Notts County news

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Notts County

Main Address:
Meadow Lane Stadium
Meadow Lane
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG2 3HJ

Main Tel No: 0115 9529000
Main Fax No: 0115 9553994

Tickets Tel No: 0115 9529000

Club Founded: 1862

Stadium: Meadow Lane Stadium

Stadium Address: Meadow Lane, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG2 3HJ

Stadium Capacity: 20,300

Team Colours: Black and White

Division 1
Best Ever Season - Third- 1890/91 & 1900/01

Division 2
Champions - 1896/97, 1913/14 & 1922/23
Runners Up - 1894/95 1980/81
Play-Off Winners - 1990/91

Division 3 (South)
Champions - 1930/31 & 1949/50
Runners-Up - 1936/37

Division 3
Champions - 1997/98
Runners-Up - 1972/73
Play-Off Winners - 1989/90

Division 4
Champions - 1970/71
Runners-Up - 1959/60

FA Cup
Winners - 1894
Runners-Up - 1891

Football League Cup
Best Ever Season - Round 5, 1964, 1973 & 1976

Anglo-Italian Cup
Winners - 1995
Runners-Up - 1994


Universally recognised as the Oldest League Club in the World. Notts County F.C. was formed in 1862 and was a founder member of the English Football League in 1888.

The Formation of Notts County Football Club took place in 1862 with the Nottingham Guardian of November 28th 1862 saying:-

"The opening of the Nottingham Football Club commenced on Tuesday last at Cremorne Gardens. A aide was chosen by W.Arkwright and Chas. Deakin. A very spirited game resulted in the latter scoring two goals and two rouges against one and one." Official formation came in 1864 as the 'Notts. Foot Ball Club'.

Between 1864 and 1888, friendly matches were arranged with other clubs in England and Scotland. For the first-half of the 1880s Notts were one of the best clubs in England. At one stage, Notts had 8 England Internationals in the same team. The first entry to the FA Cup was in 1877, with good runs leading to semi-final appearances in 1883 and 1884. Home games were played occasionally at Trent Bridge in the early years, but regular venues were the Meadows Cricket Ground and later the Castle Cricket Ground.

From 1883 Notts' home matches were mostly played at Trent Bridge until the 1909/10 season when Trent Bridge was used to Cricket. 1894 was used as Notts' home turf was the Castle Cricket Ground and then Notts used Nottingham Forest's Town Ground (1895 and 1986) and the City Ground (1899 to 1909). It was in 1910 that Notts moved to Meadow Lane - their home to this day.

In 1888 Notts were one of the twelve founder members of the Football League, and during the 1890/91 season Notts had one of their best ever seasons by finishing third in the league and also reaching in the FA Cup final at the Kennington Oval and were defeated 3-1 by Blackburn Rovers.

In 1894 Notts had their one and only F.A Cup win when, in front of 37,000 spectators at Goodison Park, they beat Bolton Wanderers 4-1. Notts were the first side from the Second Division to win the FA Cup following their relegation in 1893. In 1896/97 Notts finished Champions of Division Two and were promoted to Division One after a series of 'test matches' which are now known as the play-offs.

1900 saw Notts equal their best ever finish by finishing third in Division One, but suffered relegation once again in 1912/13, but returned the following season as Champions of Division Two.

Ups and downs followed with relegtaion to Division Two in 1919/20 and 1925/26, but would you believe it would be 55 years before Notts would make a return to Division One? In 1924/25 Notts finished ninth in Division One and had topped the table earlier in the season, that record has never been better since.

1929/30 saw relegation to Division 3 South, but returned to Division Two the following season as Champions, but once again relegation was on the cards during the 1934/35 season and were unlucky not to bounce back at the first time of asking as they narrowly missed out on promotion.

The leagues took an extended break as football was suspended between 1939 and 1946 due to the Second World War, with only regional matches and cup competitions with clubs allowed to field guest players. Bomb damage on the night on 8 May 1941 produced bomb craters at Meadow Lane and subsequently the ground was closed meaning 1941/42 was Notts' only season when there was no football played.

Notts County's most famous player was the England International Tommy Lawton, whose arrival at Meadow Lane in November 1947 put 10,000 on the gates and the Boxing Day game against Swansea caused the gates to be locked with more than 45,000 in the ground and an estimated 10,000 outside! 'The Lawton Era' were halcyon days at Notts County with other great players such as Jackie Sewell and Tommy Deans gracing the Third Division.

