didn’t have to suffer an afternoon in that soulless a stand out each time she’s on the field. At nine goals in ten games, she’s three clear of Arsenal’s dive I guess! Every cloud right?

Kelly Smith (aided by two penalties) and Liverpool’s Days later it was back to Continental Cup affairs Natasha Dowie – that’s some going for a player who on the road at Oxford. Clarke would get her almost perhaps wouldn’t be getting these chances if Ellen obligatory goals with Friend and Aileen Whelan White were available for selection. adding further gloss to another comprehensive victory. A goalless draw at home to Liverpool was I honestly believe it when I say I’m yet to see the second time attendances had broken the 1,000 a team match County in terms of quality over a barrier – just a shame they weren’t rewarded 90 minute game. Had there been that little bit with a goal or two in what was otherwise another more bite in the final third it would certainly be Passmoor’s team in pole position. The club has entertaining game. already begun to strengthen during the downtime A 0-0 draw away at Chelsea to bring the curtain as well, adding Australian international Danielle down on the first half of the season probably Brogan to it’s ranks, with according to Passmoor, couldn’t have a come at a worse time with many more additions to follow before business resumes. eyes watching thanks to live coverage on BT Sport.

Again Notts were the better side Ultimately a lack of cutting edge in the final third would see the game @blackwhitezine be remembered mostly for one of the most bizarre July 6th refereeing decisions you’re ever likely to see.

A 2-0 win at the end of May at Portsmouth Ladies had set up a date at Alfreton Town against the same Everton side beaten just a few weeks earlier.

In the league encounter, Everton were a poor side simply out-muscled by a more professional Notts side. The only player of note was their number nine Nikita Parris – and it would be her two first half goals that would effectively kill the tie off.

A shame given the nationwide TV audience that Notts couldn’t do more. Of course, any doubters that remained about Notts Ladies or the womens’ game in general had a field day with it.

The side are currently on a break and will return to Continental Cup action on Sunday, July 6th for the trip to FAWSL1-topping Birmingham City. With the Meadow Lane pitch being given ample time to recover over the Summer, it’s not until July 7th before the girls are back there.

It’s been a very good start for Notts County Ladies.

JUN‘14

Birmingham City Ladies (a) July 12th Yeovil Town Ladies FC (a)

July 17th Manchester City Women (a) July 20th Birmingham City Ladies (h) July 27th Arsenal Ladies FC (a) August 10th Everton Ladies FC(h) August 23rd Liverpool Ladies (a) September 3rd Manchester City Women (h) September 21st Chelsea Ladies FC (h)

MORE INFO @ NCLFC.CO.UK

Friend was in the thick of it, running into the box to meet a cross. She was hauled down well into the penalty area – we’re talking beyond the penalty spot - and the linesman flagged for the infringement. Yet the referee pointed for a Notts free-kick on the edge of the box – justifying it by saying it was about where the infringement had started. That was about as much entertainment as the game. The closest the deadlock came to being broken was in the second half, a beautifully weighted lob rebounding off the crossbar from the ever-charismatic Desiree Scott.

REMAINING FIXTURES

Stuart Brothers

October 4th Bristol Academy Women (a) October 12th Birmingham City Ladies (a)

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SIX GAMES TO SALVATION PART ONE

It’s easy to forget quite how dead and buried we were. Prenton Park, Birkenhead at 4.54pm on Saturday 15th March 2014, and as a Steven Jennings screamer hits the back of the net, a 24th defeat in 37 games is assured. Notts County FC are anchored to the bottom of League One with a paltry 31 points - eight points from safety and surely doomed.

We had been kicked out of the footballing last chance saloon and the stake of relegation had been driven through our black and white heart. Quite a relief if I’m honest. It had been an abject season and we were down there on merit. So time to stop hoping for the impossible and start preparing for trips to Fleetwood and Field Mill. Back to the basement for another few seasons circling the plughole to the Conference.

There’s a wry smile on my lips as my inner cynic scoffs at the newly minted Great Escape campaign dreamt up by the Meadow Lane media team. I’m impressed by their optimism but I know a lost cause when I see one.

How wrong can you be? Precisely two weeks later, after a flurry of Steve McQueen movie poster mock ups, three consecutive wins against relegation rivals and a trio of goals from the most unlikely source (welcome to the season Haydn Hollis), the Magpies are unbelievably back in the land of the League One living. Balls.

