Notts County have been knocked out of the Carabao Cup, after losing 2-0 to Lincoln City in the Magpies’ first competitive home game of the season, in front of 6,468 fans. This loss left Notts without a win from their first two games of the season, and two poor performances in both games has given the fans a bit of a reality check for our first season back in the EFL.
It was a very shaky start for Notts as Baldwin turned into his box and got dispossessed within five minutes, but skipper Kyle Cameron was luckily there to cover. Minutes later it was heartbreak for midfielder Geraldo Bajrami as he was down for a fair amount of time and had to be replaced by John Bostock, good news however as he wasn’t stretchered off the pitch so it could be less serious than originally thought. Sam Austin had a chance to put the hosts ahead in the 21st minute, but his volley was saved by Lukas Jensen following a deflected cross by home debutant Dan Crowley.
23 minutes in and Lincoln took the lead, thanks to a second goal conceded from a corner in consecutive games for Notts. Danny Mandroiu’s ball found its way to Paudie O’Connor, who flicked it to the back post for Sean Roughan who poked it home. Yellow cards were dished out for Baldwin and O’Brien, Slocombe made an easy save to keep out Reeco Hackett-Fairchild, and Notts went into the break a goal behind.
Very poor start to the second half for the Magpies as Mandroiu managed to run from the half-way line to the edge of the box without being challenged, before his shot was blocked by a sliding Brindley, however, this block went straight into the path of Lasse Sorensen, who managed to simply pass it through two Notts defenders and into the bottom left corner to double the away side’s lead. Minutes later and it arguably should have been 3-0, as Danny Mandroiu once again got into the action, as from an acute angle his left-footed shot hit the inside of the right post, and, rather unluckily for him, rebounded straight to Sam Slocombe to gather the ball cleanly.
Things went from bad to worse for Notts as we received our second red card in as many games, this time for defender Aden Baldwin after he pulled his man down following an overhit through ball from their defender, which was going straight to our keeper regardless. That earned him his second yellow card of the evening, and Notts were down to ten men for more than 30 minutes. Mandroiu then had another chance, this time from range after a lay-off, but was kept comfortably by Slocombe.
Notts had a few chances going into the final stages of the game, but nothing clear-cut. Adebayo-Rowling had a header sail over the bar following a Jodi Jones cross, Austin had a shot on his weaker side saved easily from 25 yards, and Jones had a deflected shot which went wide of the left post. The Imps had a good chance to make it three just before the Jones chance, as substitute Ben House’s tame shot was saved by Slocombe, but the quick passing to get it through for wing-back Jay Benn should have resulted in a goal.
A worrying part of the game was the lack of chances that Notts created, and the lack of positivity and intensity that the players shared. Cedwyn Scott and Junior Morias didn’t get into the game at all, as our tactic means that our striker in the 3-4-2-1 only ever gets the ball if other players create chances for him. This resulted in Scott in particular dropping deep to try and get involved with the game, but this meant that if a cross did go in, we had nobody on the end of it. This is something that Cedwyn usually does for Notts, however he doesn’t usually play as the number nine, and this works when he is one of the two tens behind the striker.
Another worry for Notts fans is how we played in our own third – very sloppy. We were doing way too much on the ball and resulted in us losing possession of the ball too many times, this is something that worked in the National League, an obviously inferior league, but against League Two and especially League One opposition, it is something that we cannot afford to be doing.
After an all-round disappointing performance, there were a couple of positive performances. Firstly, from new signing Dan Crowley – who was one of the only players who looked positive when on the ball and fought for the ball when we were dispossessed. He was confident in his ability and looked forward instead of backwards to try and create something for the team. Sam Slocombe was another player who had a good game, he didn’t make any outstanding saves, but the number of shots that we allowed them to make, he was calm and did what he had to do – stuck to the basics of the game, unlike some of our players. We do have to remember who we were playing though, Lincoln City, League One opposition, they were clearly going to have superior quality, but we need to be playing better than we did in this fixture if we want to be fighting towards the top of the table.
Starting XI: Slocombe, Cameron – Baldwin (sent-off 56th) – Brindley (Tipton 77th), Chicksen – Bajrami (Bostock 11th) – O’Brien – Adebayo-Rowling, Austin – Crowley (Jones 68th) – Scott (Morias (77th)
Notts County 0-2 Lincoln City (Roughan 23rd, Sorensen 48th)