I'm sorry but supporting Notts County really isn't good for your health!!
As far as one game eliminators go this one had it all and was a fantastic advert for the National League. James Rowe set his players up to spoil the party, timewasting from the off and clearly hoping to catch us on the break and to be fair to the Spireites you couldn't fault their effort and commitment to the cause.
I had been quite complimentary of Rowe this season and was impressed with what he had achieved at the North Derbyshire club since his appointment at the beginning of the year. I was even prepared to let the whole furlough fiasco pass me by but if there's one thing no one likes it's a bad loser, and I'm afraid this is where the Chesterfield boss appears to have let himself down.
Either way its Notts who will make the trip down to Devon for a lunchtime play off semi final against Torquay United at Plainmoor.
Key match stats only go to confirm how much of the game Notts had and would suggest they deserved the win.
Player stats updated.
Interactive Goals & Assists table updated below. Wootton and Rodrigues have now been involved in 46 of Notts' goals between them this season. Mark Ellis is the most prolific defender Notts have in front of goal with 6 goals and one more will see him equal the 7 goals Alan Sheehan scored in 2013/14. We should acknowledge that 3 of those goals for Sheehan were penalties.
I've altered the goal scatter chart below so you can use the drop down menu to view goals by player rather than having all goals visible.
xG data now and despite the chances at both ends Notts created much more further endorsing they deserved the win in the end.
Player xG ratings below for the 17 attempts on goal that Notts had. What is nice to see is the spread of players getting a look in with 8 different players having attempts on goal.
The xG for this game suggests win% at 55% for Notts and 21% for Chesterfield with xPTS at 1.885 for Notts and 0.868 for Chesterfield.
A new visualisation below is a slightly different look at match stats using a radar like the ones you see in the previews.
This one looks at additional attributes such as duels won and accurate passes etc.
Some stand outs from the above visual. Notts had many more shots than Chesterfield but the Spireites had a much better shots on target ratio. Notts clearly had more possession and more accurate passes which is what you would expect but Chesterfield just edged it on duels won.
Ian Burchnall's record updated after 18 games
Since the 2-0 defeat at Eastleigh Ian Burchnall has steered his team to 6 wins and two draws in their last nine games. His overall win percentage is looking a little better now at just over 44%.
So, a trip to Plainmoor on Saturday and Notts should be confident of progressing to the final following the 2-2 draw at Torquay about five weeks ago, a game which the Magpies again really should have won.
Match/stats preview to follow shortly.
In the meantime another shameless plug. If you haven't already done so please do take the opportunity to catch up with Analysts Bar Podcast on YouTube. Episode #3 now up and myself and Colin take a closer look at the evolution of the target man, catch it here . . .
As always thanks for reading.
COYP!
Richard