Looks like I’ll have to pull on the stripes, get on the road and see if I can’t help cheer the lads to safety. Welcome back to the emotional tumble dryer my son.

Brentford (A) April 5th A Bad Start So I find myself back at Griffin Park to see if we can upset an out of form Brentford. They are sitting pretty in second though, so it’s a long shot to say the least.

I’ve come up from Wiltshire on the train with my daughter Charis in her pink Notts shirt and Adam turns up as I balance her on the advertising boards behind the goal. We start well, but a scything tackle by an out of position Hollis sends Clayton Donaldson flying and the game is gone. As is Hollis.

Alan Judge at least has the decency not to celebrate his two goals, and insult is added to injury when I miss Jimmy Spencer’s consolation - I’m escorting Charis to the toilet. Grrr.

Back in the drop zone and three points from safety with five games to go - not sure we can afford another

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defeat now. Standing at Brentford station a few hundred Notts fans try and get the promotion bound Bees followers to raise a cheer but they just look bemused – maybe getting out of League One at the right end is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Not that we’ll be finding out any time soon. Adam wants me to go to Port Vale at the Lane next week I’m really not keen but I eventually cave in. Clearly the Great Escape has got to me.

Port Vale (H) April 12th The Turning Point

we meet up with Dave and Alex on Iremonger Road and head for the Kop. No Hollis means an unfamiliar defence, and after twenty five minutes a Thompson own goal and a dubious second for Vale mean we are two down and staring relegation in the face once again.

He’s got this new car has Adam, well, new to him, and it’s held together by rust and not much else.

So he’s understandably not keen on much weight on the back seat, which rules out me bringing any of It’s hard to see a way back when we my Junior Magpies. have only once come from behind to win this season, but what do I So its train and tube to know? An inspired Campbell-Ryce Seven Sisters and he picks sets up two for Spencer before half me up in the car park of time and we steamroller Vale after Wickes. He can’t come soon the break with two more for the enough for me - it’s full of mercurial winger to seal a 4-2 win. east European labourers looking for work and I’m But not before an astonishing miss worried someone’s going to from Pope - the ball pings off the mistakenly bundle me in the post and Bart’s back and he blasts back of a Transit. it wide from a yard out. Has our luck turned? Other results go our way He turns up wearing the and we’re back above the line in the yellow turtle neck Harp relegation hokey cokey. Maybe we away shirt from back in the can do this after all - but probably day. I suppose anything will not with that back four. be lucky sooner or later if you wear it often enough. Adam and I agree to do Crawley The drive is uneventful and and Swindon and Oldham if we’re

ISSUE #9

still in it. Fools.

bucket holds together for another trip to Bristol City (A) April 18th Nottingham. It’s the Bank Holiday visit The Hammer Blow of an already safe Crawley - banana skin I’d been pondering this one for ahoy. a while. Bristol’s only a couple of hours on the train and after County Traffic is lighter than looked up for the fight against Vale usual and we kill I’m ready for a solo mission to time in Toys R Us of Ashton Gate. all places. I need a An away point would be massive to go with all those home wins so I’m hoping today is the day we finally remember how to grind one out.

The sun is out and I enjoy the 45 minute walk to the ground. Hollis is back and we start like a house on fire, only to concede from virtually their first attack.

We keep up a hell of a racket and it brings results on the half hour when Hollis powers in a Sheehan free kick for the equaliser. I marvel at Derry’s ability to make a League One defender and goalscorer from an out of favour third choice squad player - but it was to be a day of mixed fortunes for the lanky youngster.

We rip them to pieces in the second half but the winner won’t come. Just as I’m feeling happy to settle for a well deserved point, disaster strikes.

That man Hollis lets a long clearance bounce, and his stooping back header results in a fresh air shot from Bart and the gleeful Baldock lifts his finish over Mullins into an empty net. F****** f****** f***.

The remaining couple of minutes evaporate and I sprint back to Temple Meads in twenty minutes cursing under my breath. As I dive up the steps to the platform the train doors are closing and a stony faced jobsworth refuses to reopen them.

