Tales from the Bell End

Retained List We have our retained list!!! The Magpies yesterday published our retained list for the 2026/2027 season with only a few surprises. As expected Liam Dulson has not accepted our contract offer and joins Josh Popoola in departing for full time football presumably. I'm surprised that Ryan Bartley hasn't been kept on and Luke May-Parrott must be terrible in training as he only played about 25 minutes of first team football so that signing feels very odd. I'm really happy the squad has been cleared of some of the deadwood although it's now very clear how much work Ryan Peters and Lee Devonshire have to do to put together a squad that will look to challenge for the title. As you can see from the image below, the squad has a lot of holes in it so  I thought I’d look at possible transfer options available to the club in this post. I’d caveat this whole article by stating that I am by no means a non-league football expert having spent most of my free weekends suppor...

 As we wait for the official retained list which surely will come quicker than it did after last season… I have put together my thoughts on every player that played for us. I have also given my opinion on whether I would retain or release those players whose futures are currently unknown. So far we know: Retained :  JVS, Manny Onariase, JML, Jordan Raguette, Matt Robinson, Josh Umerah  Departing:  Will De Havilland, Asher Yearwood, Josh Popoola, Harry Pritchard ( Retiring ) Those in red have since left the club. Now I’m sure I’ve probably missed someone but I’m not including Roraigh Browne, our 3rd choice keeper on loan from Watford who didn’t play a second for us.  JVS - If you’d told me back in September that JVS would be getting in the top 4 Supporters Player of the Year vote I would have assumed it was some kind of protest vote. He started the season looking very shaky on crosses and prone to a big error which would inevitably cost us points. However, he ha...