Notts County v Crawley Town 2/10

[LongEatonPie]

Husin isn’t the answer and I’d try to preserve positions of those that started the game. Talk of dropping Alessandra back but then you would lose the partnership with Stead. Thomas is more a winger.
We have to keep the back 4 as they are to improve communication.
It’s a tough one, how long for is it a 3 game ban?

Could Brisley do a job as a tackling midfielder?

 

[Youpies]

Very good back to back wins but we really need to put together a proper run now. The league is still incredibly tight apart from the top 3 so it's important that we start stringing results together if we are to get out of trouble.

Encouraging signs coming from meadow lane though. It will basically be Husin or Vaughn for Milsom

 

[Wooderson]

Most fun game in a while, Crawley played some superb stuff at times but it means zilch if you’ve no cutting edge and error-prone at the back. They may have had 22 shots, but 90% were high or wide, or straight at an increasingly confident (thank God!) Fitzsimons. I can’t recall a single gilt-edged chance, bar the goal.

As for us, two wins in four days paint a much better picture after 9 games without. At last we are looking more settled and building partnerships all over the pitch. Bizarrely it is those who were less instrumental last season who are coming to the fore at the moment - the bombed out Milsom (will be a big loss now after his red card), Jon Stead, who is arguably in his best form in a Notts shirt, and the previously underwhelming Lewis Allesandra. This in stark contrast to last season’s better players, although Hewitt looks to be getting back to the form that earned him POTS awards. Add to the decent form of the new boys (Hemmings, Boldewijn, Evina, Ward, and cult-hero-in-the-making Turley, and the future is suddenly looking a lot brighter than after that 5-1 reverse at Exeter just 3 weeks ago.

Finally, a note on the gate. Was really surprised to see 5k there on a Tuesday night, when people could have stayed at home and watched it on ifollow too. For some reason are gates are probably comparatively better than last season, despite being at opposite ends of the table. Strong ST sales over the summer, maybe?

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Definitely due to last seasons tremendous efforts in reaching the play off semis and having a big gate on the televised 2nd leg and such a good home record. That can be the only reason, thank god. Looking around some smaller than expected crowds last night

 

[PiedPiper]

Husin isn’t the answer and I’d try to preserve positions of those that started the game. Talk of dropping Alessandra back but then you would lose the partnership with Stead. Thomas is more a winger.
We have to keep the back 4 as they are to improve communication.
It’s a tough one, how long for is it a 3 game ban?

Could Brisley do a job as a tackling midfielder?

I was thinking Hawkridge? If Kellet is fit, he could also do job there as well I think. With Allesandra being at 10, he does a lot of chasing himself so maybe Vaughan or Husin might be ok there also?

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Well deserved win but something bizarre happened!

Crawley fans neither cheered nor celebrated their consolation. Weird.

 

[PiedPiper]

Well deserved win but something bizarre happened!

Crawley fans neither cheered nor celebrated their consolation. Weird.

I thought that, it made me think the goal had been ruled out or something, very strange

 

[Wooderson]

Well deserved win but something bizarre happened!

Crawley fans neither cheered nor celebrated their consolation. Weird.

No. Nor the red card!

At that point the game was very much alive and I feared Crawley would use the extra man to finally make some of their pretty passing hurt us - but if anything we played better following the sending off. The difference between last night (and Sat) and the games earlier this season was stark - players were literally throwing themselves in front of the ball to stop a shot on goal. Christ only knows what was going on before.

Thomas' goal was a tremendous and weird moment. I have never seen us get a free-kick 25 yards from goal before and pretty much the taker being the only one of our players in their half. It was basically like a conversion attempt, or a penalty outside the box but with a wall. Was fairly amazed when Thomas curled it home to seal the points after 20-odd minutes of angst - but what was the keeper doing?

 

[Optipez]

It was a weird goal, the keeper and the defence still seemed to be preparing when Thomas just hit it and the keeper was too far over to get to it.

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

I'll say this quietly we don't look the shambles we were at the start of the season.

 

[Conker]

I think County will continue to rise up the table after this.

Not quite sure where the ceiling is mind.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

After the shambolic first 8 games of the season, I’m more concerned still with the floor rather than the ceiling Conks.

We are still fragile but clearly improving simply by having a plan and being organised. How/Why we didn’t have that for day one, only the ex-manager, backroom staff and folks at the club can answer.

Any of the better sides in the division should still be able to easily pick up 3 points against those oh so Stylish Magpies

 

[jacobncfc]

I think County will continue to rise up the table after this.

Not quite sure where the ceiling is mind.

Depends how our defence holds up against better teams. I don't think we're going to have any problems scoring goals but better sides than Northampton, Crewe and Crawley would've exploited more of the half chances that we allowed them to create.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

My thoughts exactly Jacob, the current back four and defensive system is not a patch (in terms of performance as last seasons) obviously. We never looked like conceding many in games last season..... sadly not the case at present.

Onwards and hopefully upwards

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

I thought Crawley weren't a bad team and would have definitely beat us less than a month ago quite comfortably.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

That’s a huge part of football, timing. When you meet a side can make all the difference to the result and perception of a team. That’s why it always makes me laugh when fans make big sweeping statements on a club or player from just a single game.