Match Discussion: FA Cup 2nd Round - Shrewsbury (H) Live

[menzinho]

What does everyone want, more football of course! It's been a full on week for Notts this week and it's time to finish it off in the FA Cup against L1 opposition, Shrewsbury Town.

They currently sit in 12th place. It sounds pretty decent but when you dig a bit deeper you wonder how they've managed it. They've only scored 12 goals (in 20 games!) and they haven't won an away game since August! I'm guessing their injury crisis has impacted their season as they’ve currently got 11 first team players out injured. Whilst it’s obviously awful for them, it’s pretty good for us.

Here are some comments from SalopCast about their game on Tuesday against Exeter…

A lot of effort but a lack of quality. Salop can’t keep the ball and end up sitting deep. Passing accuracy in the 50’s again…

Trying to figure out our game plan is puzzling me. We seem to be bypassing our midfield and trying to win free kicks and corners. Our wing backs and midfielders are never on the ball. Our strikers never win the ball or keep it for more than 5 seconds.

Salop actually have possession, ball to Udoh who is near the box and Udoh just shoots at a defender in front of him. No thought about passing. No runners. Nothing. We are so bad. So so f****** s***. What the actual f*** is Taylor doing with this team in the week?

Salop come home with a point. A real slugfest against a poor Exeter side. Positives: clean sheet and a point on the road Negatives: many.

Are they confident?

Notts County are going to destroy us on Friday.

Not much time off for either team but I think we’ll be in better health. I guess Stone will be back in goal, and I’d expect one of Rawlo or Brinds back in just for the sake of being fresh. Maybe even Gosling will start and I hope Morias starts as well. Anyway, chance to get a dream 3rd round draw if we win so I’m looking forward to it!

[theMagpies]

I won’t be there in person, but I’ll be tuning in via the radio, as long as I can get a signal. I’m hopeful that Notts can progress to the 3rd round without needing a replay. We could do without another match, but the financial boost from a good cup run would be welcome. The next round could heat up if Notts plays their cards right. Shrewsbury will be a tough opponent, but having played them twice already, once in a friendly, we must have picked up some insights.

[OoooooTommy]

I’m also hoping that we can reach the 3rd round, what are the odds that another home tie will follow if we do?

We just need to stick to our usual game, and if we struggle, Notts just needs to play a bit more cautiously. It should be a cracking game, and I’m really looking forward to it. I reckon Shrewsbury Town will find us a completely different team at home.

[magpiejue]

Hoping for a Magpies win. Will be there cheering the lads on. COYP

[Chris]

I think Shrewsbury Town will see that Notts are a different team at home. We should certainly make it harder for them.

It's going to be a challenging game regardless, but despite them being a level higher there's not much difference between the two teams. People will say if we lose, it's because they are a League One team, when in fact they are just a good team. I wouldn't personally say, they would be higher in standard than us. Most League One teams up to mid-table would just be a very good League Two team.

It takes nothing away from Shrewsbury who have cemented themselves for a while now in League One; however, if we aim to be there ourselves, then we really must win games like this. The only difference really comes down to game management and showing the true quality on the day.

I'm hoping we give a solid account of ourselves.

[yelobeli]

13 hours ago, OoooooTommy said:

what are the odds that another home tie will follow if we do?

Well; I'd say it's Evens!

Edited December 1, 2023 by yelobeli

[yelobeli]

Bookies have us as favourites, but despite their injuries, any game against a mid-table team in a higher division will be a test.  A team that bypasses the midfield and goes for free kicks and corners might have a field day. But equally, if Jodi and Aaron can dominate and get good ball to the front three, we'll be fine.

[gtownjohnno]

Just realised that we can name 9 subs in the FA Cup.... That means naming most of our registered players.... 

[Piethagoram]

Pitch inspection at 1500h

 

[liampie]

the pitch should be fine, the areas around the ground be normal by now. the notts staff and groundsman would not have taken the covers off this early if they thought there was a high chance of the game being called off.

i think shrewsbury will see a more organised and threatening notts.

issue is how will we defend and if they have learned what causes us to have headaches. i hope the games goes ahead.

[Chris]

I agree with @liampie, Notts would carefully check, but they wouldn't just remove the covers. In the club's status about the pitch inspection, you will see they have the lights on and this will be just to improve areas where they will have concerns. I would imagine the ground staff will have checked all parts of the pitch by now, along with them knowing where the usual areas are.

Plus the picture looks like it was quite an early start for the ground staff.

PS. @menzinho thanks for starting the match discussion, you saved us!

[liampie]

fingers crossed it stays like this, but it should. well done to the grounds staff and club!

[KingMaynard]

The match against Shrewsbury is going to be tight. They’re a well-coordinated team, and I don’t think our passing game will disrupt that. I’m just hoping we advance to the 3rd round with a solid performance.

