Marked for Daniel Kanu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Tyrese Hall, 21, steals the show — 8.06
Marked 8.06 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tomás Bugallo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Milton Keynes Dons leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Notts County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthew Dennis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jacob Clarke after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Maï Traoré gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Notts County man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Daniel Kanu was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
No place in the plan for Lewis Brunt
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is James Belshaw’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Notts County needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Dec 2026
Bromley will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Notts County were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Daniel Kanu takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Kanu provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Tyrese Hall, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.00
A mark of 8.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Harald Nilsen Tangen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match12 Dec 2026
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
The crowd has taken to Tyrese Hall
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Harald Nilsen Tangen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Justin Rasmussen and Notts County agree another 4 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 4‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Notts County may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Notts County's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Notts County has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Daniel Kanu
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” James Belshaw and Notts County agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Nikodem Szczesny, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Notts County know it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.61 on the card, and the Notts County support went home talking about one name.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jesse Debrah
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Cambridge United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
In brief
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Squad
Matthew Dennis falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Jacob Bedeau's mistake
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Harald Nilsen Tangen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Madou Cisse
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Zak Sturge
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lewis Macari has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.53 on the card, and the Notts County support went home talking about one name.
Match17 Oct 2026
It needed Daniel Kanu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Tranmere Rovers, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matthew Dennis falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jacob Clarke chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Shrewsbury Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Sep 2026
Harrogate Town will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑3, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Notts County were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad28 Sep 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Tyrese Hall beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Daniel Kanu at 21 — 7.72
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Kanu did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Harald Nilsen Tangen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Notts County and Harrogate Town, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match22 Sep 2026
Fleetwood Town left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.