NCS Shorts | #6: Momentum

Hello and welcome to episode six of NCS Shorts. And this episode is sponsored by Taurus Network, who cover all aspects of web based services, including websites such as our fantastic NCS News site. So if you require professional, reliable web solutions, please visit WW taurusnetwork co UK. Right, thank you for joining us on episode six here at NCS Shorts. Thank you ever so much for the likes, the shares, the retweets, the positive comments that we receive on everything that we do, including this podcast. We really do appreciate them and I want to just take a little bit of moment to just talk about the journey that we're on here with NCS News. And Rich, I think you're the best person to take us through that. Obviously, all of us love a bit of stats on here, so give us a little bit of stats in terms of the engagement that we're starting to see after what's been probably only a month or so of starting this project.

Yeah, it was just interesting. Just looking at the last three articles alone that we've had on in the last week on the website there, we're already four and a half thousand plus site views, article views on that, which is quite phenomenal, really, from my perspective. For somebody who for three years previous had been running a website with the stats and everything and probably getting a fraction of that kind of engagement, it's absolutely fantastic that we are getting the interest that we are. And again, just to echo what you said, Cole, that's in a big way, thanks to everybody who does support us, just by reading or listening to the Pod, reading the site, it means a lot. And it's something as well that again, I just want to mention sponsorship. Obviously it costs us a fair bit of money collectively to keep this going. We're all volunteers, we try to be as professional as possible, but we really do need some additional sponsorship and anybody who look to try and help us with that will know that they'll benefit from some really good exposure with the kind of numbers that we're getting at the moment as well.

Yeah, I completely agree and like I say, thank you for that. And again, also, thank you to everybody who's listening, taking part in reading the articles that we do and just looking at our output because it really is incredibly valuable for us. Every, like every retweet, every comment is valuable and not just necessarily in the sponsorship sense, but also just valuable to us to give us the energy to keep going forward. So thank you for that. Now, one piece of content that we've got out recently was an opinion piece by Tom, who joins us on the Pod as well. Tom, can you give us just a quick summary of that piece as well? Because talking about popularity, that's been incredibly popular with the fan base, hasn't it?

Yeah, it's just a piece looking at the gate receipts and our increasing numbers week on week and it was really spurred on from just being there last week at the ground and just how amazing the atmosphere was in the cop and all around the ground, but it was just amazing. And I'm looking forward to this weekend as well with the away following and selling that out. And it's a lot of thoughts and opinions kind of came. To me around that topic. And I think the ever changing demographic, often we as a fan base, get criticized for not being the liveliest. But I think looking at the current atmosphere, you can't level it. That at us at the moment. So, yeah, that piece is just sort of looking at a little bit more in depth some of the reasons behind that increase of crowd size, why it's going to be sustainable, in my opinion, and just really looking at how healthy the club is at the moment. And it's bringing in new fans all the time, and especially the younger faces, which is great to see.

Yeah, I think it's well timed as well, to be honest, because obviously it's very easy to celebrate your team when your team's doing incredibly well. But I must admit, I don't know, there's a feeling of momentum that's not necessarily directly related to what's on the pitch. Going back to the Akrinton game, I ended up having to catch public transport for loads of reasons I'm not going to get into with my two boys. The amount of people that I saw in not shirts, the home shirt, the away shirt, the amount of people that are happy to wear the club colors, the groups of people you see going down to games. And obviously, I'm sure all of us can remember times when you've gone down to medalane, either in a midweek game or a Saturday, and you've been a little bit sort of double take, whether there's actually a game on at all with the lack of atmosphere or the lack of foot traffic. So that's fantastic to see. Also, I'm being pestered by both my boys about club shirts. It's a positive that the club has sold out of home and away shirts. There is a waiting list for home and away shirts. My lad was contemplating the goalkeeper shirt simply because that was the one in the club shop. And again, there's plenty of times, there's been plenty of seasons where that hasn't happened, where we haven't had that kind of momentum and that buy in, I suppose, in a very literal sense from the fan base. I think know it spurred on an awful lot of creativity. And I don't just know NCS News I don't just mean your piece, Tom, but also the chance the songs for know we seem to have more songs for players now than we ever seem to have, do, and have done. And I think that just adds into that kind of growing momentum, obviously. And we are going to talk about the MK Dons game, we are going to talk about the Akrinton game, but I don't think it's solely tied to just one performance here, one performance there. And I really do hope that it won't take a couple of wobbly performances for that momentum to die down, because it really is an exciting time to be a Notts fan right before we get onto the excitement of the Akrinton game and our pre excitement, if you like, for the MK. Dons, since the last time you joined us, the transfer window is firmly shut at Medellin and everywhere else around the football league. Rich, what's your take on it now that the business is done and dusted? Have the right decisions been made? Do you feel that we're slightly light in certain places? Where's your take on it?

