NCS Shorts | #3: Realistic

CS Shorts. Thank you ever so much for everybody and their positivity in terms of sharing episode one and two. And a big thank you to Taurus Network, our sponsors again for this episode, who cover all aspects of web based services, including our very own NCS News site. So if you require professional, reliable, web based solutions, please visit WW taurusnetwork Co UK. And another word on sponsorship. If you'd like to sponsor NCS Shorts, the podcast, including your own message or your own branding, your own logo and dedicated social media posts, please contact us via the NCS News website. Right, to kick us off with episode three, rich, I'd like to pass on to you for a slightly less upbeat but a really important message.

Yeah, obviously talking about the injury to Badge. Absolutely gutted for the lad. And first things first, I know I'll speak for all of us when I say we really wish him all the best for a speedy recovery. I think we're going to miss him massively this season and I think that's become reasonably evident in the last couple of games as well, where we could have done with that kind of COVID So hopefully, I don't know whether he listens to this or not, but if he does, we wish you all the best with your recovery, Badge. Let's hope it's a speedy one, but it did then. We were talking off air earlier about this, and not necessarily this injury, but the chance that there could be an issue with injuries now with the extra time that we're having to play due to the new rules and regulations in the game. And it was interesting. I was just having a look at the even though it's only three league games I was just having a look at the minutes that have been played so far and Carl Cameron and Matty Palmer, for example, have played every minute of all three games so far 316 minutes in total with the added time. If you consider that you're looking at 270 minutes of normal time, that's an extra half of football, 46 minutes of football that those two guys have already played in three games. And it does beg the question whether injuries is also going to be something that we're going to have to keep an eye on moving forwards, not just us, but for every club, obviously, but I think it could be an interesting factor that we probably need to monitor.

I think you're absolutely right. And I think we're starting to see this with other clubs, certainly in our league. And I think it's going to affect those clubs with smaller squads because, again, they are really going to be struggling to find solutions, obviously, with the window, et cetera, or something that we didn't need to worry about in the National League, which obviously is going to be a factor this season. But also it's probably down to managers to be sort of tactically adept. We talked about it previously on Previous Pods about Luke Williams possibly moving shape and changing tactical shape to fix some of those kind of tactical dilemmas. But it may also be from the things we're talking about, the minutes played overuse injuries that players might be getting because of the amount of extra time they're going to be playing. So I agree with you Rich, it's going to be one of those things that we need to keep an eye on as we move forward. Right, to reflect on what's been quite a busy week here as Notts County fans, I think it's time to reflect on some of the performances that we've seen. And Tom, I'm going to start with you. So if I could take you all the way back to the Grimsby game, if you want to give us just your highlights of that, any of those kind of key takeaways, anything to give us that positivity moving forward.

Yeah, obviously we hit the back of the net three times and I think that's massive considering that we've looked a little bit shy in front of goal and subsequently we looked a little bit shy against Morcham, but back in front of a Pat Meadow lane, we looked back to ourselves at points. I'm not saying the whole performance was brilliant, but there were certainly flashes in there, lots of interesting tactical stuff as well. He moved to a back three which became a back four, quite fluid, quite hybrid, and I did a thread in the week on my page which highlighted some of those additional changes which I thought were really interesting and could prove a lot for us this season. So they're definitely positive. State Jody Jones was fantastic, dan Crowley looks to be a great addition already. So yeah, there's plenty of positives in that game and obviously three points are three points and to get on the board with that first win is massive.

Yeah, I'll echo that know it was really nice to see particularly going back to Medellin for that first league game and seeing a side. Well I think Luke Williams talked about it, didn't it? About getting his team back. It certainly felt like we were seeing the Notts County evolve and we were able to see some of those kind of playing fundamentals really start to click in. And like I say, if there know extra gears to some of those players that we've already talked know in terms of Jodie Jones and Dan Crowley etc, then it's going to be a really exciting season moving forward. Rich, what about yourself? Any key takeaways that you're taking that's given you positivity to move forward for the rest of the season?