It clatters off without me and I settle down on the platform for another hour - my mobile confirms we have once more been overtaken and sit 22nd. It’s a long lonely journey home and I can’t stop replaying the defensive balls up in my mind.

I wonder how much it will matter come May 3rd.

new watch and am staggered to find I can buy a kids digital wristband for the princely sum of 26 pence. The legend of the Googly watch is born and it will join us toothless. We end up hanging on for for the rest of the season along with grim death for another 80 minutes.

Adam’s yellow Harp horror.

Then a bizarrely pointless loss of We get collared for the fans video discipline from the Robins lets us off outside the ground - Adam predicts the hook. The ref brandishes cards a defeat and a goal for Spencer. He’s like confetti reducing them to 9 half right in the end. The match is men. I briefly imagine them getting torture to watch - Crawley are the a soul destroying leveller as they better side yet we see out a nervous push forward, but with their keeper but vital 1-0 win.

Foderingham in our box, we break and the rocket heeled CampbellOnce again they miss a chance Ryce crosses for McGregor to roll it that seemed easier to score and I into an empty net. In front of the can’t decide if our luck has turned Kop. decisively or not. It doesn’t really matter and we head for home Pandemonium ensues as six knowing we have done no more thousand souls go crazy with a than keep ourselves in the race with mixture of joy, relief and disbelief. two games to play - it’s going down We have somehow dragged to the Boundary Park wire. ourselves up from the depths and sit a single point from safety. A week of hell awaits, but Carlisle Swindon (H) April 26th Home Is Where The Heart Is make things easier in midweek as they only draw their game in Two home games in a row but I hand to effectively join Stevenage can’t shake the feeling that our luck and Shrewsbury in League Two. is about to run out. There’s no room for error and Swindon need a win to try and snatch the last play-off spot.

By now I’m seeing significance in the smallest details as superstition takes over - so I’m worried by the absence of Bulgarian jobseekers as I rock up at Tottenham Wickes for my final Nottingham lift of the season. Of course the kids have spied my Googly watch so we have to stop off for four more at Toys R Us.

Piran Lynn-Smith

CATCH THE END OF PIRAN’S STORY IN ISSUE 10 - OUT AT THE START OF THE SEASON!

Dave is back in the country and joins us in the Kop for another nerve mangling 90 minutes. Sheehan helps by Back in the last chance saloon. I bagging a goal early on, once again brave north London but we’re never comfortable immigration officials and the rust even if Swindon are strangely

Crawley (H) April 21st Do Or die

JUN ‘14

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MY NOTTS CONFESSION

There’s nothing quite like the local derby game in football, is there? It’s the anticipation, the excitement – even the fear. Bragging rights are on the line; if you’re the put-upon lesser sibling (as let’s face it, we have been for quite a few years now) there’s no doubt been plenty of stick that we’ve all endured, and this is the chance for the shoe to be on the other foot for once.

Or it could simply add more fuel to the fire. Mind stand – my Dad used to take an old plastic barrel you, if you haven’t got thick skin, there’s probably down to the ground with us, and I used to stand on top of it on the back row of a section of the terrace. not much point being a ‘pie in the first place!

So going into a day such as, oh, let’s say the 12th February 1994 as a random example, there was quite a lot on the line for fans on both sides of the Trent. It’s still one of the biggest (and obviously best) days there have ever been to be wearing the black and white stripes. It may surprise you then if I confess that I have a problem with that day…

I can remember my Dad asking a ball boy to move when we were stood pitch-side for the Man City FA Cup game as I couldn’t see past him, before we all went crazy when Gary Lund beat Tony Cotton to the through ball.

There are, of course, plenty of Notts "moments" that I would happily have erased from my brain leaving my work Christmas party early because we were playing Macclesfield on a Tuesday night a few years back, and being one of the few daft enough to wait for the final whistle even after their fifth goal went in - a penalty, right? - ranks pretty high on the list.

My best mate still talks about having a handful of those poor misguided individuals that attend the Temple of Sin on the wrong side of the river a couple of rows in front, backs to the action, still giving it large to the Notts faithful just after the equaliser - unaware that behind them Drapes was putting across the sort of cross strikers dream of, and Sir Charles was rising majestically above the stranded Forest defence...

