Coming up: Notts County

The drop

There are typically two reactions to relegation; the first is the development of a sense of entitlement to return from where you've dropped. A few good results early in the season and it's easy to get into a rhythm that drives you to a successful season. We've seen this with teams like Chesterfield, Shrewsbury and Swindon in recent years. The other is the sudden panic that 'the drop' doesn't actually mean 'to the bottom' and that there is much further to fall. Bristol Rovers, Carlisle, Portsmouth and Hartlepool have all experienced that.

Early season form is an important factor in determining which type of team you'll be. It's easy to become optimistic during close season and believe that you're about to face a wad of inferior teams. But the differences between top and bottom are far smaller than you expect. County are probably still working out how things are; their opening win over Stevenage will have given them confidence, but their defeat to new derby bedfellows Mansfield will have been a shock on a number of levels. It's a bit like our constant denial that Wycombe isn't a derby; to some extent to admit it is to admit how far we've fallen. To be beaten at home by them is a deeper pain still.

So this is important for a number of reasons. We need a win, of course. We also need to give a potential promotion rival a bloody nose to knock them off of their stride before they get into it. 

Old game of the day

We haven't played County for nine years, so not a lot to choose from in the archive. I'm going with this from 1994, a time that football kit design forgot. This was our last game of the season and the day we went down after a decade in the top two divisions. Mathematically it was still possible to stay up, but nobody in their right mind relies on maths.

But, it was also notable for a moment of Joey Beauchamp magic in his last game before moving to the Premier League where he would go on to play for England and win the World Cu... oh.