I'm relatively happy to be honest. Obviously some more backup at the back there with Lewis Macari on deadline day which was great. I think for me what we've got to be careful of is having too many players in too many positions. What we're very lucky to have, and I'm sure we've discussed this in the past, is a group of players that are very flexible in the positions that they can play in as well. So just because when you look at a squad depth, you might say, well, we were a bit short on the back three there. Or we're a bit short in right midfield, left midfield, whatever. It's not necessarily the case. Because of that flexibility of the players. And I think it's really important as well. And this is where I think that Notts have done a good job. And I think this is one of the reasons why Luke Williams, Ryan Harley and Co managed to get so much out of the players is having that slightly smaller squad, which I think was something, if I remember rightly. Colin, you touched on yourself last week because you've not got a squad full of players that aren't ever going to get anywhere near getting on the bench, let alone the first team creating any negativity at know throughout the club or whatever. Everybody that's training at the moment knows that at any given time they could be called upon to represent this club and you can see that that means as much to them as actually getting the game. Think. So again I think it's been done on purpose, I think it's great. I don't think even with the couple of injuries that we've got at the moment, I don't think we're particularly short in any area either. Losing Scott was a concern and we were looking at possibly bringing in another one but we talked about this before when we discussed his know luke Williams has said today that Junior Marias is now in full training and looking really sharp but we've got goals all over the pitch as you know. I just think with the flexibility and the variety of positions that the players within the squad can cover. I'm relatively happy and I don't think it's been a bad one at all. It's all about quality and not quantity.

I agree, unless we're talking about my vinted addiction, which we were talking just before recording. Tom, as someone who loves to transfer, do you echo what Rich is saying?

Yeah, definitely. I'm really happy with the window, to be honest. Couldn't have asked for many better signings. McGoldrick and Jodi Jones, the standout ones. Dan Crowley as well as Richard said, will Randall's almost the forgotten man because he's not played yet and I think he'll be really exciting addition when he finally gets to fitness. I'm glad we held on to Junior. I think he's got a part to play and I think he's going to get the chance to prove himself. The defenders we bought in, obviously, Ollie Tipton and Lewis Macari, they are going to be nothing more than squad depth, I don't think, but I think that's what we need. He's a tight knit group. Bringing the permanent centre back that isn't the right fit would have been the wrong thing to do with the Titanic group. I'm glad we didn't panic and didn't bring in a striker to replace Scott out of the available options because at that point in the market there wouldn't have been many. And we've seen other clubs have had faux pars with striker transfers, so we glad we didn't fall into any of those sort of traps. And I also would say the one area I would have perhaps liked, because I saw a question posed the other day by Gab Sutton. He asked, who is the young talent emerging at your club? And then I kind of thought about it and I thought, who's the youngest player in our team that's played? And it's Aidan Stone in goal, he's 24, that's the youngest player. So I would have perhaps liked maybe one young academy lad from a Premier League released Premier League player, bought in probably in the attacking midfield role, because I think that's the only position I can see on the pitch where they would get a few minutes, someone that can maybe play in central midfield and attacking midfield again. That's me using my football manager fantasy brain. But I couldn't see us bringing in a permanent center back that's a teenager, and the wing backs recovered, so I thought maybe we could have bought an attack midfielder that can play attention midfield again. Does that exist? Maybe not. Those kind of players are very highly coveted, so I understand that's a very tough market to get into, but maybe have slight our squad is banging its prime. It's brilliant. I would like maybe one or two coming through young lads, but yeah, other than that, that's a real nitpicky point, to be honest. So really happy with the window right.

