By Chris
Notts County will take on fellow promotion chasers Exeter City in Saturday's League Two meeting at Meadow Lane.
How have the Grecians done in recent weeks? Who are their key players? What style of football do they play?
Find out with Pride of Nottingham's latest Scouting Report.
Head to head
Notts are unbeaten in their last three league matches against the Grecians, boasting two wins and a draw, and keeping clean sheets in two of those matches.
However, Exeter have avoided defeat in each of their last two visits to Meadow Lane in League Two, including a 4-1 away win in this exact fixture in the 2015/16 campaign.
Notts and Exeter have met 45 times in competitive actions, with 18 Magpie wins, 19 draws and just 8 losses.
Run-down of their last six features
Saturday 9th December – Colchester United 3 Exeter City 1
Saturday 16th December – Exeter City 2 Stevenage 1
Saturday 23rd December – Yeovil Town 3 Exeter City 1
Saturday 30th December – Exeter City 2 Barnet 1
Monday 1st January – Newport County 2 Exeter City 1
Saturday 13th January – Exeter City 1 Coventry City 0
The Players – Fact Sheet
Highest Goal Scorers; Jayden Stockley 13, Pierce Sweeney 5, Jake Taylor 4 and Liam McAlinden 4.
Persistent Foulers; Lloyd James 8 yellow cards, Jordan Tillson 5 yellow cards and 1 red card, Jake Taylor 5 yellow cards and Kane Wilson 1 yellow card and a single red card.
The Key Players
Striker Jayden Stockley has come into his element this season, on goal he possesses the calm finishing required to be a top scorer in the leagues above and is currently playing with a lot of confidence.
Jake Taylor has been a pivotal piece within Exeter City’s midfield, having created chances through his creativity and also chipping in with his own goal – his creativity and energy is hard to suppress and he enjoys taking on opposition players.
In goal Christy Pym is a very capable League Two keeper, who’s shot-stopping ability makes him very difficult to beat.
Style of Play, Strengths, and Weaknesses
Exeter express themselves very well, creatively they are very forward-thinking and like dominate heavily with spells of possession.
They can break well using a very narrow formation; however, this tends to leave space to exploit at the back.
On the ball they are calm, yet can be pressured when well-marked – mistakes don’t frequently occur and they usually make good use of the ball.
Their ability to overthink play can mean chances do become limited, whilst they resemble a typical side that becomes frustrated by a lack of clear opportunity on goal.
Defensively they’re organised, yet don’t rely on staying deep – this again in turn leaves opposition teams space to attempt to break them down.
They struggle to defend during breaks and pace is an area where they usually start to see individual mistakes at the back.
Overall they’re a good team but can easily be pressed, their inconsistency to perform does allow good sides to find a way to break them down, and even in cases where they do struggle sides can punish them by pushing for a goal during an heavy attack.
The key for Notts will be limit their time on the ball, whilst ensuring that any chances that do fall Exeter City’s way ultimately end up being half chances.
I expect frustration to build up if we do keep them quiet, so again set pieces may play a vital part for us during the game.
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