Magpies hope they have a quick cure for travel sickness
KEVIN Nolan hopes Notts County’s explosion of pace will improve their away form this season after admitting it is a problem that needs addressing.
The Magpies boasted one of the best home records in the league last term, but it was a different story on the road as they won just twice after December as they lost their grip on the automatic promotion positions.
Defeats to relegated sides Chesterfield and Barnet underlined some of the woes Notts faced last term which helped put a dent on their bid to finish in the top three.
But after assembling a quality squad in the summer, which has been injected with speed and power in the likes of Kane Hemmings, Enzio Boldewijn and Nathan Thomas, Notts possess the quality to end their bouts of travel sickness.
Boss Nolan hopes that proves to be the case as they look to mount a promotion push this season having suffered heartbreak to Coventry in the play-offs in May.
“I am hoping we are better equipped to get results on the road,” he said.
“When teams shut us out or put us under sustained pressure, we couldn’t really get out.
“But with the explosiveness we have and the pace means we can get from back to front quite quickly.
“That’s going to help this side a lot away from home because the majority of teams in this league when they are at home, the fans expect them to have a go and to win.
“With the majority of the sides in this league that is where they pick the points up that keeps them in the league, or the points to reach the play-offs or promotion.
“We’ve got to get better away from home and that’s something we have to address.
“We never showed any team disrespect, but we went with the mentality that we were one of the top teams in the league and had a divine right to pick up points.
“That’s not the case in any league. You’ve got to earn the right and that’s what we’ve been drilling into the players since June 29.”
Notts will be hoping to make a dream start in respect of their away form when they travel to Cambridge United, which has been not a happy hunting ground in recent seasons.
The Magpies have lost their past three games at the Abbey Stadium under three different managers, a record that Notts are desperate to put an end to.
Nolan has said he has told his players about the value of respecting a point and is eager to discover more about his players’ mentality against a Us side that was beaten 3-0 by Port Vale on the opening day of the season.
But having worked with the players intensely since the end of June, the former Newcastle midfielder says he has no doubts about their desire to prove themselves.
“If there is one thing we look back on last season which may be let us down is that when we went away from home we never really respected a point,” he said.
“I always talked about it when we got one, but we lost to a lot of teams that were a lot lower in the league than us.
“We sort of didn’t turn up. And when you lose two games away to sides who were relegated then do you question the mentality or do you question the group as a whole?
“That’s what we have got to find out about this group and from what I’ve seen I am sure we have a group that is hungry and wants to prove themselves in this league.”
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