That Leeds match is what has always confused me the most - I must have been at the Forest game otherwise I would surely have that imprinted in I don’t remember it. Any of it. At all. my brain, given how vividly I remember NOT being allowed to go to the Leeds match. I also can recall How the Hell is that possible?! not being allowed to go to the Tranmere play-off Now, I’m not exactly Mr Memory, but I tend to final and have been pissed off ever since. remember quite a lot of watching Notts growing up. I thought I remembered my first ever match For years I wouldn't miss a trip to the Lane for well, Bristol Rovers at the Lane, 1989-90; I thought just about anything; illness, family stuff, whatever we won 3-0, but a bit of research suggests we - Saturday (and the occasional freezing Tuesday conceded one. I think it’s hardly surprising that night) was for going to Notts and nothing else. But I I’ve forgotten a goal going in the wrong end, we’ve am equally devoid of recollections of spending that had plenty of experience of watching them over the February afternoon anywhere other than the only place I would ever have wanted to be. years!

As does going 3 down at Field Mill whilst sat in seats so awful I could only see one third of the pitch - the My friend, like I'm sure the rest of you, can end they scored in repeatedly of course. But I have reminisce fondly about that famous day and the little individual things you remember that stood out many good memories too. for you. You probably had them flooding back whilst I remember oh Kevin B (of Notts County) being reading the interview with Sir Charlie in the last taken down for a penalty in front of the Kop against issue of Black & White.

Manchester United the year before the Premiership was born (and football as we knew it began to die), Next time you do, please spare a thought for me; and them stealing a point with another penalty for all I have is You Tube and: a Mark Draper handball. I say stole a point; I have "Colin Foster, far side... Draper sweeps it no idea if he handled it or not, but I don’t care – we in... the header, OHHH tremendous goal!! were beating Man Utd! Charlie Palmer has done it.... Mick Walker... off his feet!"

I even remember not being allowed to go to the home match against Leeds that same season, as my mother had been a student there and thought Mind you... as a consolation that certainly isn't too the Leeds fans were too rough for my dad to take bad! me!

I can recall where we used to be in the old main

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Sam Arnsby

ISSUE #9

JUN‘14

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WHY B IS BAD FOR NOTTS

This feels like somewhere around the tenth time I’ve written something about B teams and the FA commission. It isn’t anything like that many, but the proposals for ‘League Three’ have this effect on me – they’ve only been in the public domain for a matter of weeks and already they make feel weary, every time they crop up in conversation I have to remind myself that these proposals actually exist and aren’t some sort of cruel practical joke.

A group of blokes spent hours and hours trying to come up with something tangible about youth development in this country and their centrepiece ended up being a halfbaked plan about sticking Sunderland B in a division that doesn’t even exist yet. If these are the brains leading English football then it’s no wonder that we’re not very good.

The B team plan can be opposed from just about every standpoint – logical, emotional, practical – but the element of the plan that most sticks in my throat is definitely the dismissiveness of it all. The thing that was most clear listening to Greg Dyke and Danny Mills’ multitude of hopeless radio performances in the wake of the proposals’ publication was just how taken aback they were. It had never crossed their minds that fans of clubs like Notts perhaps wouldn’t want to watch their teams take on a reserve team, no matter which club it represents.

the youth development in this country, but in a way that doesn’t damage the tradition and competitiveness of the pyramid. Offering B teams as a solution is a case of the FA dismissing with English football does have in a blind attempt to add something that it lacks – there are plenty of fans in Germany and Spain, the nations that the FA has idolised in its report, who are just as awestruck by our pyramid as we are by their national teams. It also shows just how badly the FA have missed the point – the programmes that were put in place and which would eventually turn around the fortunes of the national teams in Spain and Germany were explicitly designed to make the most of the nuances of football in those countries.

For Spain, this meant exploiting a league system with only two fully professional divisions with the introduction of B teams, but also accepting the geospacial nature of their country. The sheer size of Spain means that young players naturally gravitate towards the big urban centres and, by association, the big football clubs that represent them. This makes programmes like the famed La Masia academy at Barcelona much more likely to be successful than at will be at Manchester City, whilst also explains the relatively small number of clubs which developed the players who will represent La Roja at the World Cup.

