After the remarkable exploits of last season a point on the road would have felt like two points dropped, and it's fair to say that whilst Notts continue to acclimatise to the challenges of league football it would have been easy to feel disappointed with Tuesday nights point at Morecambe.
We should probably start where we normally do and consider the ball possession numbers. Just shy of 77% possession and extremely dominant in deep circulation has become a Luke Williams trademark. However, it would be wrong to wax lyrical about this when it could, in theory be papering over a few cracks.
For all of the ball possession compare the actual attempts on goal for each team. Despite only having just over 23% of the ball Morecambe still manage to get the same number of attempts on goal as Notts. Okay, it's safe to say that most of those attempts might have been a bit speculative, but still, it has to be an area of the game that Williams and his coaching staff will need to analyse. That said, the greater concern might be the lack of high value goal scoring opportunities being created, something this team did with ease last season.
Whilst we are only 3 games into the new league season and there is some adjustment to be expected playing at a higher level, for all the slick passing moves last seasons 42 goal hero Macaulay Langstaff is still looking for that illusive first goal but he's also having to work so much harder to try and make anything out of the chances he's had. Compared to last season the 10 attempts on goal he has had so far this campaign would have delivered him circa 2.66 goals, however his average xG per 90 minutes last season was just over double what it is currently. It's definitely something that needs to be addressed if we want to be a serious competitor in this league.
As for the Morecambe game well despite a very impressive 20 minutes or so in the second half there's not a great deal more to get excited over. The xG provides quite depressing reading recording just 0.60 from those 8 attempts with Jodi Jones hitting the woodwork the best of the bunch, although to be fair the Shrimps only recorded 0.47 xG from their 8 shots.
All this means that based on these numbers a goalless draw was probably the right result with Notts maybe edging it but only slightly.
Doncaster up next and despite being away from home their will be a big Notts following and a real opportunity to secure a first away win against a team that has struggled to get their season up and running, although the draw at home to Mansfield on Tuesday night might just provide them with a platform to build on.
In the meantime don't forget you can catch up with the season stats here
