By Chris
Notts County entered October at the top of League Two, although they were left reeling from a 3-1 derby defeat at Mansfield Town, with the scoreline only marginally better thanks to Carl Dickinson's late consolation.
However, being brought back down to earth could be beneficial in the long term as it showed the Magpies players that great form and momentum can come crashing to a halt, so back to the drawing board.
Up next for Notts is a home game against the league's basement side, Forest Green Rovers, promoted from the National League last season.
Here is the scouting report for Saturday's League Two fixture at Meadow Lane courtesy of PON tsar Chris.
History
Notts County and Forest Green have literally only met the once, in the third round of the FA Cup on 19 January 2010.
Stephen Hunt opened the scoring for the Magpies in the 50th minute and, although Isaiah Rankin drew level on 63 minutes, Lee Hughes grabbed the winner one minute later.
Tomorrow thus marks the first ever league meeting between the two.
Run-down of their last six features
Saturday 9th September – Forest Green Rovers 1 Exeter City 3
Tuesday 12th September – Forest Green Rovers 0 Lincoln City 1
Saturday 16th September – Port Vale 1 Forest Green Rovers 1
Friday 22nd September – Forest Green Rovers 0 Swindon Town 2
Tuesday 26th September – Cambridge United 3 Forest Green Rovers 0
Saturday 30th September – Forest Green Rovers 0 Accrington Stanley 1
The Players – Fact Sheet
Highest Goal Scorers; Christian Doidge 4, Reece Brown 2, Omar Bugiel 2 and Liam Noble 1.
Persistent Foulers; Charlie Cooper 4 yellow cards, Dale Bennett 3 yellow cards, Mark Roberts 2 yellow cards and Liam Noble 2 yellow cards.
The Key Players
Stand-out player for Forest Green Rovers is easily Liam Noble, however it’s expected that the former Magpies midfielder won’t return to action for the Green Devils against Notts. He is easily their best player, capable of driving his team forward and in terms of his set pieces.
Luke James is an half decent winger and striker who enjoyed a spell with Hartlepool United, he can pull the strings and find space – however he can be pretty lacklustre as a striker.
Lastly Christian Doidge is a very capable player, who has a fair bit of pace and likes to get behind the opposition defence – he is a forward thinking player and offers them a lot of movement up top.
Style of Play, Strengths, and Weaknesses
Forest Green Rovers appears to be quite happy to allow teams to attack, going forward themselves they look a fairly useful side and can build useful chances. The majority of their attacks are formed via the use of the centre of the park, whilst hitting sides with a fair amount of pace.
They like to be patient within their build-up play, but can overthink when they have forced their way into dangerous areas.
The Green Devils have a very strong midfield in my opinion which can control games quite well on their day, however upfront they do appear to be somewhat disjointed.
Perhaps this could go down to confidence, or the fact they’re a struggling side adapting to life within the Football League.
However, defensively they are very poor – with little to no marking at all. They invite play upon themselves and sit back rather dangerously, whilst from a defensive point of view their organisation is extremely negative.
Notts just need to hold the ball within the midfield, draw Forest Green Rovers out of position and carefully inject pace into direct runs – it would be to our benefit to make use of the flanks until we have gone beyond their midfield.
Chances will be presented to the Magpies, yet FGR may force more shots from distance as they have a tendency of parking the bus.
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