[RetroPie]

This match could be a great opportunity for Notts to demonstrate our skills, especially with Aidan Stone as our goalkeeper. We should aim to be more composed when we have possession and, with a bit of adjustment to our tactics, we could strive to be solid in defence while still being effective in attack.

[Joshua]

We’ve been rather indulged recently, with two matches under the Meadow Lane floodlights. I enjoy such games, but I won’t be there tonight due to the timing. I’m hoping that Macaulay Langstaff can help us advance to the next round, as he seems to perform well against Shrewsbury.

[Fan of Big Tone]

8 changes, I wonder how strong Shrewsbury’s line up will be, if they go strong we may well struggle.

[Chris]

Richard Brindley sounds like he did very well on goal, I have seen their opening goal via the BBC website. It's such a disappointing error, that I am glad I wasn't in attendance as I would be shouting to get up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67597158

Highlights here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67597161

Time to focus on the league, but just because Shrewsbury are a League One side doesn't change anything. The gap between us isn't that far; it sounds as if we didn't progress due to common mistakes. Aden Baldwin seems to have had a shocker. I am not sure what Richard Brindley was doing with their third goal, defensive errors are the difference between us and them. Not the league standard. Shrewsbury deserves credit for being attentive, but we unfortunately failed to do the same.

[Fan of Big Tone]

We controlled large parts of the game, score two great goals BUT we gift them three goals, Stallard described the defending as comical, we’ll I’m not laughing. 

I was however really pleased for 17 (yesterday) year old Sanderson who scored within minutes of coming on as sub, what a start to his first league game, he’s been with Notts since he joined the under 8’s. 

[gtownjohnno]

Jump forwards to Sunday afternoon 

....... The FA Cup 3rd round drawer........ 1st out of the hat........ Arsenal will be at home to Shrewsbury Town...... 

[liampie]

if you did not go to the game, dont watch the highlights and your weekend will be preserved. you would not think were playing defenders by how we gifted them each of their goals. from falling over and then not bothered to get up. to heading the ball straight to their only player, so they went one on one with our keeper despite little pressure. two a major lack of control and being caught out.

very poor defending!

[TheSkipper]

I’m gutted that I made the journey from Manchester to endure the cold and watch that performance. That's what we fans do, isn't it? I’m at a loss for words at how poor our defence was. There were moments when it was truly astounding. It was the same team that conceded the goals we did. The highlight was the youngster who scored our second goal - he struck it brilliantly and deserves to be the talking point.

[KingMaynard]

When we defend as we did tonight, it just sets us back. Notts are solid in every other area, and we’d be much stronger in goal if the defenders didn’t make it so difficult to keep a clean sheet. Shrewsbury didn’t even have to force the errors, we just made them. I can push it to the back of my mind, I’m disappointed but I really want to see Luke Williams address this.

[Piethagoram]

Absolute shambolic defending tonight. Shrewsbury can be best described as "ordinary". I don't see opposition teams making the stupid mistakes our defence make. Why didn't he play Macari? Apart from the mistakes, I get bugged by our defenders missing an easy forward pass.. Austin say makes himself available in space...and the ball doesnt go to him. I have had a bad day,,, and tonight just capped it. Respect the cup? Nah.... criminal

[DeadlyMacca]

I expected Notts to perform better. Our defence was chaotic and dreadful. If not for that, Notts might have gained something from the match or even pushed it to extra time.

[menzinho]

I’ll admit I was so disappointed with the starting line-up. I thought we’d make a few changes but we really disrupted the side and for no good reason.

Then we had the appalling start with Baldwin gifting them a goal, a poor pass back from Randall I thought he slipped but I think he actually just falls over trying to bait the attacker. Then second half another early defensive mistake. Randall just switched off and then he crossed it into our own box, utterly dreadful play. Awful header from Rawlinson too and we gift Shrewsbury the lead. Third goal was just really awful from Baldwin why is he doing a step over as the last man? He's got to knock it back to Stone. No awareness at all. I’ve no issue with us wanting to pass out from the back and keep the ball, but sometimes you really do just need to clear it! We have to stop giving away goals like this, honestly giving away a throw-in is a lot less costly than giving away a goal.

Shrewsbury had only scored 2 away goals all season before tonight so for them to score 3 and in the manner they did is a joke. They weren’t even particularly good, they were there for the taking. How many passes did they make all game? If someone had said they were a NL team I would’ve believed you. They didn’t do anything other than sit back all game. But we needed to show a bit more belief instead of showing them too much respect. Brindley bailed us out of that first half with a great strike. In the end for all the control and possession the defensive howlers gave us too much to do. It was a great moment for Sanderson, sadly that won't get talked about but hopefully we’ll see more of him in the future.

Really annoyed with that performance, we gave Shrewsbury the win. Could’ve been a 2-0 win but their twitter full-time post sums it up; “On the first day of Christmas Notts County gave to me, Ryan Bowman scoring three”. A massive opportunity missed in my opinion, if Shrews get a premier league team in the next round good luck and fair play to them. Hopefully it’ll remind us next time what’s at stake.