Oxford City are the visitors to Meadow Lane this weekend in a Buildbase FA Trophy quarter final clash.
The Hoops return to Nottingham looking to avenge the FA Cup defeat just a few years ago where a 95th minute Jorge Grant winner saved the Magpies blushes.
The Oxford City players will be raring to go having not played since the curtailment of the National League South season where they were one of the form teams, sitting fourth in the league with games in hand and unbeaten in their last nine league games, winning the last four games on the trot.
But before we go any further with the Trophy preview let's take a look at the xG data for the Stockport game.
Nothing really happened during the first half despite a few wind assisted corners that tested the Notts rear guard and a goal ruled out for offside for the hosts.
Things started to heat up a little in the second half with both Alex Reid and John Rooney not capitalising on a couple of big chances for Stockport.
A close range header from a corner for Connell Rawlinson was about the best Notts could muster in a game that Stockport managed to edge.
More worryingly for Notts they have not been able to create enough chances in the last two games to total even one expected goal with a total xG across the two games of 0.88 (0.40 vs Chesterfield and 0.48 vs Stockport).
Breakdown of the games chances for Notts below includes time of chance and xG rating.
Back onto the Trophy game now and this will be only the second time the two sides have met, the first being the 3-2 win by Notts in the FA Cup in December 2017.
The Hoops have had 3 wins and a bye to claim a quarter final place beating Welling United, Harringey Borough and Peterborough Sports in the process.
In the league they were the form team, before the competition was brought to halt with 7 wins and two draws in their last 9 games, scoring 23 times and conceding just 7.
Goals by time segment in the National league South for Oxford City. It's quite clear they have been able to score at any time during the 90 minutes and tend to be able to hold on to leads in the latter stages of a game.
Oxford City are averaging 2.15 goals per game and average 14.15 goal attempts per 90 minutes meaning they score on average every 6.58 attempts per goal suggesting they are pretty dangerous with their chances.
Notts are averaging just 1.24 goals per game and average 10.95 goal attempts per 90 minutes meaning they average a goal every 8.83 attempts.
The Hoops are conceding 1.20 goals per game on average in all competitions compared to Notts who are conceding just 0.75 goals per game.
Lead status for both clubs (league only).
Despite the halt to proceedings in the league Oxford City will be itching to make it to the Trophy semi final for the first time. Their players will be rested and well prepared for this game so dismiss them at your peril.
As expected the bookies have Notts as big favourites at circa 4/9 for the win and are probably being a tad generous with odds in the region of 19/4 for a win for the visitors.
With Notts likely to field some of the fringe players there is a real chance this game could be much closer than the bookies predict but it also offers the Notts players a chance to take a break from the pressures of the league which will hopefully allow them to relax a little and regain some of that attacking threat that has been so sorely missing in recent games.
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.