Notts County - Founding Football

Okay so *Checks Notes* Third time lucky. For those of you that read through my last 2 stories, thank you very much. Seriously though, I hope you didn't see that abysmal first effort. Anyway on the back of having what seemed like it would be great success with Torquay United I was greeted yesterday by this unfortunate message.


That's right. Save file corrupt. I was gutted and considering how much effort I'd thrown into the story thread and the save itself it was obviously a big kick in the teeth but alas I had 0 reservations about starting over and continuing to write for you guys, so lets just get down to it.

Taking things back to the drawing board it was time to decide who to be. I'd considered a bigger team like Hamburger, getting them back to the Bundesliga and Champions League has seemed like a healthy challenge since I bought the game but I think it's best we leave that one for another time.

I will be heading back to face my old club Torquay in the Vanarama National and what better club to take on than the oldest in the World...


Yes I'm talking about one of the first 12 clubs to found the Football League and inspiration to Juventus' colours - Notts County.

It didn't take long to choose this club. I'd been thinking throughout the Torquay save that they're a good team and it would be a decent save. Aside from that, they're the oldest professional club in football and who better to take glory than them? It's a story that's been waiting to happen and one that I'm surprised to not have seen already.

Notts County have had a woeful drop through the leagues in recent years coming down from as high as League 1 only 5 years ago. They came down from League 2 last year and it's both the clubs and my expectation to win the league, get back to where we should be, and hopefully beyond that.


Having looked over the team already I'm very confident of achieving the goals set out for me. There's a lot of quality in the squad and I'm really looking forward to showing you all what they possess because really...It's a bit silly for this level of football.

I'm sorry once again for the abrupt end of Torquay, it was my intention to go for years upon years but I made a mistake not rolling the save file and can only learn from that. Hopefully we'll get better luck this time round.

Third time's the charm right. Anyway, good luck

Good luck my mate.

A shame how Torquay ended, but this will go all the way, I can feel it!

Still feeling the blues from losing The Torquay save. Will take a few days to find that motivation to write again but I'll get there guys, see you soon!

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Absolutely no messing about this time guys, we're diving straight in at the deep end no beating around the bush. Straight into pre-season I felt we needed a good number of games to really get everyone up to scratch with the tactic I'll be using this season and to get them match fit.

The team itself is for this level nothing short of spectacular. There's room for improvement in some places particularly at the back and on the left wing so I've been sure to bring in a player with what little budget I had to make changes.

Through the games itself I feel we were actually quite fantastic going up against 3 Championship sides in 5 games and losing just the one of them against our biggest rivals Nottingham Forest. I was happy to cap off pre season with two great wins against Braintree and Walton Casuals which would be sure to boost morale for the coming competitive fixtures.

As for tactics, I'm going with just one. Tried and tested I don't think this team needs anything else. The main priority this season is promotion by winning the league and I expect absolutely nothing less from this team as League 2 football is where I want to be next year. They're capable and ready.


Gegenpress is the name of the game for this year and probably most of the coming years, eventually I'd like to install a patient, creative, passing culture at this club but this low down I don't think the players will be able to cope with such a complicated system, but not to worry. I'm happy with this for the time being.

We bring in a familiar face on loan too, there's not much room in the budgets so I can only bring this one player in without breaking the finances. You'll all know this guy from Gulls and Glory and I'm really excited to throw him on the pitch either on the left or through the middle.


That's right, I'm a big fan of Yan Dhanda and I expect him to be the focal point of our attack. Looking forward to what should be a successful but albeit fairly simple season!

It should be a quick return for County to the Football League now the toxic ownership situation has sailed. Their squad is far too good for this level on paper.

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We're off to an absolute flyer in our first month at Notts County and it's no less than I expected. Football really is a difficult thing to find consistency at the best of times but especially more so at such a low level league.

We've absolutely romped through every team in our path this month dropping zero points all the way through putting ourselves in good stead at the top of the table. As expected Yan Dhanda has started off really well notching a couple of goals and bagging a few assists too for Wes Thomas to crop up and net a few of his own.

One thing I was particularly pleased about was our defensive efforts. 4 clean sheets from 6 is nothing short of spectacular in non-league and it's very pleasing to the eye to see such a good defensive record this early on, setting the standard for the rest of the league.

Next month comes a long thick and fast in the fixture department bringing along with it what looks to be some tougher opposition in the form of Aldershot, Halifax and Chesterfield. Familiar foes from Gulls to Glory that will prove to be no easy match up.

Other than that, it was a relatively straight forward month with no other news to bring. Hoping as we get through the next few months we'll have some more exciting bits to bring to you guys but for now, that's all she wrote.

Thrilling start man, hopefully we see some goodness here

Flying! Dhanda is an incredible addition for a team of this level and it seems to be paying off already.

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Another superb month for us as September see's us go 5 points clear at the top ahead of second placed Hartlepool. 10 wins from 11 is very impressive and with 30 points notched on the tally I'm surprised to see a team like Hartlepool doing so well to keep up with us at the moment but I'm hoping they'll drop off soon to give us some breathing space.

We faced harder opposition this month and I think that shows what with the scorelines holding significantly smaller margins compared to our games in August. Aldershot were a tough opponent to go and play away from home. Remaye Campbell got the only goal in this one backing up my faith to throw the youngster in for some game time, and important three points.

It wasn't all smiles though as we ended up losing to none other than Chesterfield, and at home too. Rankles a bit, but despite that we marched on to another important win against Solihull Moors.

A tough fixture in truth and they seemingly pushed us all the way. Wes Thomas leveled the scoring just before half time, Solihull took the lead again but straight from kick off Jim O'brien scored and only 5 minutes later he headed in the 3rd, the winner.

For sure we've had some big performances this month but none better than that of Wes Thomas, he's been so important at the top of our attack scoring 4 goals in these last 5 games, keeping up form like this will surely see him end as top scorer.


Nothing to give but praise, praise, and more praise. Then some. We're headed straight for my aim of a promotion in the first season and keeping up this form will see us compete in League Two next year. Fingers crossed we've got the mentality.

Well, this is going well. Five clear already and flying through the season, great work. Also notice that Torquay are struggling without you there!

A blistering start.

Good start, keep it up.