Definitely the thing that I really enjoyed about that game was funny enough, the way that Grimsby set up and the challenges that that provided us with. Make no bones about it, paul Hurst is a good manager and Grimsby will upset a lot of people this season, extremely solid. But what I really liked about them, and this is why I'm really pleased with us getting the three points was their shape in the transitions was actually really good, but they were very especially in the defensive transitions, they were very regimented in dropping back into what became like a 451541, depending on how that went. And for us to be able to still break that down and score the three goals and get the win against a very physical, organized side was great. My biggest concern, though, and I'm surprised that we didn't get sort of punished more for it, is I feel we're still struggling in the transitions ourselves. We're fantastic when we're moving the ball forward, but, you know, when we lose the ball and we don't get those quick recoveries, the defensive transitions still leave a little bit to be desired. And that's just my opinion from what I can see. I'm not sure if that's something that you guys have picked up on as well.

Yeah, I mean, it's something that I was paying particular attention to because one of the players that both myself and, you know, in the last episode and all three of us have been particularly impressive. But Camille Conte, for example, a player who absolutely feeds off that opportunity to thread the ball through and to make those progressive passes. And although I'm delighted that we got the result, I was also delighted to see a fantastic performance from him at medalane. So I completely agree as well. We need to remember that we're up against players of caliber and they are going to pick our pocket probably far more than we had last season. And I agree, there were moments last season, I think we talked about it last episode, where against those bigger sides, we still didn't look that comfortable at losing possession and winning it back and being given some quite sort of scary moments going into games. So I completely agree with you on that one, Rich. Now also, we've had another game, the Morecambe game as well. There's been an awful lot we're using that word social media. Again, aren't know there's been an awful lot of comments on social media, a little bit of kind of disappointment, I think, after what was a fantastic performance at Medalane. Tom, I'm going to go back to you if that's all right. So Tom, what were your takes about the Morcom game?

Yeah, I hate to be negative, but I was a little bit disappointed too, to be fair. It was a game I thought it's not dropped points away. At the same time, we were the better team and we had 75% possession. We didn't simply create enough. I just wanted to quickly address a couple of points and I think it's important to note that whilst we're positive, we can be realistic as well. And I think some of the comments, for example, saying that Morecambe are a league. One side last season? Well, they only kept six of the players that were in that side and one of their star men, Dan Crowley, now played for us. I think that's an important point to make to say they didn't have chances either. Morgan did have some really good chances, as did we. We hit the bar, that goal goes in, it's a completely different game if we take the positives. There was 1520 minutes period straight after half time where we looked absolutely brilliant. We looked like the team of last season and I think we have to focus on that. Personnel at the back beat and change round again, again talking about the injury we spoke about earlier, I think Brins has got a slight knock by the sounds of it. He's not even involved there. Brawl didn't come on when we needed defender probably hints at the fact that he's packed a little bit tired already, so definitely questions over personnel at the back and how fit they are and who's available and if we're going to bring in some new players. But a point on the road isn't bad and we have to remember that this season a point on the road isn't bad. Last season dropping points away was catastrophic because we needed every single point, whereas this year we can afford to drop a few more points.

I think they're really good points. It links back to what we were saying at the start, don't we, about the challenges that I think small squads are going to be facing with the extra minutes that they've got, how rapidly the games are coming, players picking up knocks, are they going to be able to recover for the midweek game? And the need, as Luke Williams is demonstrating, to really kind of shuffle that pack in terms of making sure that he's got a competitive side out there. But again, I think you're absolutely right. The question remains about whether we're going to dip into the market while we've still got the time in order to bring in some replacements and making sure that we're able to kind of fight on all fronts really, because I think the other departments in the squad are doing really well and are being fairly effective. Rich, I'm going to pass on to you what are your takes from the game?