Of course, the real number of lower league fans that are in favour of the proposals is miniscule, one little bacterium on an ocean floor of disdain. The main reason for this is that reaction that it evoked from people when they heard about it for the first time, that guttural feeling of disgust at the authorities’ blatant lack of regard for a league structure that both works as smoothly as could be reasonably hoped for and is much loved by the Things are different in Germany – it is a country more hundreds of thousands of people that go and watch its similar geographically and in terms of its footballing culture to England, which is why it looks certain to ditch B clubs each season. teams within the coming years. The success in Germany However, there are other elements of the report that had little to do with B teams at all, most of the top should concern fans of clubs such as Notts – in particular German players made just a handful of appearances at the ‘strategic loan partnerships’, an idea which was that level. It came because there was a realisation that largely hidden away in the shadow of the B team furore. turning around their fortunes would require investment, There is an argument that these partnerships, essentially rather than just tinkering – leading to a plan where it turning lower league sides into the feeder clubs of those became a requirement of entering the Bundesliga's two at the top, would be worse for the pyramid structure divisions that a significant sum is pumped into a youth development programme. that B teams threaten to blow apart.

As opposed to the structural damage to the pyramid that B teams threaten, strategic loan partnerships would have disastrous effects on the competitive integrity of the Football League, something which is central to its popularity. Divisions would be decided on the basis of which big club was producing the best young players at any given moment, as opposed to anything done by the club that would benefit. Football is already creeping in this direction, with an unofficial partnership between Swindon Town and Tottenham Hotspur seeing a number of Spurs youth players arriving at the County Ground either on loan or permanently last season. Even this takes us firmly onto shaky ground, but it must be the absolute limit of any ambition to introduce formal partnerships between Premier League and Football League clubs.

There are no indications that the FA are looking to emulate this. In fact, the controversial EPPP rollout means that youth development is likely to become a more elitist pursuit for the biggest clubs. Just look at our own club – without renting St. George's Park out for a significant fee, Notts are forced to train on what is little better than a park.

This isn't a slight at the club at all, we simply don't have the money nor is there the will in Nottingham for the club to find a facility – but if we can't get the facilities right for the first team of a professional football club, how are we going to get youth development spot on?

The FA's plan should've been centred around large-scale investment in facilities both at true grassroots level but also professional level, rather than a bungled attempt at It would also be wrong for lower league fans to use the messing with something that works just fine.

B team proposals as an excuse to dismiss the whole commission and the report that it has produced as worthless. It should be the role of clubs and supporters in @JacobNCM the Football League to put pressure on the FA to improve

Jacob Daniel

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ISSUE #9

AAAAAAAAAARGH!!

I wrote an article the morning after our 6-0 defeat away at Rotherham, about where things had gone wrong, the huge mistakes that had been made that had put Notts where we found ourselves that morning after the day before. The perils of fanzine writing is articles are out of date pretty sharpish when it turns out that you do have a manager who, not quite a messiah, is well on his way to it!

What Shaun Derry has done is a miracle.He weeded out all those Godawful Keith Curle signings and with some very astute signings himself, (Jimmy Spencer, Haydn Mullins) he got this team together and to play for each other. More importantly, to play for the club and to play for him.

Today we sit 20th, with four teams below us and no more games left. On that March day, after the 6-0 thrashing, we would have sent you to a doctor if you had told us that this is how it was going to turn out.

I do stand by what I wrote that morning though, about how some huge errors had put Notts in the situation we were in. In Derry it has taken a huge gamble - one that seems to have paid off - helped by the fact that he is most definitely one of our own, to have arrested the slide that we were on.

We started life in League One in 2010 and the number of mistakes made in those four years since have just been incredible: Not giving Steve Cotterill what he wanted; sacking Craig Short so soon when we were mid table and playing well; dismantling a Championship winning squad so soon; hiring Paul Ince then not sacking Paul Ince sooner; Carl Heggs; sacking Martin Allen; appointing Keith Curle; the treatment of Lee Hughes; appointing Chris Kiwomya.

I'm sure I have forgotten a couple more but it is just a catalogue of errors and huge mistakes that have put the club where we find ourselves today.