Now to that time to have a little bit of a reflection on what was a fantastic weekend. Rich, do you want to talk a little bit about Accrington? What were your kind of key takeaways? Things that you like to see, things that we need to be aware of moving forward.

Firstly, what a fantastic game of football to watch that was. I was absolutely glued to it from start to finish and it's a game that really could have gone either way. I know we're sitting pretty now. We got the win, but we got that win through a couple of pieces of absolute. And when I say that, I say that at both ends of the pitch as well, because Aidan Stone put in a couple of very good saves that kept us in it, that could have sent the game the other way. We're a very well disciplined, physical, organized team, exactly what we said they would be. They knew what they were doing with us. They really didn't. It's something that I'm hoping that our guys have learned as well in that game. Being forced long, the way we were in the first half particularly, was a fantastic tactic. Absolutely fantastic tactic. The front three press wasn't an aggressive press, it was a clever press, because they weren't just stopping the player from making the pass, they were still covering the half spaces in between that we were looking to play into. So the only way that we could go was over the top. And in the first half, the issue was the ball kept going up to Macca, and at five foot nine or ten, or whatever he is against a six foot three, four central defender, he's never going to win a ball in his life, but they seem to learn from that. And in the second half, what was really interesting was that obviously they managed to get David McGoldrick a bit higher, knowing that we were still going to have to play that long ball just to take the pressure off more than anything. But McGoldrick's obviously going to win a few more headers than the Macawood in that respect, and it resulted in us scoring the second goal as well, because it was a McGoldrick winning an aerial jewel from a long ball from the keeper. Macca managed to get onto the end of it nine times out of ten. Any other striker is going to completely fluff his lines with that. But the way that Macker managed to keep that ball under control with two, three defenders around him and still lob it into the top corner with his weaker foot was just phenomenal, really. And it was that bit of class, that bit of skill. And again, for his second goal and the third, if you look at the work that Matty Palmer did with that, I put on Twitter that he quite literally part of the Red Sea, and he did do that's exactly what he did with that ball. And the finish was just sublime. And it's those bits of quality that really pleased me, because they're the things that are going to win us those really tight games. And I have to say that it put my mind at rest a little bit as well about the frailties we've been talking about at the back, because we defended like men the first time, properly, that I've seen as defending like proper men, not being bullied off the ball, getting on with it, no play acting. There was none of that. And they were the two things that really stood out for me.

Yeah, thank you for that. And like I say, Tom, I know from a Twitter thread that you put up, you were particularly impressed with McCauley Langstaff, weren't you?