Yeah, it was an OD one really. You can look at it from a positive point of view, like Tom was saying, a point on the road, it was never going to be easy against Morcom, although there was only a few players left over from last season. They've still got that league one mentality about them, I suppose, and it was always going to be a difficult game and we've never really had a great deal of success on the road up that end of the world either, but disappointment as well. A couple of the things that really stuck out to me were firstly, looking at the game and our attacking intent. Again, we had eight attempts on goal and well over 70% of the possession, I mean, possession stats actually, for the season so far, the average across the three games is over 70%. So to have that much possession and still only for a team that's used to creating a lot of high value chances, creating eight chances, and those eight chances accumulated a total of just 0.6 Xg. So you break that down. Yes, there was the close shave with Jones against the bar. That was a little unfortunate. As Tom said, if that's gone in, the game completely changes and we've seen how a goal gets Notts up as well, and how then they suddenly become quite unplayable, but it, you know, some dogged defending by Morgan. They were bit cleverer than us in that respect, and I think that was something that Luke Williams sort of alluded to as well. In his post match interview, it was quite clear he wasn't happy with some of the decision making. The fact that we've got to be a little bit wiser, we've got a bit of a bit cleverer, we can't continue to keep making the silly mistakes that are putting us under pressure at the back as well. And they were the two key takeaways from me, that little bit of decision making, and again, not quite being able to create the kind of chances that we need to the value of chances that we're used to seeing last season. I know the teams that we're playing of a higher standard, and you alluded to that earlier, Colin, saying that obviously we're playing against much cleverer and more robust defenses now. But on the whole, I think looking at the three games, and I know that the first game against Sutton you could put down as a bit of an anomaly, but it's still there, it's a fact. And when you look at them all together, the three games so far, we've had one more shot than the opposition have had against us. Across those three games, or two shots, I think we've had 33, we've faced 31, but we've had eight on target, while the opposition have managed to put 16 on target. And our Xg is much lower than our opposition. So there's something that still needs to be clicking up front as well. And I know we're finding our feet and I'm not going to the last episode, not going to get into the depths of despair and what have you. We have to remain positive and it's a work in progress. But for me, I think there was possibly two points lost last night.

Yes, and fair points. And I think the key takeaway that I've got from what you were saying, the narrative seems to be that we just need to be wiser and we need to get wiser to the threats that we're going to be facing to realize the standard that we're playing. I don't think we can expect any higher levels of possession than what we're doing now. In fact, what I suppose we're hoping for from the Notts squad is to be wiser with that possession. Can we get into, like you say, those higher value areas? Yeah, I think one of the key takeaways that I want to raise everyone's attention to, really, is Aidan Stone and the presence that he's got in the Notts goal. We all know, and we all saw that he had a less than desirable debut, shall we say. But this is someone now who's taken charge of the Notts goal, something that is a big ask in terms of the pressure from the fan base as well as obviously the unique playing style that Notts have got. And I have to say that this is someone who is becoming more and more comfortable in that position and more and more reassuring as the games are going on. So even though I do think that there are some questions to be had and some questions to be raised in terms of Nottst's performances, that is something that's impressing me, certainly in terms of the way performances are going. And I'm really excited to see his progress as we move forward. So moving forward then, and our attention moves on to playing Doncaster. Rich, is there anything that you're looking forward to seeing or anything that you might think might be a threat from Doncaster moving forward? Anything that you think can really give us food for thought, things to look forward to as we try and move and try and make progress into league two.

Well, again, it's interesting when you look at how the season started for many teams in this league. And all right, you can have a look, and MK dons have had a cracking start, but you'd expect them to be up there. But Doncaster getting the two two draw, albeit at home to Mansfield last night, will be a real boost for them because they've not had a particularly great start at all other than a win in the cup against Hull. Up until last night, they hadn't got a point on the board. But one of the things that I thought was really interesting where I think we can really have some success against them is I was watching Back, the Newport game where they lost four nil at Newport and the Ease. In which the Newport players were able to play right through the heart of that Doncaster side. Kind of gives me the feeling that if we can get on our game, we'll have a big following at Doncaster, so that won't be an issue. So the support will be there, it's a decent pitch, and I think if we can get on a game, being able to be a bit more aggressive with our forward play, I just think we'll be too much for them, to be honest. We've still got to be wary of what's happening at the back for sure. But the goals that they've scored this season in the league, well, those two last night, really, both of them came from the defenders. One was an absolute worldie and then the other one was a follow up after a parrot save. And Mansfield will be very disappointed that they came away from that game with just a draw. I think it's going to be interesting, but I think we have to be really confident that we can go there and make a really good account of ourselves. And I can't see anything other than us coming back with the three points.

