By Joe Jones
Notts County remain nicely placed in the top three of the League Two table thanks to a 4-1 win over Morecambe on Boxing Day.
The Magpies struck first when Adam Campbell gave the ball away in his own half, culminating in Lewis Alessandra cutting the ball back for Jorge Grant to rifle home.
Alessandra then turned scorer when a long punt upfield from goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons was headed down for the winger to drive into the net on the half-volley.
In the second half, Grant exchanged passes with Jon Stead before sliding the ball past Barry Roche for goal number three and a brace for the loanee.
Alessandra then bagged his own brace four minutes from time when he scored at the second attempt after the Morecambe keeper saved his close-range effort.
There was time for a stunning consolation from Callum Lang at the death, but it was of little importance as Notts cruised to all three points.
How did the Notts County fans, players and manager react to the win? Pride of Nottingham has compiled the best of the post-match reaction from the Globe Arena.
Kevin Nolan
“It was a professional away performance. I made a few changes because of the number of games we have coming up so for the lads to produce what they did this afternoon, I’m absolutely delighted.
“We handled Morecambe well and stamped our authority on the game. We scored some quality goals with some lovely movement, which we have worked on on the training field. It was nice to see that come off today.
“The front four were exceptional. Some of the movement, interchanging and quality of play was great but we can still get better.
“It was important to back up the three draws we have had lately with a performance like that going into two games in 48 hours later in the week.”
Lewis Alessandra
“We took our chances early on and then they have to come out when we’re 2-0 up. Sometimes at home teams can sit in and say, ‘Come and break us down’, which can be difficult.
“But we were 2-0 ahead inside 20 minutes so they had to try and get something from the game, which left spaces for us to exploit - and we did that in the end.
“It was massive we got back to winning ways today because the three games we have drawn were quite disappointing.
"We gave a good, professional away performance. It’s disappointing to concede right at the death but it’s a great finish to be fair to the lad.”
The players on social media
The Black and White Army
Super_Danny_Allsopp:
A strange game really. We never seemed to get out of 2nd gear (not that we needed to) and just sort of plodded along in the game and the scoreline seemed like an inevitability by the end.
A point to note though that Morecambe were especially poor, probably the worst I've seen this season. They can't play like that every week because they've had some decent results against some good sides, but yesterday they were abysmal. Steven Old was rubbish at the back, as he was 10 years ago when I watched him in the A-league. 50p head. His mate didn't help either, it seemed that Stead was allowed to take balls down or win headers with very little resistance, we didn't see him flailing on the floor for most of the game as we usually do. Then to mention the gigantic gap between defence and midfield that they gave us free access to. Jorge Grant and Alessandra had all the space, and their midfield didn't seem to keen is closing it down and their defence definitely weren't about to step up.
After watching that, you can see 100% we made the correct decision letting Adam Campbell go. It was a typical Campbell performance we saw yesterday, and we've seen it oh so many times before, lots of running about, some neat touches, but ultimately 0 impact on the game and couldn't finish in a brothel. You have to worry for the lad as if he can't make it at a team like Morecambe, he will drop out of the league.
Some pleasing things for us were the defending which was generally solid - only a wonder goal prevented a clean sheet. Hewitt, Yates and Walker all looked really clever on the ball. I don't know why we don't try and keep the ball on the ground when we're obviously the technically better side, as we were yesterday. There were some periods of nice play, but some seem scared to make a mistake. You're 3, 4 to none up, away from home and 75 mins on the clock? Get the ball on the deck and spray it about a bit.
Elite_pie:
Brilliant result, I was a bit concerned about our lack of striking power when the team was announced, but four goals away from home doesn't happen too often. It was good to see some of the fringe players like Jones, Hunt and Walker get a positive 90 minutes under their belt, we will need a strong and competitive squad going into the second half of the season to meet our target. Well done to all, especially Kevin Nolan, the changes he made once again came up trumps.
DangerousSausage:
Well done lads, terrific away performance. I was a bit concerned that we were sitting too deep and inviting them onto us in the first half but I needn't have worried. What's also encouraging is that four goals came from midfield today and Liam Noble will be eligible from the new year. Stead might not be putting them away at present but at least we're not dependent on him for goals.
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