His signing at the time was for a British record fee, with the average home crowd for the next eight seasons comes in the top eight of the club's entire history. A number of attendances were over 30,000 and 40,000. 1949/50 saw Notts promoted to Division Two with an average home crowd of 34,000+, which is a higher average than Nottingham Forest over the river have ever managed. 47,000 turned up for a record crowd in 1955 against York City.

However, the death of Club Captain Leon Leuty sparkedthe rapid break-up of the 1954/55 side that had done so well. Relegation to Division Three and then Four followed on the trot, and despite a return to Division Three Notts were back in Division Four before long. On 21 September 1968 Notts slumped to the bottom of the Division Four table, but luckily found their form and moved clear.

Arguably the most successful period in the Club's history, under arguably the most successful manager, came in the 1970's when Jimmy Sirrel put so much pride back into the Club including promotion to Division One in 1981 after a historic win at Chelsea. Sirrel spent many years of hard work building together a team that would eventually gain top-flight status. He took over with the Magpies in Division Three, and promotion was achieved in 1970/71 from Division Four and in 1972/73 from Divison Three with the likes of Les Bradd and Don Masson doing the business. Dave Needham, Brian Stubbs, Tony Hately, Kevin Randall and Arthur Mann were the spine of the team that was so successful. Bradd scored 124 goals during eleven years with the club.

Three consecutive seasons were spent in the top-flight under Sirrel after the historic win at Chelsea the following season, but expensive signings had to be made and the wage bill also rose, yet attendances were somewhat disappointing.

Notts went to Aston Villa on the opening day of the 81/82 season and defeated the champions 1-0 while packed houses for the games against Nottingham Forest brought good times and games, with Notts claiming a superb 2-0 win at the City Ground. International players arrived too, with Rachid Harkouk (Algeria), John Chiedozie (Nigeria) and Aki Lahtinen (Finland) arriving. 15th place was where Notts ended up in their return to the top flight after 56 years.

Sirrel departed following another mid-table finish, while Brian Kilcline became the first ever Notts player to claim an England-U21 cap while Larry Lloyd took over as Manager after Howard Wilkinson left to take over at Sheffield Wednesday and the chopping and changing eventually saw Notts claim successive relegations in 1983/84 and 1984/85.

However, there were tough times and the financial situation at the club saw a crisis meeting that drew 1,500 supporters to the Astoria night club on September 15 1986, with many more locked outside. %u00A32 Million debts had forced the directors to consider putting the club into liquidation.

Players and Directors pledged to carry on with the financial support from the fans. A friendly match with Forest brought 3.299 to Meadow Lane and added %u00A314,000 to the survival funds as well as the formation of Notts County Lifeline. However, another new chapter in Notts' history was just about to begin.

A new period in Notts long history came in 1987 when Derek Pavis, a local businessman arrived at Meadow Lane, took over from Jack Dunnett as Chairman of Notts County Football Club, with John Mounteney arriving as Vice-Chairman alongside him. The re-building began straight away with new blood in Geoff Pike, Paul Hart, Gary Lund and Gary Mills arriving. Famous faces such as Andy Gray and Gary Birtles arrived, but promotion was not reached as the Magpies were beaten in the play-offs by Walsall.

Notts' turn for the good came from an unlikely source back in 1989 when John Barnwell was dismissed after a string of poor results, and Derek Pavis opted to move to appoint the young Neil Warnock from Scarborough as his replacement. Signings of key duo in years to come Steve Cherry and Phil Turner boosted the squad, and a third place finish was achieved, meaning a play-off spot for Notts. Bolton were beaten in the semi-finals, and Tranmere were beaten 2-0 in NottsCounty's first ever trip to the historic Wembley Stadium. The travelling fans were not left disappointed as Tommy Johnson and Craig Short struck to earn promotion.

1990/91 was expected to be a season of consolidation, but it proved to be far more than that. In fact, it proved to be a dramatic campaign which saw the Magpies gain back to back promotions and achieve top-flight status. A run of seven straight wins towards the end of the season saw Notts finish in fourth place and the fine run continued into the semi-finals with a 1-0 win over 'Boro at home following a 1-1 draw in the away encounter. Just under 60,000 attended the final, which the Magpies won 3-1 against Brighton to gain another unbelievable promotion with Johnson again the hero with two goals.

In the FA Cup, the Magpies reached Round Six of the competition after wins over Hull and Oldham in the earlier rounds, but Round Five saw a dramatic win over ManchesterCity with Gary Lund netting the only goal late on. The game only got the go-ahead after fans and the ground staff worked hours on end to clear snow from the Meadow Lane pitch. Round Six saw Notts live on national television for the first time, and despite taking a 1-0 lead at Tottenham, it wasn't to be and Paul Gascoigne showed his class by helping the home side to a 2-1 triumph.