Either kind of push out a prediction. Rich, I know you hated me pushing at a prediction last time, so let's keep the tradition going.

I think we're going to keep another clean sheet and I'm going to go for two nil.

Yeah, I like that. And that definitely fits with the confidence and the growing confidence I've got in the comments that we made earlier about Aidan Stone as well. I think he was playing a significant role in a defense that seems to be improving, certainly. Tom, I'm going to pass on to you any kind of things that you're looking forward to in the Doncaster game and your prediction.

Yeah, I'm hoping to see more of the same from us in a lot of the phases. I would like to see us obviously create a bit more in the final third. That's a given. We've discussed that and hopefully we will. And I hope Langstaff can get off the mark. I think if soon he gets that first goal, he'll be flying, but he just needs that first goal and hopefully it'll be against Doncaster. And I hope we can win on the road as well, because a point last time was good. Can we improve again? Doncaster had a lot of optimism about them at the start of the season. They've had a really poor start as Richard sort of alluded to. So I think we can get something there, but I'm just looking forward to seeing also what Luke Williams does in terms of rotation. Does he change the scene a little bit because he's been tinkering around a little bit. Will he do it again? That's what I'm looking forward to.

Yeah, I think that's a fair point. I think we're still at that stage of the season where we're obviously very conscious of the opposition and the quality that they've got, but we are still really looking at that kind of Notts brand, aren't we? Really trying to make sure that we secure our playing style with making sure that we've adapted it slightly and making sure that it's fitting and it's effective in lead two. And even though we've had flashes of that in the games that we've played, and obviously, particularly the Grimsby game, we want to really try and make sure that it happens in quite a cohesive manner. And obviously we all hope that that happens at Doncaster. Tom, have you got a score prediction before I pass on to Rich?

Yeah, I think Rich has actually convinced me I'm going to go two one Notts. I was going to go one all, but I'll go two one Notts. Rich has swayed me interesting.

I know you've had an awful lot of success recently with predictions over on Patreon as well, so let's hope that that one works out for you. Rich, over to you.

Yeah, just the other thing I wanted to say as well is I just wanted to mention the back again for us, and I think it's absolutely paramount that Oldwin's starting that game again at the weekend, he is a quality player and I'm not know I don't want to allude to too much. There were a couple of errors in the game last night, and we've all had our hearts and our mouths a little bit with a couple of things that he's done. But he's such a fantastic player when he's on his game, and I think he just needs to get those minutes under his belt and I think if he can shuffle things around luke Williams so that he's definitely playing in the middle, hopefully, of that back three so that we get some consistency at the back there. I know the right side's still a question, but I think once we get some consistency in that back three, and if we at least with Cammie and Baldwin, get them to forming a partnership, then I think we're going to become very difficult to actually score against moving forward. So I just wanted to throw a little bit of positivity there as well around the defence. I know I've been a little bit negative about a couple of the stats and things, but I'm not negative in general. I think going forwards, if they can just get some continuity on that back line, certainly give Boulder in the minutes, as many minutes as we can, and I think we'll reap the benefits of that moving forwards.

Yeah, I'd echo that. And I think we need to think about the role that confidence plays. If we think back to Baldwin and the role that he played, certainly at the tail end of the National League campaign, that was a player playing on confidence and going with the support and the momentum of the fan base. I think I can't remember the podcast, so I apologize not being able to name it, but there was comments about Harry Maguire, for example. I think Rio Ferdinand was talking about negative energy at Old Trafford, and that feeling that as a player himself and feeling that maybe Harry Maguire was going through that. I know that's a Premier League level, but we're playing at a level where every shout can be heard from the stands. You know what I mean? We're playing at a level where players probably are searching for their names on social media. So I do think I agree with you completely. Extra minutes builds extra confidence and that game intelligence going forward. And I'm sure very soon we're going to see, like we've seen with, you know, that kind of progressively developmental performances. We're going to see that with Baldwin as well. Thank you for that gents. And thank you for another fantastic episode of NCS Shorts.