And lets not forget, in all the emotion of it all, we finished 20th, the last place above the dotted line. We were the fifth worst team in what was (Wolves aside) a very very poor League One. Shaun has a lot of work to do this summer to make sure we aren't in that position again, and hopefully he will be given the time that other managers were not given to stamp his mark fully on this club and to get it moving in the right direction so that this upcoming season

JUN‘14

can be seen perhaps as a turning point. found out and were slipping further and further down the table and after nine So out of those, which was the biggest home defeats he got the sack, almost mistake? Take your pick really because a year to the day and ironically away every one has cost us but in my at Hartlepool, where Allen had got the opinion, not giving Steve Cotterill what sack. he wanted, the appointment of Chris Kiwomya, and sacking Martin Allen So even though Curle was appointed so were the biggest mistakes of the past quickly after Allen got the sack, we had four years. I truly believe we had a nobody ready to take over Curle, so proper good manager in Steve Cotterill Chris Kiwomya was given the job, first and we let him slip as Caretaker and then inexplicably, away when we he got the job permanently. And with didn't give him the squad in such a major sulk because budget he wanted, their mate Curle had got the sack, it and if we had was such a horrible time. The egos in kept that squad that squad had been bruised and they together, then I just didn't like it. think we would have had a decent I was in that away end at Oldham, year in League me and 3,500 others sang ourselves One. But we let him hoarse to get the team and the club go and appointed a over the line, and the relief at the final rookie who blew whistle was there for all to see. And the budget on it was great to see the togetherness some mediocre of the whole club, the team, the fans and in the case of and the management, all as one, Greg Ben Burgess, pure Abbott hugging the fans as if each pish. Despite that though, Short was one was his close personal friend, the doing well and despite a dodgy start, players having their pictures on the pitch with fans, I haven't felt this close we were mid-table and doing alright. to my club since Martin Allen was in Then came the Paul Ince and Carl charge.

Heggs debacle, the less said about that the better really. But then Martin Allen Shaun Derry deserves all the credit in came in and the whole club was lifted, the world for pulling that squad, those and that 1-0 win away at Tranmere players together and getting them to was in my eyes the most important play for each other and for the club, result we have had in league one. That and I for one look at next season started the escape from relegation, now with hope and with pride. Living the atmosphere around the place was in Leeds, my friends who support the just incredible. Allen gave me back the Elland Road club wished us well, as passion I had lost for the club, made they loved Derry when he played for me fall in love with Notts again. It was them. He gave his all for the cause and Leeds fans love that in a just great to be a player. They are pleased Notts fan again. for us and when fans of Even when we lost that club like a player, then I knew we had put you know he's something the effort in, knew special - they aren't easily we had tried and pleased! that's what we are missing now.

Season 2014-2015 will Even such a small bring more twists and turns thing as getting I'm sure, I just truly hope the whole squad that we can build on this to come up to the momentum, that we can Kop after the warm go about our business next up and applaud the year with no dramas. A fans, which in turn decent FA Cup run, maybe got the Kop going and was just brilliant. Of course he even a real good go at the JPT perhaps, got the sack and within 24 hours Keith but a team playing for the shirt, who Curle was appointed, he of such a truly when we lose, we know that the team gave their all. rubbish track record.

It was like we had taken one step forward and five back. He started well with Martin Allen's squad but the next season, our 150th anniversary year, was just, well, boring. The football was just so dull, defensive, boring and somehow we were top but then we got

And most importantly of all, that at the end of next season, Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott are STILL the management team at this great football club of ours.

Ian Marsden

@IanMarsden76

BLACK & WHITE PAGE 29

WE DID IT!

I have to start this piece with a confession eight or so weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled “Down, down, deeper and down”, intending to, and I quote “look at what has gone wrong, who is to blame and what we’ve got to ‘look forward’ to in League Two in 2014/2015.” We were, at this point, bottom of the League, 7 points adrift, having lost 24 games already and heading for League Two at a rate of knots. I, like many others, were convinced we were done for - so it is with great joy and credit to the club that we’ve stayed up in such a dramatic and uplifting fashion.

Jeremy Balmy (who?) have all been offered new deals by the club.

Personally, I thought it crucial to get Sheehan, Liddle and Campbell-Ryce signed up, but I would have been surprised to see either in the Notts starting XI come August. I can't say I blame them for following the money, as football is a relatively short career, but to lose your skipper, and Campbell-Ryce - a player who we'd almost given up on when Derry came in - is a blow.

