Tactical Talk: Exeter City 0-3 Notts County, Tuesday 26 September 2017

Notts County have cemented their hold on top spot in League Two with a clinical performance to beat second-placed Exeter City 3-0 at St James Park on Tuesday night.

Lewis Alessandra set the Magpies on their way with an opportunistic lob after just two minutes before substitute Jorge Grant added a further two goals in the second half.

The result, a sixth successive league victory for Kevin Nolan's men, sees them three points clear at the top of the table.

Here is an in-depth analysis of the game from Chris.

Was the result fair?

I take a lot of joy from saying this, Notts County wholeheartedly deserved to win at Exeter yesterday! The home side simply failed to take their chances in the first half, and a superb second half performance sealed the victory for the Magpies – there’s no luck involved at all, the better team went home happy.

How did Notts play?

Notts played very well, the first half had patches but at the back Richard Duffy ensured that Adam Collin was well protected. From the off, Notts looked bright and eager to prove to League Two that they’re a serious outfit meaning to do the business this campaign. A very strong, spirited second half saw the Magpies play some good stuff.

How did Exeter play?

I wouldn’t suggest they played badly, however their hyping up of the game really didn’t help them. It gave The Grecians the pressure, especially being on home turf and despite some good chances in the first half – they just simply weren’t able to tuck of their opportunities a way.

Did our tactics work out?

The five changes meant that Notts had several pairs of fresh legs playing, a decision which in all fairness could have backfired – however with this Notts squad we all know that players are more likely to respond positively. From the off, Lewis Alessandra proved this point and it shows just how universal the team tactics are right now. Kevin Nolan did his homework by injecting height into the squad, so tactically we were spot on.

How did the referee perform?

The referee did alright, and for once I find myself thinking that we actually had a sensible referee. Due to this the game played out quite smoothly, and although some decisions may have been missed – I think it worked in favour of both teams rather than any decisions to favour a single team.

Who do we play next?

Next up is six fingers, seven toes and no thumbs – aka Mansfield Town. This game has more momentum behind it than the Exeter City game, thus making it far more important and no doubt a tricky local derby.

How should we play them?

Notts have been building nicely from the back in recent games, it’s important that we play with the right balance against Mansfield – as I feel they will try to press us more and ultimately attempt to close us down.

It’s important that we keep the play simple, passing short and avoiding anything fancy.

When Notts assumes control by passing around the centre of the park, spreading the ball out wide – it creates so much space that opposition sides don’t know whether to drop deeper or push up tighter.

This is a vital aspect, as will allowing Jon Stead to gather players to make him tightly – in all fairness it would be useful to have Shola Ameobi back as his holding up of the ball and clever flicks would had a lot to our game plan.

However, we just have to be sensible within our play and use the creativity that players like Rob Milsom and Jorge Grant have to offer.

Exeter fan views (from Exeweb)

grecian-near-hell: Personally I didn't rate Notts County that highly, I thought they were slow and ponderous with too many wayward passes for a table topping team, and will be found out (like ourselves) shortly. That said we were worse. I didn't think we had any shape about us, the defence could so easily have been ripped apart with a far worse scoreline than 3-0 had NC had speedy wingers/forwards.Regrettably I think TAH has had his day he's got the turning circle of a juggernaut and last night neither of the Troy's appeared to have any understanding of what the other was doing. Like NC too many wayward passes from defence and midfield to runners who weren't there.

Jayden Stockley really needs to contact David Wheeler to find out how he seemed to float so long after he jumped for the ball, too often last night Stockley had jumped too soon and was on the way down before the ball got to him either from kick offs or crossing and on a couple of occassions this could have bought us a goal - he really does need to parctice his heading and jumping, but that's the (alleged) £400k difference I suppose.

The midfield also had a nightmare, as mentioned too many passes going astray Lee Holmes not weaving his magic.

The match although billed as top of the table did not live up to expectations which was a shame bearing in mind the good sized crowd for a midweek match.Oh well live and learn and we move on matches like last night emphasised why we are a fourth division side with players to match.

DanceMagnet: A simple question, Mr Tisdale. When you're up against two slow defenders in Nicky Hunt and Richard Duffy, why do you start with no pace up front? Instead you play Stockley and Reid together when it was blatantly obvious at Coventry that partnership wasn't working and would likely suit there central defenders more than somebody capable of running at them.

It was also pretty obvious from the start that the midfield needed strengthening. Why that did not happen at half time (at the latest) I'll never know. Boating should have been on then. Instead, we have to wait until we go two down until we make a substitution - too bleeding late, mate.

Mr Jan Yeo: We were punished for some sloppy play, but I didn't feel we were far away from that being a completely different result. Seen us play a lot worse and still get something from the game.

County were good and played us off the park for long periods. We seemed to struggle initially to break them down but definitely had a few decent spells that would've seen the game completely change if the ball had fallen right. We can't win them all and aren't the best in the league, so I'm not too surprised. We'll bounce back soon enough.

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