Marked for James Belshaw
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Henrique Arreiol 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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Krystian Tabara, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bartłomiej Ciepiela is on it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Znicz Pruszków. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Znicz Pruszków, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Mar 2027
Dominik Sokół hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Znicz Pruszków can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A one-man rearguard from Łukasz Bomba
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mateusz Mak commits to Znicz Pruszków for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Henrique Arreiol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Znicz Pruszków training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarosław Jach 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Jarosław Jach
“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.
Match6 Mar 2027
0‑1 to Odra Opole, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market8 Mar 2027
Igor Skrzypczak is 18, and Znicz Pruszków have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
Juan Garay breaks a bone — 30 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Milton Keynes Dons left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
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
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Luke Walker left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alassana Jatta, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Jaden Brown dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Walsall next, and one man in the Notts County dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Juan Garay out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Notts County will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Tylel Tati, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.25
A mark of 8.25 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Harvey Rodgers
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alfredo Torales and Notts County agree another 1 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Luke Walker kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Nov 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Daniel Kanu scored in the 87th minute, Cambridge United had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Notts County took the lot.
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.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Daniel Kanu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Notts County.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jaden Brown 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.
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
“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.
Squad30 Nov 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Luke Walker kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matthew Dennis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Notts County are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alassana Jatta
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
No place for Rafael Tapia in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Notts County are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
A test against the best for Notts County
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Chesterfield.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Nov 2026
Newcastle United go through and Notts County go home, 0‑7 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
0-7, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Match3 Nov 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Notts County and Newcastle United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Nov 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. James Belshaw knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Tyrese Hall beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Tapia and Notts County agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jaden Brown 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Notts County dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad9 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alassana Jatta commits to Notts County for another 3 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jaden Brown 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Something was said to Tylel Tati and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Notts County are still strangers to each other
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad12 Oct 2026
No place for Juan Garay in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Notts County are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market12 Oct 2026
At 36, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Tyrese Hall has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Notts County will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ollie Norburn’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.
Market12 Oct 2026
No fee and no drama: Juan Garay has signed at Notts County, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.82, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Tyrese Hall, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Notts County have 3 straight wins of it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Notts County keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ollie Norburn 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.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Notts County can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 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.