Burchnall: Important to get that home tie
IAN Burchnall is happy with Notts County’s home quarter-final play-off tie with Grimsby Town.
The Magpies secured a 1-0 victory at Maidenhead on the final day of the regular season courtesy of a second-half penalty from Callum Roberts and they will now face the Mariners on Monday.
The win meant that County will have home advantage against Paul Hurst’s side as they finished fifth and Town sixth.
A bumper crowd is now expected for the clash at Meadow Lane and head coach Burchnall is expecting a white-hot atmosphere.
“It was really important to get that home tie,” he said.
“We’ve been excellent at home all season and I think we know we are going to attract an unbelievable crowd.
“It will be a great atmosphere and we really wanted that home tie. We’ve finished on 82 points which is a great return for the season.
“Of course, we would have liked to have been in the top three, but it’s been so competitive up there that we haven’t quite made it.
“But we get this first home tie and hopefully we can put in a good performance. The crowd was brilliant for us at Maidenhead. It was a fantastic turnout.”
Notts never really looked under any threat of a final-day capitulation against Maidenhead in a game they controlled for large spells.
But they had to wait until the 72nd minute for the breakthrough when Roberts was tripped in the area and scored the spot-kick himself.
Burchnall said he was pleased with the performance although said he was keeping an eye on Grimsby’s score as they were held to a 4-4 draw at Eastleigh. “It was good,” he said.
“It was pretty composed. They had one or two chances at the end when we just sat off them a little bit.
“But in the first half we created some really good openings. We probably should have finished one or two. In the second half, we had control but maybe we didn’t create enough.
“There were a couple of bad habits when we played a little bit to feet too much without enough runs beyond.
“But all in all, I thought we looked pretty controlled through the game.
“We had a slight eye on other results and saw Grimsby were 2-0 up at halftime. At that point, there was a bit more tension in it.
“But we took care of our own performance. We played the game right and deserved the win.”
The victors will face Wrexham, who saw their National League title aspirations dashed when Stockport County clinched top spot with a win against Halifax Town.