4-1 Victory Brings Smile Back On Fans Faces

The Magpies performance was just a little short of excellent performane against Crewe early in the season, but no the less this was a brilliant effort by Notts and won the game in the first 3 minutes.

The Match: Billy Dearden was always going to make changes after last week, Marcel Cas was left out with Michael Brough coming in and Simon Ramsden out and Danny Stone in. And the performance of Brough was a huge high point of the game, as he gave his best Notts performance for quite some time. He made tackle after tackle, and got up tp support the forwards as well as getting back to help out defensively.

Notts started superbly, 150 seconds on the clock when we opened the scoring. As Darren Caskey lined up the free kick on the edge of the box, I had a feeling we were going to score, and Mark Stallard got the slightest of touches to give Notts the lead.

And while we were still celebrating Stallard fed Allsopp for a simple finish, 2-0 up after 3 minutes!!! Nearly all the away following could not believe it, some were probably pinching themseleves and wondering if it was all a dream.

Paul Bolland shot over, and soon after the hard working midfielder was once again injured. He injured is toe in a challenge, and was taken off just before half time with Marcel Cas replacing him. Bolland was once again doing a superb job, and was excellent on the counter attack for The Magpies, using his pace well.

Early in the 2nd half Allsopp beat the dodgy Cheltenham keeper to the ball, and had a simple task of rolling the ball home for 3-0 and game over. However, The Robins did give Notts a scare when Julian Alsop made it 3-1, but Notts were never going to let it slip.

Soon after Stallard scored a brilliant individual goal, taking on the Cheltenham defence with ease and rolled the ball under the keepers legs after fooling him with a neat dummy.

The Performance: As mentioned above, the performance at Crewe was better and Notts had this game won in the early stages. In recent games Notts have missed chances and gone on to rue them later on, but not on Saturday. Notts took chances that came their way and showed they can peform, but the question many will be asking is "Can Notts Produce This On A More Regular Basis?".
Notts have the games coming up to produce the same form, so we will have to wait and see for the answer to the question.
Billy Dearden said on Friday Notts have had problems with big target men in recent weeks, but on Saturday Notts dealt well with Julian Alsop. Yes he scored, but apart from that Notts had him marked out of the game, as The Magpies looked very solid at the back.
One downside was the loss of Paul Bolland, who was brilliant up until his injury, hopefully he will be fit for next week.
Was also good to see Darren Caskey have a good game, after fans have been getting no his back in recent games. He was involved in the moves of the first, and third goals and hopefully will bring some confidence back to him.

Man of the Match:
Nicky Fenton, was once again outstanding and dealt well with Julian Alsop.