Warnock became only the second manager in recent times to steer Notts to the top flight in 1991. After just one season at that level the club spent most of the nineties fighting to establish consistency. The stay in the top flight was eventful and brought trips to Manchester United, Arsenal and the like. Warnock did however keep the faith with a large part of the squad that had helped Notts to back-to-back promotions.

Attendances were disappointing in the top-flight, and sales of duo Tommy Johnson and Craig Short over the year 1991 eased any financial worries while %u00A3750,000 was splashed out on Tony Agana during Notts' flirtation in the top division, but he notched a disappointing one goal in thirteen appearances after becoming Notts' record signing.

Notts escaped relegation to Division Two in 1992-1993 and after missing out on the play-offs in 1993-1994 relegation was confirmed the following season and after defeat in the play-off final to Bradford the following campaign, a hangover was endured and the Magpies slid to Division Three the following season.

1994-95 brought a troubled year of managerial changes (Mick Walker, Russell Slade & Howard Kendall were all sacked after spells in charge) and an unsettled side which eventually lead to relegation to the Second Division. However, as well as winning the Anglo-Italian Cup Notts did enjoy a superb 3-0 win over Premiership giants Tottenham Hotspur at Meadow Lane in the Coca-Cola Cup. Round Four was reached, but defeat at Norwich ended the side's hopes of a long cup run.

In between the battles of promotion and relegation, the Magpies reached Wembley in successive seasons in the Final of the Anglo-Italian Cup. During 1993-94 Mick Walker's side reached the final and took on Brescia, but were beaten 1-0 with Gabrielle Ambrosetti, later to join Chelsea, the scorer in the match. However, the following season Notts were back again, this time under Howard Kendall's brief leadership, and were crowned the winners with a 2-1 victory over Ascoli.

Relegation saw a re-building process begin again under Colin Murphy & Steve Thompson in 1995 and the duo assembled a squad that finished fourth in Division Two. After being 2-0 down to Crewe in the play-off semi final's, Gary Martindale's strike completed a dramatic turn of events that eventually saw Notts finish up 3-2 winners. However, a disappointing display in the final against Bradford saw Notts stranded in Division Two for another season, and relegation duly followed the following season with Murphy & Thompson sacked and Sam Allardyce brought in to replace them. Notts went 20 matches without a win under Allardyce, and relegation was confirmed, but better times were to follow.

Season 1997-98 was quite unique with a number of National and Club records falling as Notts County surged to the Third Division Championship. During a campaign which saw the Club become the first to pass the 4,000 League games landmark, Sam Allardyce's team won a League Championship at the earliest ever date (March 28th) and by the largest number of points (19).

Allardyce resigned during October 1999 with the Magpies top of the Second Division, and he went on to take charge of Bolton Wanderers. He left Notts top of the table, yet they finished seven places further down after a disappointing run under Gary Brazil. Allardyce had built a solid side full of confidence, although young starlet Jermaine Pennant was sold to Arsenal, while the year before Shaun Derry departed for %u00A3700,000 a year before.

Jocky Scott came and went, and Gary Brazil had another attempt at the helm as Head Coach before Bill Dearden arrived in January 2002. Little did he know he would be working with the same squad of players for two years as the Magpies entered administration. The long and drawn out process took 18 months, and the club was close to going to the wall, and it was only due to the Blenheim Consortium that the Club survived.

Dearden left soon after their arrival, and former player Gary Mills was installed as manager. However, after such a difficult period Mills could not save the club from relegation as they slipped back into Football League's bottom division. He eventually left very early in the 2004/05 season and was replaced by long serving Ian Richardson as Player-Manager until the end of the season, who guided Notts away from the relegation zone but inconsistent performances led to a fairly disappointing season despite a good run in the FA Cup. Richardson was replaced a week after the end of the season by former Iceland International Manager Gudjon Thordarson, who signed a three-year deal at Meadow Lane but lasted only a year at the Club after a campaign that promised so much with the Magpies leading the table in August but come the end of the campaign finished only three points off the relegation zone in League Two.

A Club Statement confirmed on 26 May that Thordarson had left the Club by mutual consent at the end of a turbulant and very much disappointing campaign, and he was later the following month replaced by Steve Thompson, who was previously at Meadow Lane as Team Manager alongside Colin Murphy. The Club appointed a number of new Directors during the season to strengthen the Board, while Rugby was to head to Meadow Lane for the first time during 2006/07 after an agreement was reached with Nottingham Rugby Club for the early games in their campaign to be played at Meadow Lane.

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