Left Pie-On: February

Last time I wrote this column, I left three options for what may have happened to Notts by the time I wrote February's instalment and in true Notts style, none of them have really happened. We're certainly not rich again (not that we ever really were) and we're definitely not a normal League Two club again, we're just continuing to live in our own alternative universe where we're not surprised by anything. Be that a stunning win at a Premiership side or the realisation that you owe money to just about everyone and everything. I think I may personally be owed by Munto for the amount spent going to the home game against Forest Green Rovers, to sit through the worst first half of football ever seen.

We may as well start with the biggest talking point, the boardroom chaos that has eclipsed a pretty good season at Meadow Lane. Peter Trembling, having bought the club for £1 and spent months assuring us that £25m investment was only days away, has handed it over to Lincolnshire businessman Ray Trew for the same amount. Trew is a former chairman of our yokel friends from Lincoln City and once tried to float the Imps on the alternative stock market. He certainly doesn't have enough money to clear the millions of pounds worth of debt that Trembling and his mysterious consortium of delinquents (who he now can't locate) managed to accrue, so it's hard to tell what his next move is going to be. He's brought former Boston United chairman Jim Rodwell to the club as Chief Executive, a move that has scared the hell out of Left Pie-On, what with his reputation at York Street and links to Steve Evans. Even more concerning though is his choice of attire, with his first public appearance after taking his new position seemingly having come straight after he finished his day-job as a vagrant. Anyway, the sheer amount of debt means that it is unlikely some of our high earners will be at the club for much longer, so anyone who fancies a superb and slightly hyperactive Danish 'keeper should be getting on the blower to Mr. Trew.

"They had a wheelbarrow son, but the wheel fell off..."

To distract us from all that doom and gloom though there has been that shining beacon of hope for badly run lower league clubs - The FA Cup. Since last time out we've had three rounds of the competition to negotiate as well as a whole host of League Two games, such is the backlog of fixtures we have after the pitch became an impromptu ice rink over Christmas. In the third round we hosted Blue Square Premier side Forest Green Rovers at Meadow Lane, with the non-league strugglers lining up at that stage for the second time in their history and second year in a row. The first half was so depressingly non-descript that our report on NCM simply said 'N/A', but thankfully things livened up after the break and goals from Stephen Hunt (who was, for some reason, lurking in the six yard box) and Lee Hughes sent us through 2-1 to set up a home tie with Wigan Athletic of the Premier League.

Obviously, with three divisions between us, it was always going to be tough against the Latics, so no one could quite believe the first half at Meadow Lane. Hughes and a stunning free kick from SuperBen Davies gave us a two-goal lead at half time. But Jason Scotland and Ben Watson struck after the break to break our hearts and probably spell the end of our run in a replay at the DW Stadium. But, like everything this season, it didn't go quite as expected. Infront of a sparse crowd oop Norf, Stephen Hunt powered home a late header and Gary Caldwell put the ball into his own net to crown a famous victory (not quite famous enough for any proper media coverage though) and leave us making plans for the fifth round and Fulham away. 5,000 Magpies travelled South for our big day and, although we lost 4-0, it was a brilliant day out considering everything we've been through this year. Goals from Davies, Zamora, Duff and Okaka weren't enough to dampen our mood and every Notts fan standing at the end to give the players a huge ovation was a special site. In truth, 4-0 was unbelievably harsh on Notts who matched their hosts pretty much everywhere apart from in front of goal.

Some Notts fans at Fulham - and a sign stating the bleeding obvious!

In the league, we've been going pretty well and have learned that winning is generally underrated as a pursuit. Dagenham & Redbridge were beaten 3-0 at Victoria Road in our first league game for aaaages, whilst Barnet and Grimsby Town also failed to score as Notts took away three points. Unfortunately this shocking run of clean sheets ended as the battle of the transfer embargos against Bournemouth saw the Cherries run out 2-1 winners. We're still nicely placed in League Two though and if we win our 37 games in hand, then we go second. Although that is unlikely as it is and almost impossible if we have to sell our whole team - as is a distinct possibility.

In the near future we have games against Grimsby Town (again!) and Aldershot Town as well as lots and lots of others, frankly we've lost track of all the rearrangements and are soon to miss a game in the next few weeks simply by never knowing it existed. A more pressing matter though is Trew and Rodwell's ability to find a way of paying off the club's debt, which most reports have now put at somewhere near the £4m mark. Which is a fairly impressive amount of mismanagement in a short period of times, considering it was only a couple of months ago Trembling claimed that we had no debt! This is the kind of thing that happens to this football club, we're now coming to terms with it entirely and I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid if tomorrow's big scoop was that we owe a few million pounds to North Korea having bought into their nuclear programme. Which is possibly why our former owners took Sven there in the first place.

So yes, in the space of a months we've gone slightly mental in the FA Cup, changed owners yet again and found out that we owe huge amounts of money to very, very many different people. It's all part and parcel of supporting this football club though and by the time I write this again I just hope that we still have a squad capable of playing the exciting brand of football that has made this season just about bearable. You never know, we might even have a manager...

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