Magpies on the road as they try to get back on right track
ONE win in 10 since the turn of the year means Notts County have sunk to 15th in League Two after ending 2023 in fifth place.
Things are yet to get going for new head coach Stuart Maynard, who took over in January after Luke Williams moved to Swansea City, and he would have hoped that the 3-1 triumph away against Newport County on February 13, his first victory as Magpies boss, would have been the start of a positive run of form to keep the team in the promotion hunt.
However, the opposite has happened since. Newport remains his only win, with four straight defeats following.
And the last three of those have been at home in front of an expectant crowd.
The Magpies now have three challenging away matches in the space of a week, starting with tonight’s game at Crawley Town (7.45pm).
“We need the fans more than ever to back us through these bad spells,” said Maynard.
“The lads are going through it at the moment. They are still giving their all but we’ve come up short in what we do in our box again.
“That’s a real frustration but we’ll keep doing what we can on the training pitch to try and put things right. The team is of course devastated with how things have gone recently and when you lose the game in the manner we did (against Wimbledon on Saturday) there is a lot of frustration going around.
“I thought we deserved a point and I think other home performances overall have warranted more than we’ve got. We’ve got to keep believing in what we’re doing as a management team and the wins will come.”
The weaknesses of the team are clear and were identified well before Maynard arrived at the club, with the leaky defence a problem still under Williams for the first half of the season.
However, Notts do not seem to be as strong going the other way under Maynard, controlling possession but not doing enough with it.
That combination tends to lead to one result, as it did at last weekend against Wimbledon, who struck twice late on in a match that seemed destined to be goalless.
“I thought it was a 0-0 game (against Wimbledon),” added the Notts boss.
“Did I feel we deserved to win it? No. Did I feel they deserved to win it? No.
“That’s why it is so frustrating to concede two goals as late as we did and in the manner that we did.
“I believe in what we’ve got going forward so if we can get back to scoring goals fluently then we can win games of football.
“If you look at the way we can break teams down and maintain pressure on the ball, that side of the game is not a major concern currently, I think it is more at the other end.”