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The NL revitalised my club and could do the same for you.
at 22:38 16 May 2023

Notts fan here.

We have been exactly where you are now, wondering how you have managed to drop into the non leagues. To be a Club with a proud history to not even be in the football league and it hurt so much.

In all honesty, for us it had been coming for 20 years - even in our brief good times in those years it was all built on sand and thats why we fell back again so easily. Our attendances were going down every season and every season was a bit of a slog with just a couple of good seasons in between. As a club we were broken from top to bottom.

When we went down we were on our 2nd ego maniac of an owner who had spent money he didnt have and now needed to sell the club asap, we have been lucky to find owners who have been happy to spend some money but most importantly have stabilised the Club and put in place long term plans that are achievable rather than wild promises that would never happen.

We spent 4 seasons down here, the first is the hardest. The first time you have to play in FA Cup qualification game, the FA trophy, playing teams you had heard of before and watching them beat you on a plastic pitch where they had 11 men behind the ball for 90 mins.

There is a culture shock, but once you get over that you find the NL is its own bubble and has its plus points. For example there is no transfer window so you find in the later months of the season loads of players moving between clubs in the division, youll be on tv more than you have been in years and will soon be complaining that Adam Virgo is biased.

But also you find that as long as you do well, and I dont necessarily mean promotion - its took us 4 seasons, that going to games will be enjoyable again. We finished in the playoffs every season and although that has brought some heartache it also means during the season we have got to see our team win a lot more than it has done in years.

We now have an average attendance higher than at any point since we redeveloped the ground in 1993 and that includes time in the Championship, and its the 3rd highest in 40 years, all whilst our neighbours got promotion to the EPL.

So embrace what is coming ahead for you - Oldham came across as arrogant at the start and it didnt help their cause at all. Be humble and accept you are where you deserve to be right now.

But also know that better times do lie ahead and hopefully one day like us you will enjoy the best season of my life (ive watched Notts for 30 years) and the best day of my life at Wembley. We feel ready now with a new lease of life to move forward but I will always love the NL and what it has done for us

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nottsfan81

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