Boreham Wood 2 - 2 Notts County | Vanarama National League | 13th August 2022
"Typical Notts" . . . was pretty much the response you'd expect to hear following a game that saw the Magpies relinquish their lead not once but twice.
Luke Williams put faith in the same starting eleven that kicked off against Maidenhead last week, and for thirty minutes it appeared to have been the correct decision with Notts taking an early lead courtesy of a Ruben Rodrigues penalty and seemingly well in control of the game.
In fact, after the penalty Boreham Wood had to wait a further 26 minutes before recording their first effort on goal. Chances went begging at both ends of the pitch before Notts' perennial inability to defend a set piece surfaced once more with The Woods Danny Elliott the first to respond to a loose ball from a Zak Brunt corner to level the scores.
Luke Williams made changes on 60 minutes with Kairo Mitchell and Matty Palmer replacing O'Brien and Austin and it seemed to be a masterstroke with Mitchell converting from 22 yards on 68 minutes after a smart spin and strike with his left foot.
And it was Mitchell who threatened again shortly after having cleverly controlled a loose ball on the edge of the box before releasing a curling shot with his right foot that was just inches beyond Nathan Ashmore's far post.
However the match was all square again on 83 minutes when Tyrone Marsh converted a penalty following an innocuous challenge in the box by Mitchell from yet another set piece.
There were a couple of half chances for both sides in the dying minutes with Wood defender Femi Ilesanmi having the best of them, climbing highest to head over from another set piece corner routine.
Key match stats below and the main thing that stands out is xG win percentage which suggests Boreham Wood should have won based on quality of chances created.
xG for both Rodrigues and Marsh is boosted by the penalties and it's interesting to note that non-penalty xG drops to 1.30 for Boreham Wood and 0.84 for Notts which would indicate a game of few clear cut chances.
Notts pressed well again but challenge intensity was down compared to the Maidenhead game.
Notts somehow had nearly 75% of possession for the second week running despite being more direct in attack but worth noting a high number of passes into the final third contributing to higher gains in territory.
Goals + Assists:
Player Stats:
Player Ratings:
A big thank you to @jacobncm who kindly provided us with his player ratings for this match and well worth a follow on Twitter if you haven't done so already.
Slocombe - 5
Nervy, to say the least. A couple of botched punches and clearly targeted by Boreham Wood's press, was lucky to be saved by the offside flag when he did botch a clearance and it ended up in the back of the net.
Brindley - 7
Lost a couple of physical battles, but generally the most assured of the back line by some distance.
Baldwin - 4
Clearly got everything you need to be outstanding at this level, but is currently making a horrible mistake that leaves the opposition through on goal every half an hour or so, which is problematic.
Cameron - 6
Fine individually and contributed well to attacks, but as a captain at the back probably needs to be better leading the team through sticky patches as they faced in the second half.
Chicksen - 7
One of Notts' best attacking outlets, played one fantastic cross thatLangstaff was inches away from tapping in and forced a good save when through one-on-one in the second half. Always solid defensively.
Taylor - 6
Not his fault, but the left footed right wing back clearly messes with the balance of the team.
Francis - 7
Grown massively over pre-season and looks to understand his role much more this season, good both with and without the ball.
JOB - 6
A classic JOB display. Some good stuff, some bad stuff, loads of energy and subbed off after an hour.
Austin - 6
Worked hard but struggled to get into the game other than seeing one shot brilliantly blocked towards the end of the first half.
Rodrigues - 8
Not a rare occurrence, but comfortably the best player on the pitch. At the heart of pretty much everything good that Notts did.
Langstaff - 6
Quiet, but still took two fantastic last ditch blocks to stop him getting a couple of goals.
Palmer - 6
Helped Notts to regain momentum when they'd lost it and passed the ball nicely, but gave away a couple of very clumsy fouls.
Mitchell - 8
Helped to bring the game back in Notts' favour. Competed for everything, scored one fantastic goal and was inches away from another. Loses a point for giving away the penalty.
Bajrami - 6
Wasn't on for long enough to do much other than get involved in a mix-up with Slocombe.
Next up Gateshead away, familiar territory for a couple of Notts new boys and an in-form ex Magpie to keep an eye on.
It's been a steady start for The Tynesiders with two draws from two games. Despite losing Langstaff and Scott in the summer still have plenty of quality in their squad and a very good young manager in Mike Williamson who made 16 appearances in the league as player manager last season.
This fixture poses yet another challenge for Luke Williams and it will be interesting to see if the negatives he spoke of in his post-Boreham Wood interview force him into making changes to his starting eleven.
As always, thanks for reading.
COYP!