Yeah, I think that's the best performance I've seen Maka have for us, to be honest. He was complete, really, I said during the game, this has been a complete performance other than the finishing, because he did fluff two really big chances. But then he pulls out two unbelievable finishes not long after that. So maybe I should tweak that every single time, every single game, and he might pull those out, but, I mean, the two finishes are incredible. He spoke about that one on one and that he was going to chip it. Every single time that he got that first chance, every single game, he was waiting for that first one on one. He's always going to chip it. And he did and it worked brilliantly. Sat Savin down and Savin had a really good game for them. Actually, both keepers were brilliant at both ends of the pitch, but Macca was just fantastic. Tireless pressing, he dropped in and to be honest with you, he had to drop in because of what Richard said about atkinton that made it impossible for us to get the ball moving. He had to drop in to link up play. He still had the fewest touches, but there were a few times where he played, actually some nice passes from dropping in a bit, which was really impressive. His pressing was tireless, but also really intelligent, just like Atkinson's Press was. He also pressed really well and closed the space down and forced them into some mistakes himself. And obviously his finishing was just sublime, those chances. So I think he's been rightly rewarded with deployed it and he was fantastic. Aiden Stone was great as well. People have said that some of the saves were unnecessary because he made mistakes, but the fact that he atoned for them in a big way, to me, that's good enough. I mean, he dropped that one in the first half early on, but he made a brilliant acrobatic recovery, which set the tone, I think, for his performance, because he made that recovery and you kind of got the impression, right, you can have a good game here, and Akriton Echo, what Rich said, they were fantastic. Their out position stuff was brilliant. We knew they were going to be efficient with the ball, while surprised at how efficient. And what was really impressive is sometimes teams have counted us, especially last season, and they could have joy because of our mistakes. Like we were out of position. We didn't make any mistakes really defensively, but they still were really good, so they attacked really well. But like Rich said, we defended really well. So both teams played brilliantly and like Rich said, what a game of football that is. Probably one of the best games you've seen over the last twelve months or 18 months, because we've had the summer, but one of the best games you've seen under Luke Williams that it was toe to toe and we came out on top, but it could have gone either way. And I'm really happy with the result and where we are in the table.

Yeah, I mean, like I say, I agree with an awful lot that you're talking about, Tom. I think the one thing that I thought when I saw your Twitter thread about Langstaff, and I completely agree, like the second half performance was fantastic and maybe this is just a privileged position that I was in, sat in the family stand and obviously they were attacking the family stand. First half, what came through, and I think I'll put it on the WhatsApp to you two. Macaulay Langstaff caught a very frustrated figure because of the long ball over the top and because of the resistance he was facing. Not just because of the limited options of getting the ball to him, but also the treatment he was getting from the defenders as well. There was a lot of physical stuff off the ball, which he's received a lot. I mean, let's face it, the amount of goals you score, you're going to want defenders to be touched tight to them, opposition teams are going to be. But what I liked was he was able to channel and use that frustration to almost find another gear. And so I felt that the player that came out second half was determined to use that frustration. The first off, the failed chances that he got, the limited amount of distribution that he was able to kind of receive the way he wanted. The ball wasn't happening. And like I say, it was fantastic to see him channel that energy into such a fantastic performance second half. So yeah, because I think that shows again, you want that player to have that second gear or to have that other dimension to his game. And I think that we saw that and I think that's probably one of the reasons why, Tom, you were so absolutely impressed with his performance. It was fantastic. Obviously we've got another test coming up. MK Dons. Rich, what sort of pressures, what sort of things do we need to be worried about with the MK Dons? Is it going to be something very similar or the threat is going to be very different because I know you and Tom have been working on another article for NCS News, so if you want to give us just a little bit of insight before that article hits the readership.

Yeah, quite a different challenge to the one that we saw against Akrington for sure. Obviously they've had a decent start to the season, but for the last game, Crew somehow managed to do them three one at Crew, which gives us some hope that obviously there are goals to be had there. But again, very well organized team, the way that they play. It's difficult to say too much at the moment because I know that Tom in particular has put quite a bit of work into the article that's going to come out tomorrow morning with the opposition analysis in there. But they've got some very good forward players, names that people will be familiar with anyway in Leko and Isa. Tom reminded me yesterday as well that they'd just managed to bring another guy in as well, a guy called Harrison up front, who Tom might just mention a little bit more about. So they've got some options up there. But some of the things that I decided to have a bit of a closer look at that isn't necessarily about the tactical side of things, is just trying to identify how the game might go based on some of the stats. And it's interesting that they're averaging over two goals a game, but they're also conceding nearly two goals a game as well. So there's goals to be had there if we can get it right, boss. Three one at crew last time out, which gives us some sort of idea that one of the things that I noticed just looking back at some of the highlights of that game was the three center backs who were quite narrow, quite rigid in the way that they set up. Really didn't look like they enjoyed having fast players running at them with the ball or even anything that looked like balls in behind for the speedy player, like on the end of a cowley or Matty Palmer ball down the right, for example. So I think there's some really good areas for us. It's going to be a very different challenge, but the great thing is I think that we're actually going to have a lot more of the ball than them. And I think maybe once things have settled down after 1015 minutes and we really get a foothold in the game, that we'll start to take control even at their place. It's going to be a decent pitch, a decent stadium, massive following. And yeah, I just feel that there are some really good areas for us to exploit to try and pick up the three points.

