Chris Buckley: Notts County players and fans must not concern themselves with how other League Two teams are doing

There was a lot of focus from Notts County fans on other teams around us during the Cheltenham Town game. I saw plenty of comments about pre-season title favourites Coventry City and about the nearest threat at the moment in Luton Town.

Oddly not many comments mentioned Accrington Stanley, who have performed arguably better than most would have expected so far, and are definitely a solid team for this league.

With the focus mostly coming in around a team who currently sit seventh as a I write this, and of course the team immediately beneath us in second, I wanted to express my thoughts as to why we as fans shouldn’t worry about the opposition and why the team should avoid doing the same thing.

There are several teams I believe are capable of gaining promotion, with a handful being that extra quality that I feel could go onto win the League Two title in 2017-18.

Wycombe Wanderers and Swindon Town are two teams often missed out in discussions since both sides have somewhat become inconsistent – yet both teams have done well enough to seize top spot in the table at various points during this campaign.

However, both of the above teams didn’t quite have the focus to retain a place in the top three when it ultimately mattered.

And despite the first half against Cheltenham not being up to much in my opinion (it screamed a draw to me), in the second half Notts regained their focus and played very well. 

In fact, I feel the confidence from playing the ball along the floor really shined and it’s what we have seen in previous games i.e Lincoln City.

At the moment the dry spell seems to have been overcome, with Notts starting to play with a ‘cool edge’ to their game which reinforces my belief that we can be champions this season.

For any fans still doubting the quality, I really would echo comments from managers and players higher up the football pyramid about how good ‘belief’ can be and when you combine this with a ‘core spirit’ from a hard-working approach to playing, then it’s only a case of failing to push your own boundaries.

Claudio Ranieri himself said of Leicester City's Premier League triumph: "It was an amazing achievement. We wanted to do something special, but no one could have believed we would do this."

Although on a much smaller scale, I believe that nobody would have dreamt about Notts going to places like Wycombe and Exeter and winning in style, nor being able to avoid a home defeat at Meadow Lane in the league during 2017 so far, especially after the amount of games the club lost last season.

Likewise, I doubt highly that anyone would have believed we were capable of reaching - and remaining - top come November and we are fastly approaching December now in the same position.

Our sole focus should be on taking games as they come, whilst worrying not that Luton won a game 7-0, as it’s really beside the point.

If we allow our focus to fall on the teams beneath us, this will only lead to caution and pressure which isn’t exactly a positive thing – at which point should we stop worrying about teams that could leapfrog us in the league table?

The attitude of showing no fear works well, teams from the lower tiers who have enjoyed success in the FA Cup will know you shouldn’t fear to play football.

This is exactly why I am not remotely bothered currently about the results across the league, the only time it did matter for me was last season.

Perhaps if we were chasing the playoffs things might be different, it still wouldn’t attach any concern and I’m not sure why others are bothered about Luton Town – are you?

At the moment things are looking very good - we aren’t worried about Kevin Nolan leaving this season, so I take the same approach to who may or not overtake us in the table.

Besides, I feel some of the bad patch after Mansfield Town came from worrying too much about fixtures and we have managed to return top due to good results.

Let’s hope the Magpies can keep flying high, as future success can only be built on stable foundations and these are being put into place.

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