Notts County - 1
Reeves 35'
Stockport County - 0
If ever there was a game that was going to expose Notts' promotion and/or National League title credentials this was going to be it. Neal Ardley asked questions of his players and their possible lack of fighting endeavour and it seemed to work with the men in black & white grinding out an impressive and hard fought victory over one of the leagues form teams and pre season title favourites.
Notts Line Up (4-4-1-1/4-3-3)
Sam Slocombe
Dion Kelly-Evans
Ben Turner
Connell Rawlinson
Richard Brindley
Jake Reeves
Michael Doyle (C)
Jim O'Brien
Ruben Rodrigues (Tom Walker 74')
Enzio Boldewijn
Kyle Wootton
Substitutes not used:
Alex Lacey
Adam Chicksen
Jimmy Knowles
Elisha Sam
As far as scrappy, hard fought 1-0 wins go this was quite possibly up there with the best for Notts in recent times.
After a shakey start the Magpies grew into the game and got their rewards with a well worked goal that involved no less than 8 Notts players and 15 passes before Jake Reeves picked his spot.
Neal Ardley set his team up to nullify the threat of Stockport's influential Rooney, Bennett and Reid, and that's exactly what they did, bagging all 3 points in the process.
Onto the numbers starting as usual with the key match stats.
Player stats updated. You can use the search function to see individual players or sort by column.
Minutes played updated and we still have 3 players that have played every single minute of the eason so far. I suspect that will change with the FA Trophy game at Morpeth this weekend.
Goal contribution table updated.
Goal participation by minute detailing player goal contribution efficiency.
Points needed and the 3 points takes Notts to 23 for the season and a PPG of 1.77. This equates to a total of just under 78 points for a 44 game season which would see a finish in the top 3 compared to target points.
Results tracker updated and Notts averaging 2.00 PPG at home.
League progress, Notts back up to 3rd. Please note that the positions displayed in the chart are the league position held after each game played and does not include fluctuations due to postponements etc.
Remember you can view league table, latest form, match info and player stats here all of which allow you to search by team/value and also sort by column.
Goal time segments updated and Reeves goal against Stockport was the first goal scored by Notts in the last 15 minutes of the first half meaning they have now scored in every 15 minute segment except 61st - 75th minute.
xG stats now and an indication of just how tight this game was.
The following table shows the chances per player and the xG rating given to each chance.
Finally the xG ratings for the match including how that converts to win% and xPts.
Moving on and the interactive goal scatter chart updated below. Like before hover over a dot to see info about that goal.
Jake Reeves' goal means 16 of the 19 scored have all been converted from within the penalty area, which is in contrast to last season where we seemed to score a fair few long range efforts. Maybe the introduction of the likes of Reeves and Rodrigues has contributed to a change in the style of approach play, patient build up, working through the phases providing a greater threat in the danger areas, again something that was highlighted with the build up for the goal on Tuesday night.
Player ratings updated and it was a good night for Jake Reeves and the back 5.
Neal Ardley's record updated:
So it's the FA Trophy this weekend and a trip up to the North East to face Northern Premier League Morpeth Town AFC. A chance for some of those players coming back from injury to get some minutes in their legs and maybe a chance to give the likes of Doyle and Reeves a rest?
COYP!
Richard