Thanks for that, Rich. And Tom, like I say, like Rich has said, you've done an awful lot of work on the article, looking at the kind of the opposition analysis, looking at the threats, and looking at the things that we need to be working on without wanting to give away too many of the secrets to the article because I really want to implore everyone listening to go out there and read it and enjoy it. But what are just some of the things that we do need to pay particular attention to going forward?

Yeah, well, it is going forward for them. I think their front two are fantastic. Jonathan Leko, he's never played below league one level before and to be honest with you, before last season, he never really played below championship level before. He's played 14 Premier League games and he's only 24. So he's a very highly rated player. Coming through at West Brom when he when he did break onto the scene, and for one reason or another, it hasn't really worked out for him. And he kind of got that move to MK. Dons and they were near the top of the table the season before and then they've obviously had a catastrophic fall off and he's sort of been a victim of that. But he has started the season really well. He's a fast direct dribbler and I think he will cause us a lot of issues and he's drifted into those right hand side, our left hand side channels, which sometimes we've struggled with and he's probably the big worry and Moisa as well. He didn't play last time out, but I would expect him to be back in the team for this one. Again, he's their top scorer of four goals and he is again, he scored a goal on the opening day against Rexam where he seems to have taken it past five or six sort of twists or turns in one move, takes five or six Rexam defenders out of the game and then finishes really well. But I've taken a lot of stick off of MK Don's fans over the last few weeks because I've been mentioning their expected goals and whilst Xg often is a stat that's overused, I have noticed that they have been overperforming massively. And when you watch their highlights, it correlates they don't create a lot. Their sort of tactic and game plan is get it as quickly as possible to that front two and that a lot of the time that comes from direct diagonal balls from the back. They don't have a lot of creativity in the rest of the team and it's only so long that they can sustain that. Now, in one off games like this one, one of those two might come up with a moment of magic. And they're the type of attackers that we've struggled against, definitely. But over a course of a season, I wasn't entirely surprised, for example, against Crude that they didn't win there because they don't tend to create a lot of Xg and they don't tend to create a lot of chances outside of those front two. Ellis Harrison coming in could provide a physical focal point for them. Not a target man as such because he's not the tallest. I think he's just under six foot, but he's really strong, he's hold up, plays really good and obviously with two fast attacking forwards, that's perfect for them. He holds the ball up, feeds it onto them and he's fairly prolific as well. He's hit double figures two seasons in a row in league one. He definitely got double figures last season for Port Vale, so he's a goal scorer as well in his own right. So they've got plenty of threats, but like Richard's touched on and we touched on in the article as well, their back three is there to be got, I think, and it'd be interesting. No, Jodie Jones is a big blow at left wing back, so it'd be interesting to see what decision he makes with that. Obviously, chickson, I think, is the natural player to come straight in, like for like but there is potential there to maybe mix up and he could even go with an Aaron, the main Sam Austin pairing, to really get them, so it'd be interesting to see what he does. He's got options in that area with the Conundrum, with Jodie out and obviously good luck to Jody on his international duty as well. But, yeah, really excited for it and I think it could be another one that's a really good game of football. They're going to be tough to beat fast and direct, but like Richard said, we will control the game. I'm expecting us to have most of the ball.

