Plan B works well as Notts make progress in FA Trophy
GOALS from Ruben Rodrigues and Kyle Wootton put Notts County through to the fourth round of the FA Trophy with a 2-1 victory over Altrincham at Meadow Lane.
With tomorrow’s National League clash at Chesterfield postponed earlier in the day due to positive Covid test results affecting the Spireites squad, head coach Ian Burchnall revised his plan to rotate his squad, making only three changes to the team which started the 4-1 victory over Southend United last weekend.
Connor Parsons replaced Joel Taylor, who dropped out of the squad, while Connell Rawlinson and Kairo Mitchell came in for Alex Lacey and Cal Roberts, who both dropped to the bench.
Notts took the lead from the penalty spot in the 14th minute when Matty Palmer was brought down in the box and Rodrigues sent goalkeeper Tony Thompson the wrong way to score.
But the Robins were level in the 20th minute when Sam Slocombe failed to hold a soft header at goal and Tom Hannigan tapped into an empty net.
The Magpies were back in front in the 41st minute when Rodrigues played in Jayden Richardson and he pulled the ball back for Wootton to continue his hot scoring streak and make it 2-1 at half-time.
In the second half, Notts missed chances to put the game out of reach and Altrincham also had opportunities to punish them but there were no further goals.
Notts head coach Ian Burchnall said he was happy to see his side progress but disappointed tomorrow’s National League clash with table-topping Chesterfield will have to wait for another day.
“I would much rather the Chesterfield game was going ahead as we are in great form,” he said. “The postponement did affect my selection. When you only have two days between games you want to rotate more and rest players, but suddenly we don’t have many games in December at all so then it becomes more about ensuring we get a little bit of continuity as well.
“I had plan A and plan B set out but we had to wait until quite late in the day to see where we were going with the team and we went with a strong, attacking team.
“We wanted to look at Kairo Mitchell and Wootton playing together, with Ruben a bit deeper, so we tried one or two things out as well.”
Burchnall was particularly impressed by Notts’ second goal, saying: “We look at patterns of play a lot and the run, the timing of the pass - it was a brilliant goal.”
The scorer of that goal was Wootton, who for the second week running was the beneficiary of a pinpoint cross from on-loan wing-back Jayden Richardson, but the in-form striker was withdrawn at half-time.
“He felt a bit of tightness in his hamstring so it was good to get him off and rest him,” Burchnall explained.
While Notts were exciting going forward, a less pleasing aspect of the game was that once again they conceded a soft goal, Altrincham’s equaliser coming after goalkeeper Slocombe failed to gather a weak header on goal.
Burchnall said: “Sam will be disappointed with the goal and it is frustrating and disappointing not to keep a clean sheet.”
Roberts was on the bench and Jim O’brien was left out altogether after both picked up knocks in training last week but Burchnall said both should be fit for selection for the league game away to Kings Lynn Town on Boxing Day.