Source: TheGuardian
Notts County prove a trip to Eastleigh is not the end of the world | Richard Williams
After 157 years the Football League’s oldest club are coming to terms with life in the National LeagueThose 157 years of history were not out there on the pitch. They were in the away sections of Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium, where 796 fans of Notts County gathered on Saturday to resume the ordeal of supporting what was, until May, the oldest professional football club in the world with a continuous league history. Only in England, surely, could a fifth-tier match attract a crowd of 2,668, of whom almost a third had travelled half the length of the country to watch their team, so recently humiliated, attempt to take the first steps towards rehabilitation.There was to be no immediate reward for their faith. Fans of all ages, shapes and sizes went home having seen their players beaten 1-0, with two men sent off in the latter stages. Their team had created no meaningful chances and showed none of the residual characteristics of fallen aristocrats. Related: Alan Hardy the speedster leaves Notts County stuck in reverse | Daniel Taylor Continue reading......read full article