Finally, Shaun Derry has declared himself fit and available for selection if needed next season. He hopes Even now, I'm not quite sure how we managed it, but he won't be needed, but it's a nice option to have in your I'm absolutely delighted that I've had to deconstruct my back pocket. previous effort and write something new. I'm now able to cobble something together in a far more congratulatory Looking to next season, it's fair to say we need a bit of tone and enjoy a look back at the season and look an overhaul. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bart move forward to a future in League One. Incidentally, back elsewhere if a fee comes in, and if any of our out of in March, I wrote a piece on the League One relegation contract players move on, Shaun has a lot of work to do! scrap and who I thought would go down, and backed Alan Smith has joined the club with a player coaching Stevenage, Carlisle, Shrewsbury and Crewe for the drop role following his release by MK Dons. He strikes me as just the sort of player Derry & Abbott would go for - a - so at least I didn't get absolutely everything wrong! scrapper who can also pass the ball and won't give up. If With regards to the season, until the final few weeks, I was the opposition, I wouldn't fancy facing a midfield goals and fighting spirit were harder to find than a containing Derry and/or Smith. Another name that has Malaysian Airlines plane. We were sinking without trace, been mentioned is Gary Dicker from Crawley who is very up the creek without the paddle - attach your own cliche much of the same vein. I expect the management team at your leisure. And yet, somehow, miraculously, we wants to build on our fighting, never-say-die qualities got over the line. The last day at Oldham will stay with shown at the end of last season, and will build a team me for a long time. An early start, with a train journey based around Derry’s own successful work ethic. He is surrounded with many of the contributors to this very first to admit that he isn't the most talented footballer, ‘zine, a short-lived trip to Manchester's Wetherspoons, but he worked bloody hard and got to the top. I'd take a longer trip to Oldham's "finest curry house", The 11 Shaun Derrys in my side, thank you very much!

Taj Palace, followed by a game filled with drama and tension, a pitch invasion and the delirious trip back to Where we'll either sink or swim is the budget for next Notts showcased everything good about supporting the year - in a recent interview, Greg Abbott declared himself very pleased with the budget given and that it ‘Pies. was very competitive. Whether that is posturing and Enough about that though, as I've no doubt that trip good PR remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful that given is covered in detail elsewhere. I firstly want to wish a the end of the season, the optimism around the club hearty congratulations and fond farewell to our two and belief in a manager who really is "one of our own", long-term loanees, Callum McGregor and Jack Grealish. Ray Trew will get solidly behind the manager and give The two lads battled and, in the case of the latter, him the funds to be competitive. I do remain slightly charmed their way into the affections of every Pies fan, concerned that Mr Trew has gone somewhat AWOL in and I wish them well. I felt like a proud parent watching the recent months, but hopefully given a holiday and Jack make his Premier League debut a mere two days some time off, he'll be back and raring to go at the front after leaving Notts. I've no doubt both will go far, and it's come July. I haven't felt so behind a manager in a very fair to say that without McGregor's goals and Grealish's long time, and I truly hope our Chairman and Board feel trickery, we'd be looking for a map to Gateshead next the same. term. They'll be missed! Thanks lads.

In terms of our rivals next season, I think Sheffield Notts have also released 10 players following the end of United will be up the team to beat, as, grudingly, they the season, including Enoch Showunmi, former skipper have an excellent manager in Clough, have the funds to Dean Leacock, Manny Smith and Mark Fotheringham. compete, and if they can continue the run they had at It's fair to say that there were no surprise names on the end of last season, I expect them to go up. Preston the list, and the hope, as always, is that we can replace will be there or thereabouts with Doncaster. We've got them with better so that we're not fighting to stay out of some spicy local games to go to with the return of Chesterfield, and rematches with Keith "14 points" Hill the basement this time next season. at Rochdale, so all's left to do is to wish all the readers a To the delight of Magpies everywhere, big Jimmy great summer and roll on August!

Spencer has signed up for another two years, allowing him to continue his promising partnership with Ronan You Pies!

Murray, who has had the one year contract extension clause in his contract activated. Looking at the out of contract players, Alan Sheehan, Gary Liddle, Jamal @DrewNotts Campbell-Ryce, Kyle "I want ginger hair too" Dixon and

Drew Dennis

BLACK & WHITE PAGE 30

ISSUE #9

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