The Maynard Reign – So Far – the Nottingham Sport

January 18th 2024, 221 days ago, Stuart Maynard was appointed as the new Head Coach of Notts County Football Club following the departure of promotion-winning boss Luke Williams to Swansea City.

As imaginable, a difficult man to be successor to with Williams achieving what the club was crying out for, promotion back to the Football League. I begin here because it feels like a very significant to do so, especially with how things panned out over the course of the first five months Maynard had in charge. Not for one second, am I beating around any bush or making a single excuse for the form, but in my honest opinion no matter who had been introduced into the role post-Williams, whether it was Maynard or somebody else, they were always destined to struggle.

The ‘new manager bounce’ is common, but only really common when taking over as a successor of a man doing a poor job, which this football club has been used to in the past but certainly not in this case. The feeling I have had for some time now surrounding that situation is that Williams departed at the right and best time for himself, as a full season with the squad he put together would have seen his stock drop lower and lower. We were already seeing the signs of a drop-off pre-Williams departure, Maynard was left to pick up the scraps but again here I will highlight again that no excuses can be made for the form.

One thing that has been common since that departure has been that a number of individuals involved with the club during that event have said that the place was heavily impacted in a negative way, and understandably so, but it did not make the months following any easier of a watch.

Maynard definitely had his work cut out for him, but even he would understand that no matter what happens on the pitch, it is a results business and when the results are not aligning with the club’s ambitions, the fingers are pointed towards the manager. Whether fair or not, entirely to blame or not, Maynard has been in the game long enough to understand that is always going to be the case, and so it was.

The purpose of this piece was to evaluate if you like Maynard’s reign so far, and to do that fairly this period had to be spoken about and a significant moment of this era was the banners vs MK Dons. It had very mixed and split opinions, but I will always say football as a game is a release from day-to-day life and when you are watching a product that makes you not want to attend your release and makes you feel a certain type of emotion towards it, fans will react. Brutal? Absolutely, but not completely unjustified.

For all that regularly read and interact with myself and what I produce, you will know I like to write in a way in which feels conversational but also personal, and to add an extra personal element to this piece, up next, I will speak about the fans forum that transpired post-23/24 season, and also my question to Maynard throughout the event.

I love this football club just as much as you, and although I do really try not let it be this way, I still do let the results dictate my mood. I honestly want nothing other than success for the

club and everybody connected with it, and the form towards the end of last season left me admiring very little. My question to Maynard was asking him if he had felt let down by the recruitment beyond his arrival as I felt that we had very important things to fix in order for him to have immediate success, but it did not seem to happen. I, hand on heart, can say that the question was in no way, shape or form meant to come across as controversial, nor put Maynard under any pressure, I just felt it was a question I needed an answer to.

But it was this event where my respect for Maynard quadrupled and more as we had a ten-minute chat at the end of the event, and I left the room that night thinking that this guy is a very approachable, well-mannered Head Coach that I would love to see succeed here. One thing that I said in that conversation was that Maynard’s name was not picked out of a hat for this job at random, he was selected based on being a very good football coach. Whether that meant much to him at all or not, who knows, but I said that because I wanted him to know and understand that everybody wanted him to succeed no matter what. I am sure he has many of better sources of motivation, but I felt the least I could was attempt to be another.

Summer arrived, and I felt this is where Maynard really turned a page as the Notts County Head Coach. Do not think you guys need me to go over what the problems were last season, I actually think the changes made are a very clear indication of them. Some will say brutal, but most would say justified. Maynard cleared house, and I very much respect him for doing so. It is his team now, and all that was in for him were players that were introduced and kept around by Williams. The changes he made were ruthless, but you had to respect it, respect it because he may have been completely inexperienced to the division before his arrival, but the way he stamped his authority with his changes made sure the league acknowledged him. The captaincy situation was the key, and the key meaning the first time we as fans got the understanding that Maynard was done feeling sentimental. This was a promotion-winning club captain in Kyle Cameron that was stripped of his role and again that could be deemed harsh or justified, but one certainty is that was made the reality no matter how it was felt or taken. It surprised me, as I did not think that would be the way he went about doing it, but he wanted change, and he made that change happen.

We lost a lot of key players from the past success, and a lot of staff too as Maynard introduced a lot of his own and again that was another sign that he was done with sentiment and felt that the best possible chance he had of succeeding here was being surrounded by the people he wanted and trusted. Again, it raised eyebrows and rightfully so, these things do but ultimately, I believe these changes have led to Maynard showing the signs of a Head Coach who is going to be really successful at Notts County and I will get into why shortly…

On the topic of losing players, I will use this section to speak about those introduced. I can hold my hands up here and safely say I have been majorly impressed, especially considering beforehand that I was quite disappointed with some pieces of recruitment in the past but above all I am a football fan who is desperate for this club to do well so as far as I am concerned that is natural. But, without naming those who have been introduced as you will all know who they are, I feel this window has given Maynard the best opportunity to succeed as Notts County Head Coach and that is exactly what he deserves. It certainly feels

like everybody behind the scenes are firmly behind Maynard and that is very promising, as displayed in the early games so far this season.

