After a bitterly disappointing start to the 16/17 season, the World's Oldest Football League club Notts County stared relegation to the National League directly in the face.

After an extremely disappointing 4-0 defeat away to Cambridge United, a result that left the Magpies 22nd in League Two after nine straight defeats, John Sheridan was sacked as manager of the East Midlands club.

Former Manchester United and Leeds United midfielder Alan Smith was placed in interim charge of the club, but even his experience and knowhow couldn't prevent the Magpies from falling to their 15th defeat in 25 games, following a 4-1 defeat away at Morecambe.

The Magpies needed a boost - the World's Oldest Football League club were at real risk of dropping out of the Football League for the first time in their 156-year history, so on January 12th 2017, Alan Hardy took over Notts, and announced the man to take the reins of the Meadow Lane club.

This is FLW Rewind, where we take a look back at a decision made by a certain club, take a look at the fans' initial reaction, and then analyse what happened next - here, we're going to take a look at the reaction when Notts County hired Kevin Nolan as the club's new manager.

This was the former West Ham and Newcastle midfielder's second stint as manager, after being controversially sacked by Leyton Orient despite winning 7 out of his 15 games in charge of the O's, under difficult circumstances.

His lack of experience obviously worried Notts fans, as they needed a manager who knew how to get out of the rut Notts had found themselves in that year.

It only took Nolan a short while to get going - after going winless in his first two games in charge, the young manager suffered just three defeats in his next 16 league games, and steered the Nottinghamshire club well away from relegation that season, culminating in a 16th placed position.

The next season, Nolan steered Notts to their highest finish in League Two ever since relegation to the fourth tier in 2014, and if it wasn't for terribly controversial refereeing decisions in the play-off semi-final against Coventry City, Notts may have found themselves back in League One this season.

Nolan was somewhat harshly sacked after going winless in the Magpies' opening five games this season, but no-one can take away how much of a success he was on the whole at Meadow Lane. Those fans were made to eat their words.