A common theme repeating itself once more. Slow to get started but still manage to create enough to make it look like a dominant performance. Mind you if 23 goal attempts and just the 6 on target leaves you scratching your head a little wait until you see the xG.
Key match stats.
A few things to cover above. Just under 85% accuracy from 561 passes is by far and away amongst the best in the league with Notts topping the current league rankings with a 90 minute average of 453 passes and 84.9% accuracy.
67% Accurate passes to final third again pretty much matches Notts' 90 minute average of 66.7% which again is the highest ranked in the league so far.
64.42% Ball possession is higher than the league average this season which yes, you've guessed it is currently held by Notts at 59.4%
Also worth mentioning PPDA which calculates the number of passes you allow your opponent during each defensive action. In this case the lower the better as that would suggest a more aggressive press, higher ball recovery or an ability to quickly break down the oppositions attack.
In this match Notts were allowed twice as many passes per attack than they allowed Wealdstone. Whilst this looks good on it's own Notts have room to improve in this area as they currently average a PPDA of 9.68 per game which is slightly more than the league average.
Grimsby currently hold the best PPDA in the league averaging just 6.68 per game although it's worth noting that Notts' high percentage passing and possession style of play means that there are fewer occasions when they are out of possession. This might result in their PPDA being higher because the oppositions attacks are fewer resulting in a higher average.
Either way when looking at the stats you would expect Notts to be comfortably putting games like this one to bed.
Points needed updated and a slight drop in PPG to 1.909. However this would historically see you challenging for top spot but this season really is turning out to be a bit of an outlier.
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Progress updated and a drop down to 8th but postponements playing a big factor in that.
National League results tracker updated.
Goal segment chart: No Change.
Six game segments updated and a PPG of 2.500 for this segment still pretty good going.
Player stats updated and 24 different players with minutes for Notts in the league so far this season.
As usual this is the new table that is also available to view on the player stats page of the website here. There will also be separate tables for the two cup competitions.
Goals and assists chart updated. No change.
Goal scatter charts.
You can hover on the dots (tap if on a touch screen) to view details for each goal.
Expected goals:
It seems this game quite literally mimicked the King's Lynn game, but unfortunately without the goals.
A dominant second half again and 23 goal attempts from 11 different players and an xG which suggests Notts should have won the game comfortably with a 68.60 expected win%.
National League goal scorers includes cup games, penalties and own goals.
Ian Burchnall's record updated after 47 games. As it stands the rearranged home game versus Barnet will mark Burchnall's 50th game as Head Coach.
A tough game away at Bromley this weekend who continue to have a very good season and have a scrambled Michael Cheek goal to thank for a 1-1 draw when the two teams met at Meadow Lane back in October.
Cheek is continuing the form that saw him top of the National League goal charts last season and is the obvious threat to keep an eye on along with Corey Whitely who has been impressive at LB/LWB this season and is a player who should contribute towards an interesting contest with Jayden Richardson.
The experienced Billy Bingham will be looking to control things in the middle of the park and the three big central defenders of Byron Webster, Chris Bush and Omar Sowunmi will not only provide daunting obstacle for the Notts attack but will also be a physical aerial threat going forward, particularly at set pieces and bearing in mind Bush's long throws.
Ian Burchnall will need his players performing at their best for this game and sticking to their usual possession based game if they are going to come away with anything from this fixture, another score draw wouldn't be the worst result with 21 games still to play.
As always thanks for reading.
COYP!
Richard