Following a less than convincing 3 points against Wealdstone on Tuesday night Notts get a chance to put down a further marker at the business end of the National League this weekend with the visit of 14th placed Maidenhead United.
The spectre of last seasons early Meadow Lane encounter with the 'other' Magpies still lives long in the memory of Notts fans with Sam Barratt doing the damage and inflicting a 3-2 defeat on a beleaguered, Covid impacted Notts team.
Things should be better this time around with Notts boasting an embarrassment of attacking riches in a squad expected to be right in the promotion mix at the end of the season.
Maidenhead by contrast have had an indifferent start to this campaign, having won their opening two games they are now on a losing streak of 3 games on the bounce. To make matters worse for the visitors they will be without Goalkeeper James Holden and experienced Defender Remy Clerima who both saw red in a 2-0 defeat at home to Stockport on Tuesday evening.
Either way Maidenhead are a team that have equipped themselves well in the National League and Notts will again need to ensure they are on their game to avoid dropping points in a game they really should win.
I've mixed things up a little with the stats combining the key actions and form stats into one visualisation.
Essentially Notts are much stronger in just about all actions for this season so far but the one thing I will continue to mention is Notts' lack of goals in the early stages of games.
I'm convinced that this is a key element in Notts being unable to put games to bed in a more comfortable fashion. Of the six games played so far there has been a need to recover from conceding first on three occasions and although Notts managed to go on to win two of those games it certainly wasn't without its fair share of drama and stress.
The earliest goal Notts have scored so far this season was on 38 minutes, an equaliser against Aldershot. What has been apparent is that in the three games won so far this season is that once Notts get a first goal they tend to go on and score at least a couple more within a relatively short space of time. If they could do this earlier in games then it might just make life a lot easier when it comes to controlling the game and would certainly make it less stressful for us fans!
Sam Barratt continues to be the one to watch at Maidenhead although despite scoring in both their opening game victories he missed two of the last three games, I'm assuming having picked up a knock and only played 17 minutes of the Tuesday night defeat to Stockport.
One player I'll be wanting to keep an eye on is holding Midfielder Charlee Adams. An experienced 26 year old who has also been at Dagenham, Barnet and Lincoln was a product of Birmingham City's academy where he made 2 Championship appearances and also made 9 appearances for Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premier League.
Adams will put himself about in the middle of the park and has a couple of assists to his name already this season.
Maidenhead have been pretty rigid with a 4-1-4-1 formation so far this season. It will be interesting to see how this shapes up as it does afford them the opportunity to play with a mid to high block which again will provide Notts with the ongoing challenge of knowing how to tackle the press and play through the lines.
A return to three at the back for Notts might be on the cards but there are benefits to Ian Burchnall sticking with a 4-3-3 that will provide the flexibility for the two advanced wide players to come deeper if necessary in order to combat the Maidenhead press and work to overload the flanks when on the attack.
Notts are again, and as expected, the bookies favourites with 8/13 currently the best you will get on a home win.
Notts win: 8/13
Weymouth win: 9/2
Draw: 16/5
Based on these odds you would expect Notts to have a 64% chance of winning but historically they win 75% of their matches when at these odds.
Whatever happens you can pretty much guarantee there will be goals, but if Notts can finally find a way to get out of the blocks a bit quicker they might just manage to assert themselves on the game and go on to record a comfortable win . . . fingers crossed!
As always thanks for reading and if you have any questions about the stats please feel free to give me a shout either in the comments section below, via the contact page on the website or through the usual social media channels.
COYP!
Richard
Note:
Betting odds are only used as another means to assess current form and sporting industry expectations of possible result. Notts County Stats do not endorse any form of gambling or betting industry associated businesses.