“So, Thommo’s the new manager then?” said a friend about two days after I landed back from holiday. “I bloody hope not,” I replied. “You’ve seen his first touch at 5-a-side on a Thursday night - if he’s our new gaffer then we’ve no hope.” 

So, as one Steve Thompson leaves as Chairman, another (initially deeply unpopular) Steve Thompson arrives as Manager and a flurry of new signings leave us Magpies fans licking our fingers and sticking them in the air wondering what will be for the forthcoming season.

 

One thing’s for sure; after spending all of last season covering Boston and Lincoln games as a pundit for Radio Lincolnshire, Thompson certainly knows how poor a division Notts will be competing in and surely that experience will count double in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of the majority of the opposition we’ll be facing.

 

Of the twelve new additions to the squad, five have been taken from Boston, including their player of the year last season, central defender Alan White (who has immediately been passed the captains armband) and ex-Forest striker Jason Lee. In fact with half a dozen exceptions, including fan favourites Mike Edwards and David Pipe, the squad has been completely overhauled from the one that finished 21^st last season. At last week's pre-season friendly at Hucknall, all the talk amongst the fans was “Who’s the blonde haired lad, the number 10?” “That’s Dudfield isn’t it?” “No, that’s not Dudfield, that’s Matt Somner” as the players fought out a draw in the scorching heat.

 

So what are the fans expectations for the forthcoming season? It seems that after the past few seasons of disappointments, there is an air of cautious optimism, judging by the message boards and general chat. Few think that we’ll storm the division, few think we’ll be engrossed in another relegation dogfight (please no!), yet not that many feel that we’ll be play-off contenders either. The smart money seems to be on Swindon, Peterborough and MK Franchise (sorry, Dons) to be challenging for the top spots, whilst many predict trouble for Boston, Macclesfield and Bury. On a personal level, I’ll be happy to see a top half finish and to hopefully see us make Meadow Lane more of a fortress (and tonking a couple of teams along the way might be nice).

 

September will give Notts a fixture to relish when we entertain fellow founder members of the football league in the shape of Conference champions Accrington Stanley and, of course, we all get to practice our Scouse accents by recreating the milk advert of the early 1980’s.  Our fixtures with local rivals Mansfield come in October and March and once again we’re away on both Boxing Day and Easter Monday (although thankfully not at Carlisle like last season), so the general feeling is that the Football League computer has, once again, done us no favours at all.

 

So, a new manager, new players, new sponsors and a nifty new kit. Let’s hope that Notts give us something new, in the shape of a promotion battle!