The players introduced have also completely shut down any potential of Maynard not being an attractive Head Coach to come and play for, too. Although he as a Head Coach would have not been massively involved in the process of the transfers as we all know that business is left to those above, the players still have a decision to make and the quality and calibre of player we have introduced to our fold this season is very telling and in fact, I feel like all it shows is that Maynard is in fact highly thought of and the attraction to work for him is there. This narrative has not been pushed by Notts fans for the record, I just found some predictions for Notts this season made elsewhere very lazy as judgement for them were made based off of last season’s dip in form, rather than a fresh slate with added quality.

Throughout the summer as a whole, it felt that the more and more it went on, the more improved Maynard looked in his role. One thing that sticks with me in particular was the interview where he discussed his signings one-by-one. It was a simple concept of a video, made for fans such as you and I to hear his thoughts on his new players, but the deeper image you saw was a Stuart Maynard with new and improved confidence, sat in HIS office and I capitalise HIS as it was the first time we have ever really seen him in that environment and if I could tell you anything for free it was that he did not look out of place there. This was coming off the back of some much change in and around him, a lot influenced by him, and he owned it all and that again to me was telling in the way he had developed within his role.

Interestingly enough, when speaking about his defensive recruits one thing that Maynard was always quick to highlight was the importance of clean sheets this season, but not only that, but also how much he wants his team to pride themselves off of them this season. I say interestingly enough as we kicked off our season with a clean sheet away to Tranmere Rovers. Immediately, I want to add firstly that a game like that last season, Notts would have almost certainly had been beaten. But, the whole team stood up to the challenge defensively and looked brilliant doing so, with new signings such as Jacob Bedeau and Matty Platt performing brilliantly. To a neutral it looked like a stale 0-0 opening day draw, but to us fans it was a huge improvement on what we were used to for so long last season. Tranmere Rovers is no easy place to go, especially not on the opening day, so to come away with a clean sheet was a brilliant outcome for Maynard, backed up everything he had said regarding priding his team off of clean sheets and was a sign that things may be changing around here…

I say that knowing it is still very early days, but to be in the 25% of teams still unbeaten this season is something to pride ourselves off. Yes, that is going to change eventually, we will lose games this season, but it is about remaining united and trusting in what is happening ahead of us.

The Shrewsbury Town cup game was interesting, wasn’t it? I will forever remain with the opinion that there should have been absolutely no way that game ever reached penalties as Notts were impeccable for 70 minutes, up until the mistake leading to Shrewsbury Town getting one back and from there it felt we were always fighting an uphill battle. But one

thing I wanted to highlight from this is the ‘never say die’ attitude we displayed to equalise late on to take that game to penalties, and again in the game against Fleetwood Town where we levelled and left with a point after being 0-2 down. I love this mentality, I have always been the football fan that if their team are willing to die trying, never give up and embedding and furtherly maintaining the never say die mentality. It is far too early to be throwing the word promotion around in regards to Notts County and any team in this division for that matter, but a trait all promoted teams have is the ability to never know when they are beaten, and with Notts still yet to lose inside ninety minutes this season with two of the four games being levelled up late on by a player in a black and white shirt, to me it appears that mentality may have been installed in this team… who knows?

Finally, THAT performance against Grimsby Town and again I capitalise the word THAT with great justification because wow. I always take away from that Shrewsbury Town game that if Notts can replicate that opening 70 minutes of brilliance they displayed in that game across 90 game after game this season, we will be up there and challenging. Yet, though we conceded the sloppy goal, Grimsby Town never even looked remotely close to laying a glove on Notts that night. More and maybe most impressively of all, Maynard after the game explained in his interview that he knew exactly what the Mariners were going to come and do, and he and his team of coaches created a gameplan that his players executed to perfection which ultimately led to another very memorable night at Meadow Lane.

I really do love the unpredictability of Notts this year. We look a whole entirety more comfortable playing a back four, whilst just as good playing with a five back. I certainly believed that we were very predictable last season, and that if you prepared to face a Notts County side playing a back five that you would have won half of the battle before a ball had even been kicked. That predictability seems to have vanished, at least for now, and I say that with full confidence that it has gone. The squad depth certainly helps, but even more so now we have key players returning from injury such as Matty Palmer, Scott Robertson and even Nick Tsaroulla who has been nothing but promising thus far.

To conclude this, I will say that I really hope you have enjoyed this piece. Sometimes maybe brutally honest, but nothing that has been new. I have become a huge Maynard fan, and what I will say is if you do ever get the opportunity to chat with him, do so as I am confident that if you do, you will also feel the same way. We will lose games, I am not saying it is perfect, but I am saying it is promising.

A rocky road turned rocky beginning that has been smoothened out through the summer and now showing good signs of being something great again.

My last piece of advice? Buckle up guys, because no matter how good we become we will forever be Notts County, and we take the saying of nothing worth having comes easy very seriously.

But on the topic of seriously, thank you so much for engaging and reading and as always…

COME ON YOU PIES!