Prior to this past Tuesday’s game against Carlisle United at Meadow Lane, Kevin Nolan spoke about how there was ‘no mini crisis' happening at Meadow Lane.
At a glance, it does seem that the two home game defeats against Crawley Town and Exeter City could be labelled down to a mistake in switching from a successful formation, whereby the tactics truly did work well with our system.
However, the post-match interview did leave some questions when Nolan himself ranted about ‘the players don’t listen’, ‘we would have been okay if they had’ and that he believed some of them had started believing ‘their own hype’.
The majority of fans I know merely don’t want to see Notts lose their focus, which for me has been the case – I feel the poor performances in recent weeks stem from a lack of confidence.
Meanwhile, the heavy defeat in the FA Cup is something which would have naturally impacted on the players' confidence, yet provided we cover the basics and work hard – Notts should be fine.
This season has seen some amazing results and for a while it seemed unlike Notts – yet again in the recent weeks things have been very disappointing.
The nonsense after losing two games really disappointed me, as for the first time this highlighted how we had lost or focus on what really mattered.
Focusing on ‘some’ silly comments and projecting them as if the majority of fans wanted Kevin Nolan out just seemed quite surreal for what seemed like a small error on the manager's part – again most people just feel like the league table position is something we need to fight for.
It’s vital we regain some consistency within League Two, whilst ensuring focus and improved performances.
This is the stage of the campaign whereby clubs that lose their momentum really do struggle and I do believe that we are capable of continuing the form.
Coming into the 2017-18 season I would have happily accepted mid-table and, truth be told, I still would – provided that everyone within the Notts County camp fought for it.
I wouldn’t really say we have been unlucky, some may say that we should have beaten Swansea City in the first tie and this would be fair – yet the two defeats from the formation switch in my eyes really did impact the harmony of the squad. Especially at a point when new faces were coming into the squad and then we reverted away from something we had been incredibly successful with.
I also personally hope that this recent thing is nothing more than just a loss of focus from the pressure which is mounting on the club – the level of expectations might have increased but honestly most fans I know are sensible and will back the club wholeheartedly.
It’s time to see Notts return to improving, focusing on what they did right in the earlier part of the season and hopefully we can cut down on the changes being made to the starting line-up.
Fingers crossed this virus issue goes away, yet for me this cannot be used as an excuse.
I am hopeful that a win against Newport County might bring a fresh amount of belief within the club and, that we might be able to focus on our away form which hasn’t been the best this season.
It’s important we have a real crack at securing promotion this term and, I only believe it’s possible with the right focus. So let’s forget the past few weeks, let’s avoid blaming the match officials and lets just drive Notts across the finish line.
COYP!
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