By Joe Jones
Notts County came from a goal down to record a superb 4-1 win over Crewe Alexandra in Saturday's League Two encounter at a packed Meadow Lane.
In front of a bumper crowd of more than 17,000 thanks to Alan Hardy's "2 for Crewe" offer, the Magpies fell behind to Shaun Miller's goal on the rebound.
However, Notts were level seven minutes later when Noor Husin rifled home in a stunning drive from all of 25 yards out.
Elliott Hewitt put the hosts ahead just before half time before adding a second on the hour, before Derby County loanee Mason Bennett scored on his debut to cap off a memorable win.
Pride of Nottingham has compiled some of the key post-match reaction from Notts boss Kevin Nolan, the players, and the fans.
Kevin Nolan
"I enjoyed it. I thought the lads were fantastic and got what they deserved. It could have been more than four - some of the chances we created and the play at times was magnificent.
"I was a bit upset with the way we conceded the goal, and at that point I was thinking 'Typical us!' because we had started well, but that already seems like a distant memory.
"The goals showed what the team possesses. There was individual brilliance as well as team goals. At times it was a real joy to watch."
Mason Bennett
“I was delighted to get underway and it was a great result.
“The lads dug in after going one down early on and showed great character to react. It was nice to get the three points on the board.
“It was a brilliant atmosphere and the chairman has done brilliantly to knock the price of the tickets down.
“It was a great turnout and the lads enjoyed it. They got the result the fans deserved.
“I was delighted to get on with 30 minutes to go and I got my goal so I was very pleased.”
Players on social media
The Black and White Army
Northants Pie:
It was a not bad attacking performance, likewise a not bad defensive peformance, being critical we need to release Jorge Grant earlier, countless times he had made brilliant runs on the left wing and every time the ball seemed to fall to either Hewitt or Hunt, neither of whom have the awareness to see such a pass.
Hewitts energy is faultless, his positional sense though needs to be better, especially when defending, but as a team I didn't think we defended that well, mainly caused by this lack of awareness as other players were being dragged nto areas they shouldn't have been in.
We miss Tootle as both he & Jones push the opposing team backwards but with only Jones doing this Crewe's left winger was cheating which allowed them an out ball most of the time.
Our ball watching at times is criminal and you could see Crewe trying to expose this whenever they had a chance.
Having said that going forward, Ameobi was class, his first touch is brilliant and the referee failed to spot a lot of fouls commited on him yesterday. Stead ran his nuts off as always, like with Ameobi the Crewe defenders were all over him like a rash, looked better once Bennett came on and took over the running.
Alessandra will always give you an out ball but we miss Hawkridge in that position. Husin was class, always has time and has the ability to find time, a lone undermined skill that the best always posses.
Grant got far more into the game once Bennet came on as he had someone on the same wavelength as him and these both helped Husin also as he was understanding the runs they made.
If we could clear up the defensive mistakes then we'd beat any team we come up against in my opinion.
Liampie:
Good all round performance today, i was well impressed. The second half saw notts really get going and we played some good stuff. i think the formation really allowed us to play comfortably, i know we started awfully but we grew in confidence after equalising.
Anti-Red:
First complete team performance that I have seen for a very long time. The start had me dreading what might become but I thought Notts responded how they should and as a result quickly took back control of the game.
Liampie:
i thought the midfield just over ran crewe yesterday, it was good to see hewitt, husin and grant all linking up well.
Chris:
The early goal for Crewe seemed to help us more than it did them.
It was very poor defending by Duffy, I had no idea what he was thinking and it's those decisions by him which usually cost us the most. He managed to settle down, yet I do feel his shaky start did impact us for a bit.
The midfield ran the show, they urged forward and created chances after chance.
It wasn't a case yesterday of 'will we score' it was 'when will we score'. Going into the lead before half time was massive too, it meant we could come out and play our usual passing game. Second half we looked class, the link-up play especially! The addition of Bennett had me thinking we could score even more, as Alessandra seemed to be left unmarked after and he really did deserve a goal.
That said, fans now know why he's been pushed onto the wing after the amount of chances he had to score.
I'm very impressed!
Upthepies:
Has Kevin been working on shooting in training or something? All the goals ended up being taken very well. The roar when we equalized was matched by Notts going 2-1 up.
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