Yeah, I echo that, certainly with Jodi Jones. What a player and what form he's in. So, yeah, he will be a really big miss and I think it brings us back full circle to the things we were talking about, about the transfer window and the flexibility that's within the Notts squad. This is going to be another test of that flexibility and I suppose it's really reassuring from a Notts point of view that we've got two or three solutions to losing a player of that quality. I do think the trick here at Notts in this particular game is going to be about suppression of supply. If we can keep the ball as well as we can do for as long as we can do, then those threats that we talked about with the MK, dons they become slightly more frustrated, they become slightly more isolated, it becomes harder for them to weave those elements of magic that we talked about. So it's also about kind of suppressing that supply and making sure that our pressing works incredibly as well, to make sure that we're shutting down those opportunities and those avenues that come from a variety of areas on the pitch. And like you said, Tom, there isn't necessarily a very specific crafter and creator, probably in the same way that we've got a boss. Stock or a Palmer, but it is trying to think about, okay, where is that supply coming from? Can we shut it down quickly in order to kind of isolate and suppress those players? Right, I'm going to go through predictions then, Rich, just before we finish. So, Rich, I'm going to start with you. I've got a mental prediction, I've got a guess on what you're going to go with anyway, but you're always full of surprise as well. So give us what you've got, what's your prediction?

Well, something Luke Williams said in his presser earlier today, which I thought was interesting when he was talking about the fans and the fact that Notts have got a real connection between the players and the fans now. And he was mentioning going away and being able to take control of a game and other clubs not having the same connection, having a disconnect, if you like, with the supporters. And so they then start to slowly get on their team's back a little bit, start to get a little bit frustrated, and that feeds down to the players, whereas we've got to understand what Luke Williams' teams are all about. And when things aren't going great, the vast majority of Not's fans now will still continue to give them the support that they need. So I think with a big following and taking control of the game and frustrating them, I think we could do really well. So my prediction, Colin, is one. One.

Do you know what, I should be disappointed, but I'm not, I'm absolutely delighted because obviously regular listeners will know that Rich is going for draws all the time and it seems to be working in Notza's favour. So let's hope that that prediction of a draw is a very minimum of what we can expect and hopefully keeps us going forward. Tom, what about you?

I've had the tendency to follow on from Rich and copy him a lot of the time and I'm doing it again, but I had this already pre planned, so I'm going to go for a draw. I think it'll be goals. My heart's telling me we're going to win, but my head's saying we're away from home against a good team. Yeah, they might not be creating the most, but they have got probably the most dangerous front pair in the league, if not the most dangerous, one of the most dangerous, and they've added another forward to it. I think those two strikers are sort of tailor made to do well against our defense as much as our defense has improved. So I'm going to go two, all going to go for a few goals, probably one of their front two to score and maybe us to lead and them to come back into the game, which obviously would be disappointing, but I want to be positive because I think a point there would be pretty good. But my heart is telling me we're going to win, then I've got a feeling, but I don't want to say that we will because it's a really tough place to go. So I'm going to go to all.

Yet again, I am put in the position of being the most optimist Notts fan, and honestly, anybody who knows me knows that is not a common position that I take. I think we're going to win. Okay? I think we're going to win, and I think we're going to win because our opportunity to kind of suppress the ball and suppress their threat, I don't think it's necessarily going to be a thriller minute, but I do think it's going to be one of those kind of almost chess matches where we keep the ball, we work it around. It may not necessarily result in direct threats all the time, but what it does do is it starves them of the ball, and by starving them of the ball, it starves the players that we've talked about. They become a little bit frustrated, they become a little bit isolated out of the game. MK. Dons are forced to change tactics, change their approach in order to try and get those players back in. That's what I'm hoping for. But that's not to criticize and that's not to sort of dismiss the threat that MK. Dons do pose. But I do think that we're going to go away there with the three points. I think it's going to be something like 2132, something like that. I'm not expecting a kind of steamroller. I do think it may sway forwards and backwards. So very similar to what you were saying, Tom, as well, about the threat out there. We can't discount that. But I do think we're going to leave with the three points. So fingers crossed, obviously, for the game that's going. Good luck to those people who are going down to the game. I know that Notts are taking an awful lot. All right. I really hope that you enjoy the atmosphere and that we're able to return back to Nottingham with the three points.